One day after he was called out by the NBA commissioner for crossing the line with his courtside antics, Drake has an unlikely defender.
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green – who Drake appeared to call “trash” following the Raptors Game 1 victory — said the Toronto-born rapper and Raptors global ambassador shouldn’t be held to the same standard as other fans.
“So many people have complained about it, like, ‘You don’t let any other fans do that.’ Yeah, any other fan (is) just not Drake,” Green told a press conference on Friday.
“He’s worked his ass off to be who he is, and when you do that – I think we all know when you do that, you get more leash than others … But, I don’t mind it. It’s fun for me.”
Green’s comments may come as a bit of a surprise, considering what happened after his team lost to the Raptors 118-109 on Thursday night. In a video that has been viewed millions of times on Twitter, Drake appears to lock eyes with Green as he walks off the court, smile sarcastically and shout the word “trash” in his direction.
Asked about the courtside scuffle by a reporter, Green downplayed the incident.
"You got a question about basketball? It wasn't really a scuffle, because I didn't hit him and he didn't hit me," he said.
THE LINT-CIDENT
But Green wasn’t the prime target of the rapper’s ribbing. Drake showed up to the game wearing a signed No. 30 jersey from Dell Curry, the father of Golden State star Steph Curry. Dell Curry ended his NBA career in 2002 after three seasons with the Raptors.
Dell Curry attended Thursday’s game in Toronto and appeared to laugh when he noticed Drake’s outfit.
In what will likely go down as one of Drake’s sassiest moves of the season, he appeared to pick a piece of lint out of Steph Curry’s hair during a brief interaction on the court. He later posted an ad on eBay selling the lint. (The eBay post has since been taken down, but Drake’s Instagram post showing the ad is still up.)
Drake apparently has a thing about lint. Back in 2014, cameras caught him using a lint roller to clean his pants during a Toronto game against the Brooklyn Nets. The team later gave more than 1,000 lint rollers at a game – one of which was resold for $55,000.
For what it’s worth, Drake and Curry have a longstanding friendship. Drake has given Curry several shout-outs on tracks, including “Summer Sixteen” and “0-100/The Catch-up,” and the pair have even played basketball at Drake’s house.
TATTOOS? WHAT TATTOOS?
But wait, that’s not all. In a subtler dig, Drake wore an armband during Thursday’s game to cover two tattoos: one of No. 30, another of No. 35, dedicated to Curry and his Golden State teammate, Kevin Durant.
Drake’s latest trolling happened just hours after NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that the league office “had conversations directly with Drake and his manager” about his behaviour.
Specifically, Silver raised concerns about a brief shoulder massage the rapper gave to Raptors coach Nick Nurse in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final.
"When you're in the middle of coaching a game and you're completely focused, you obviously don't want somebody who's not on your team touching you," he said.
But if Game 1 is any indication, Drake doesn’t seem too interested in toning things down for the NBA Finals.
