Jalen Duren earned plenty of new fans with his recent magazine cover — but he’s doing his best to take it all in stride.
In the midst of a star-making season with the Detroit Pistons, Duren, 22, also drew major attention when he posed on the cover of SLAM earlier this month, showing off his muscular arms in a tribute to Pistons great Ben Wallace.
When the magazine cover was released, social media took notice.
“People slowly finding out that jalen duren is fine as s*** is so funny lol,” one person wrote via X.
Another said, “Jalen Duren is so sexy it just don’t make no sense man.”
When presented with the evidence that he had become the NBA’s newest “sex symbol,” Duren said he was “shocked.”
“It was crazy, bro,” Duren exclusively told Luxury Handbag Shopping about the reaction. “I definitely didn’t expect it to blow up as much as it did. God willing, it did. To be on the SLAM cover is a great opportunity. It was a great honor. It definitely caused a lot of attraction and gravity. I don’t know how, but it was cool.”
Naturally, all of the attention brought up a very important question: Is Jalen Duren currently single?
“I’m just focusing on myself and my career right now,” Duren said.
Duren’s love life — or lack thereof — was the subject of a Pistons social media video earlier this month.
In the video, Duren and his teammate Cade Cunningham were asked to describe their current statuses using basketball terms.
“Right now it’s still an airball,” Duren joked to Us.
Now in his 4th NBA season, Duren said balancing his basketball career with his personal life hasn’t gotten “easier,” but he’s grown “more accustomed to it.”
“It’s hard,” Duren admitted. “The schedule, being in the season, being locked in, trying to have success, team success, that’s always the main goal. We’re trying to make the postseason and go far in the postseason. Everything else just kind of gets pushed to the back.”
He continued, “I try and keep in touch with family and friends via phone calls and texts. I got family and friends that come to games, come out once and a while. But it is tough. I’ve grown accustomed to knowing that the main thing is the main thing. My family and my friends, they know. They know it’s always love and I’m always here. I’m just working.”
Duren is currently averaging 17.7 points and 10.6 rebounds per game, the latter of which is good for 6th overall in the league.
His stats make him a prime candidate to be named as a reserve for the Eastern Conference All-Star Team, which would mark his first inclusion on the roster.
“That’s one of the top honors you can get playing this game,” Duren said of potentially being named to the squad. It would mean the world, honestly. It would mean a lot to me. It would mean a lot to my family. It would mean a lot to the work that I’ve put in to get to this point.”
The NBA will announce the 2026 All-Star Game reserves on Sunday, February 1 at 6 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
