Tunnel Talk: An Interview with Daniel Gafford

Graphic by Isabelle Hauf-Pisoni

Tunnel /ˈtən(ə)l/: an artificial underground passage, especially one built through a hill or under a building, road, or river. 

Unless you were the creative director of Balenciaga's 2022 Paris fashion week show, nothing about that definition really screams runway. But by simply prefixing this phrase with three letters, the drab fixture initially implied by this definition turns into streetwears longest running fashion show. 

Those three letters? NBA. 

For years, Instagram accounts, such as @leaguefits, have been documenting the NBA’s most memorable looks, but a single photo could never capture what really goes on in the Tunnel. Ahead, Washington Wizards center, Daniel Gafford, takes us on his walk through The Tunnel, and speaks on what fashion means to him. 

For those who might not know you, could you start off by introducing yourself? 

I'm Daniel Gafford from the Washington Wizards. I think that's pretty much all I can say about myself for right now.

When people talk about “The Tunnel,” what are they referring to? 

The Tunnel is  basically just a big runway for [NBA players] to be able to express themselves through their clothing, through their bags - basically whatever type of accessory they have on them. For me, you know, it's just being able to let people see me come out of my comfort zone and just show what type of clothing I'm into. 

Can you walk me through the walk into the locker room? 

Well for home games, when I walk into The Tunnel, I first get off the elevator, or I take the stairs - it depends. And I come around the corner and [our media team] already has their cameras and stuff set up. They're all sitting on the side, just flicking pics, you know? 

And it's something that's dope, because now you get to the point to where you're gonna get your super model walk on, or you're gonna be awkward, or you're gonna make them laugh.

Me, I'm a little bit of the “awkward” and a little bit of the “trying to make you laugh” at the same time. I just try to be as comfortable as I can. Mentally more than just physically, because if I'm good up here, I'm good everywhere.

So do you guys practice your runway walk or…? 

I don't practice my runway walk. [My stylist] just kind of tells me to keep my head up, get my supermodel face on, you know, just stuff like that. But other than that, I'm somewhat of a natural- from what my wife tells me.

Has fashion always been something you’ve cared about?

At first, it was just kind of like a look good, play good type thing, you know. When I first got into the league, I wasn't really too interested in the fashion scene.   

How would you describe your style?   

I try to keep it simple. I don't try to go too overboard when it comes to the clothing, but at the same time, I want to look nice. So I get the nice stuff, you know, like Louis, Gucci, all the, all that crazy stuff, you know.

What does a Daniel Gafford outfit look like? 

With streetwear I kind of just pay attention to whats happening and I base it off of that. My stylist, Jay, really pinpoints on the baggy jeans with the big coat hanging off the shoulder and a bag, or something else I can walk in with.

Really, it’s just more of the sense of just being comfortable and thinking, look nice, you know what I'm saying? Just little things like that. 

What’s the most difficult part of Tunnel culture?

I like to be comfortable, but when I’m dressed up all the time, I get to the point where, it gets a little stuffy and I start feeling claustrophobic. Where I just wanna peel these clothes off my body and relax, you know? I feel like I can be tense, but I'm starting to get used to the attention I get from the certain outfits that we put together. 

That's the main thing, you know, really just getting used to having eyes on me and being comfortable in what I'm wearing.  

What fashion trends are you into right now?  

The big boots have really taken me by storm. I don't know. The big boots that Shai Alexander had on. 

When you’re playing games for almost half the week, how conscious are you about recycling pieces?

I don’t really care about wearing things more than once. I know there are guys in the league that [won’t re-wear pieces]; but with me, I was like, “look, most of the time they're not gonna be paying attention to my pants, they're not going to be paying attention to my shoes,” you know? Because most of the time I'll have one piece on that stands out more than any other piece that I have on. So they'll be paying attention to that, instead of the pants, the shoes and stuff like that. 

Are you and the other guys on the team ever pushing yourselves to be the best dressed Wizard? 

Uh, no because when it comes to certain guys, like for instance, I have Kyle Kuzma on my team and, you know, he's in the fashion scene - like deep in the fashion scene. He's walked on runways, I know I'm not gonna be able to compete with that, so I don't even try.

I had a great opportunity to play with Russell Westbrook, the last half of my second year and seeing some of his outfits, I was like, yeah, I  really can't compete with some of these guys. It's tough. 

I was wondering if you could talk to me a little bit about this outfit. 

Oh, so the Chris Pyrate outfit? 

The cherry blossom shirt, that was fire. It was originally supposed to be an airport outfit but I ended up leaving a piece of the outfit I was planning on wearing back home, so I had to ‘call an audible.’

But we did that and it blew up. The shirt was fire. I love the color scheme. It's different. We're being different and I loved it. The outfit, it just took the cake. 

You know, Chris Pyrate, even texted me and was like, ‘you know, it looks good on you.’

And it was really dope because it was a last second decision between me and my wife and my stylist. We all just agreed that I should wear that and it would be fire. 

Are your outfits always a group decision between you, your stylist and your wife?

Yeah. Most of the time, I kind of ask them for feedback on how I should wear things or what I should wear with them, like my accessories and stuff like that. And they give me feedback on what would look good and what wouldn’t - I have to stand in front of a mirror [and send them a picture] before I end up going down to the bus to go to the arena.

So, Yeah, we do it like that. And once we did that [with the Christ Pyrate outfit], they were like, yeah, that's perfect. That's fire. Everybody's gonna love that. 

What's your favorite way to accessorize?

If I’m wearing any shade of brown, I love to wear gold jewelry. If it's anything else color-wise, I'll do anything in that range of colors; I try to keep the color palette of my outfits pretty consistent. I may also throw on a pair of glasses on every now and then, just depending on the vibe of the outfit.

Other than that, it's usually a hat. We do headphones too, like headphones and a hat. Usually I just have both of my phones in my hand, my watch, maybe have some random jewelry on my other wrist, earrings, and one or two chains of course. But most of the time, we keep it simple.

And if you do have headphones on, what are you listening to? 

I've been listening to a lot of Samm Henshaw. I like the vibe of his music, I feel like the man when I walk into The Tunnel with him. 

How far in advance do you plan out your outfits?

It’s basically just like weeks ahead.

How do you determine which outfits go where? Are you like, “oh, I'm gonna go to New York, I need to actually step out,” versus ‘oh im going to a smaller city, I don't really care about my outfit?’

Most of the time we determine it on the weather and the city we’re going to. Like when we were in Boston, Jay was like, “we're in Boston, gotta be green, you know, it’d be dope” So we did a green outfit on that trip, and it was dope. 

Are you more of a sneakers or boots person when you’re walking down The Tunnel? 

I'm a little bit of both, but if I would have to pick, I would go with a boot. I like Chelsea boots a lot just because of that classy look that you get from it. And you can really wear a Chelsea boot basically with any type of jean, any type of dress pant, and even if you wanna wear a suit, you can still go with a Chelsea boot.