NBA Star Andre Drummond Is a Pro at Using Scents to Get Attention: 'I Want People to Remember Me' (Exclusive)
The Chicago Bulls center recently partnered with Scentbird to curate a collection of his fave colognes and talked to PEOPLE about his own fragrance habits
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Andre Drummond on the courtAndre Drummond is a bit of a fragrance connoisseur.
The NBA star, who currently plays for the Chicago Bulls, has quite the stock of colognes in his collection and knows exactly how and when to use them — because Drummond is a man who wants you to remember exactly how good he smells.
“I wear cologne for different occasions — when I'm walking onto the [basketball] court or I'm just going to downstairs to get my mail,” Drummond tells PEOPLE exclusively of his love of fragrances. “I really believe in that moment of walking by somebody and having them say, ‘Wow, you smell really good.’ It’s a scent memory any time anyone sees me, because I smelled good. I want people to remember me.”
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So it only made sense for Drummond to partner with Scentbird to curate a collection of his favorite colognes for the retail subscription platform, bringing his love and knowledge of fine fragrances to consumers.
“I'm really big on smells — in my house, in my car or for myself,” he says. “I just love a good scent and Scentbird gives you a variety of scents to choose from, so the partnership was a no-brainer.”
For his list of Pro Picks, which includes Versace, Chris Collins and more, Drummond tapped into his favorite scents and brands that he likes in his everyday life. With Versace in particular, he has a special memory tied to the brand that makes it one he always keeps in rotation.
“I wore [Versace] for my draft,” he says of the pivotal moment in his career in 2012 when he was selected in the first round by the Detroit Pistons. “Anytime I smell Versace, I always get that feeling of walking across that stage and shaking [former NBA commissioner] David Stern's hand and becoming an NBA player.”
He has long since used up that exact bottle, he says, but he still wears the scent so he can evoke that feeling whenever he wants. It’s one of many in his vast collection — and he admits he will definitely wear cologne no matter what he’s getting up to. Drummond, 30, wears it to practice, for games, for a night out, to run errands, and for any activity in between.
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He’s not exaggerating when he says he’s a fan of smelling good and making you remember him as he walks by.
It won’t just be the fact that he smells good, though, that’ll grab your attention when you encounter the 6’11” basketball player — you also might just be enticed to turn your head because of the unique combination of scents he’s wearing. The pro baller admits that he dabbles in mixing his colognes to create a fragrance that’s all his own.
“I've got a good system of what works together and what doesn't,” he says, adding that it took some trial and error to find the combinations that work best. His current favorite is Chris Collins African Rooibos and Versace Bright Crystal, which he says provides a “sweet, clean scent” that lasts all day.
But part of being down to play with scents means that you’re also vulnerable to those concoctions that don’t mix well — and Drummond has found himself drenched in scent combos that smell terrible a few times.
“Then I'm jumping in the shower instantly,” he tells PEOPLE while laughing at his fragrance mishaps. “If it has a weird scent or it's just too strong, I wash it off right away.”
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Drummond’s affinity for fragrances has matured as he’s grown up, settling into higher-end labels and moving away from brands he wore as a teenager. He says that it was his move into the NBA that leveled him up overall — including with his “cologne game.”
“I came [into the NBA] at 18 years old, and I would walk through the locker rooms and see different colognes I’d never seen before as a kid and think, man, this is good,” he says. “I've always loved smelling good. So when I would see some of these guys spray different colognes after practice, I would take pictures of them and go get them.”
He adds that it was around this time that he started to understand how “delicate a scent” can be after spending his teen years “burning people’s nostrils” with wearing too much cologne in too-powerful scents.
“I learned a lot and changed drastically,” he admits with a laugh.
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Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty
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These days, rather than dousing himself in a scent like he perhaps once did, he says he sprays both wrists, rubs them together, and puts a little more cologne behind his ears. If he wants to really impress someone, he might add a bit of cologne to his neck.
He also generally picks a “clean” scent for his everyday because it’s “easy to be around,” he says, adding that something light and clean carries him through the day rather than stifles him.
And if the Scentbird partnership and Drummond’s extensive love and knowledge of scents aren’t enough to convince you that he truly is a fragrance fan, he tells PEOPLE that he hopes to create a scent collection of his own in the future, whether it’s “candles, colognes or even just incense,” he says.
Right now it’s all just dreams and teases for fans — the next step is finding the right people to partner with to create it, because it’s a goal the two-time NBA All-Star definitely has in the back of his head.
“I'm definitely looking to do it at some point, because I just really want to express my love for scents.”
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