“I think that’s why a lot of athletes and entertainers work well with some of those guys, because for one, they all had humble beginnings,” Mr. Durant said. “They built something from the ground up, so they can relate to us.”

Laying Down Rhymes

Minutes before he was ready to settle down for his 2 p.m. nap, Mr. Durant headed to the real sanctuary in his Oakland home, the recording studio.

“Man, why you all keep it so cold in here?” he asked Raleigh Dunn, his recording engineer, while taking a seat in the corner. The lights turned low, Mr. Dunn prepared a sample of the Chi-Lites “Have You Seen Her” for Mr. Durant to lay rhymes over. While some might call Mr. Dunn a “producer,” Mr. Durant has a different name for him: music therapist.

At this point, the N.B.A. star with a sideline in rap has become the stuff of cliché. Before there was Damian Lillard, there was Kobe Bryant. Before Mr. Bryant, there was Shaquille O’Neal. But those guys were different. They made records. They wanted cred. Mr. Durant’s rhymes are more like an audio diary, intended only for himself and close friends. For him, music is like meditation, or sometimes, primal scream therapy.

“I’ve got so much stuff on my mind, quite honestly, it’s kind of easy for me to say it all here,” Mr. Durant said, looking almost monastic with his goateed face hidden in the hood of his sweatshirt. Music, he said, is “a release. It keeps me in the moment. It takes my mind off this crazy world.”

In a few hours, he would hit the court against the Thunder and Mr. Westbrook, his former teammate. While Mr. Durant has called the supposed feud between the two “fake drama” whipped up by the news media, there are clearly unresolved issues.