Drake jokes at Raptors game: ‘Last time I was here was 1998’
“I don’t know where we are. “The pitch is a completely different color,” says the rapper as he attends the first home game of the season
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Drake made the jokes during a courtside interview with the TSN broadcast team during his first appearance at a Raptors game this season while attending Friday’s in-season tournament game between Toronto and the Boston Celtics .
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“It feels like the last time I was here was in 1998. They wore dinosaurs on their jerseys. I feel like I’m in fast motion right now. First of all, this guy isn’t that [former coach] Nick Nurse. I haven’t been here for a while,” said Drake, referring to the new bank boss Darko Rajaković. “I don’t know where we are. The dish is a completely different color. [Celtics guard] Payton Pritchard out there looks like a crypto scammer. That’s crazy. What’s going on guys?”
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The Toronto rapper is the club’s global ambassador and has courtside seats, but he hasn’t attended a game in person to see the new-look team this season.
The Raptors trailed the Celtics 65-49 at halftime, but the team went on a 9-0 run early in the third quarter when Drake “came into the game.”
During his conversation with commentators Matt Devlin and Jack Armstrong, the Grammy winner bragged about his 6-year-old son Adonis’ chart-topper My Man freestylewhich featured Raptors rookie Gradey Dick in the basketball-inspired video.
On the track, Adonis raps, “I’ve been waiting for this moment to come/ I was driving and I smashed my car/ I was playing on my iPad and I broke my iPad/ I go to my house and see my dad/ I say hello to my father and I have to change/I’m playing basketball.”
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“My son streams way better than some guys on tour,” Drake boasted on the simulcast.
As the Raptors and Celtics went back and forth with lead changes in the fourth quarter, the Hotline Bling The artist praised Scottie Barnes’ more physical gameplay (“That’s the weight room right there”) and the team’s new City Edition jersey, which celebrates its 10-year partnership with the hitmaker.
“It is what it is,” Drake said of the gold Colorway with “Toronto” on the front and “We The North” on the bottom. “It’s an OVO city. Always has been like this and always will be like this.”
Elsewhere, Drake joked that “the show should be rated M for adults the way that tequila shot touches me” and gave a shout-out to his favorite Burger King restaurant in town “on Weston Road , right next to Shoppers Drug Mart.”
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He also told Matt and Jack that he was happy to be home after spending the summer on the road for his It’s All a Blur tour.
Pritchard wasn’t the only one to sharply attack Drake. He chirped at his buddy Jayson Tatum (“He’s nervous because we’re friends”) and the officials as the Raps lost 108-105. He also praised Matt and Jack, telling the pair: “It’s hard to name a game without being biased.”
Pritchard, for his part, embraced his new nickname as “Crypto Scammer” in his post Instagram story after the game: “I have some [Bitcoin] for you @champagnepapi.”
The Raptors’ next tournament game is November 21st in Orlando against the Magic.
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X: @markhdaniell
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