Drake not doing Raptors any favours injecting himself in this series
The Raptors’ global ambassador is becoming a global embarrassment.
This isn’t Drake’s time or place to get in the way. He has become an annoyance, even by his own rather distinguished annoying standards, even if the Raptors don’t necessarily view it that way. This is his time to sit down, shut up, behave, stop posing for the cameras and acting like he’s part of the show.
On Wednesday, Raptors president Masai Ujiri had a conversation with NBA vice-president Kiki VanDeWeghe, hoping to discuss the vicious elbow Kevin Lowe planted in the direction of DeMar DeRozan’s smile. The seemingly obvious flagrant foul wasn’t called flagrant or even reviewed.
Which, by itself, was rather mind-boggling to the Raptors. They were upset about that, about their own self-induced defeat, and about a thousand other things, including the 20 layups missed in the Game 1 loss.
VanDeWeghe wanted to talk about Drake, Toronto’s most overt celebrity, and his confrontation with Cleveland’s Kendrick Perkins and about bringing some calm and decorum to the Air Canada Centre. Drake and Perkins got into a tete-a-tete while the Raptors played the part of hospitable hosts, giving away Game 1 with a 113-112 overtime loss that should not have happened.
“I’d rather (the elbow) be the call than (talk about) Drake,” said Ujiri after Raptors practice Wednesday. “I don’t care (about Drake’s behaviour). What is there to care about? He’s a fan.
“To me, the only reason it’s magnified is because we lost. If we’d won the game, you guys would not be asking this question. Guaranteed. Because he did it with (John) Wall. He’s done it with James Harden. He does it all the time.
“That’s Drake. Every game you can get a picture of him doing this. It’s a story because we lost the game.”
No, it’s a story because Drake again has overstepped. He has floor seats beside the Raptors bench. So do many others. The others we don’t see, we don’t know. Him we can’t stop seeing. Sometimes he stands up and moves up and down the court as if he is a coach. He yells at referees. He taunts players on the other team. He cheers heartily. Some of that is fine. Too much of it is excessive.
The other longtime Raptors superfan, sitting on the baseline, has figured out for the most part how far you can or should go at a basketball game. And in the celebrity culture that is the NBA, Drake is taking celebrity to levels Spike Lee or Jack Nicholson never assumed on their best days on the sidelines watching the New York Knicks or Los Angeles Lakers. Drake needs to be noticed and thus is noticed.
After the loss Tuesday, Ujiri did the usual stuff. He talked to his coaches. He talked to his management team. He stewed inside the way he always stews when a win turns into a defeat. But in the midst of all this, he also had to be concerned about Drake’s nonsense and a possible physical confrontation with Perkins.
“I went to Drake and said, ‘Let it go, let it go,’” said Ujiri. “To me, it’s done. To me, it’s the emotions. If we’d won that game, he’d be like pumped up and he’s heading out and taking s--t to whoever it was. It would be a different thing.
“But the way that stuff happened with Drake, I’ll take Drake to the side. When you start getting into altercations, that’s crossing the line. I’ll talk to Drake (the league asked him to do that much) and I have no problem with that. I already calmed him down yesterday. It’s simple for me. We lost the game, let’s move on to the next one.”
The Raptors need to move on and get past the bevy of offensive and defensive miscues that led to the loss. They missed layups. They communicated poorly. They didn’t move the ball well enough. They missed open shots they normally make. They looked, even though they will deny this, like they were slightly intimidated by what’s left of the Cavaliers and what seemed to be left of LeBron James.
The Raptors were particularly peeved about the double standard of officiating when it came to the elbow thrown by Love, but more so by what James gets away with. He pushed Fred VanVleet, normally an automatic technical foul. No foul was called. James threw a ball away from the officials on a game stoppage, normally an automatic technical foul. No foul was called. You could make a long list of calls that didn’t go the Raptors’ way and not sound like Drake whining.
There was a lot for Drake to yell about.
The on-site officials didn’t take a second look at Love’s elbow. The league will look at it now. Maybe there will be a fine. Maybe not. It doesn’t impact the series. There won’t be a suspension here.
There will be a Game 2 Thursday. And maybe if Perkins wants to talk to his former teammate Serge Ibaka, which he did after Game 1, resulting in all the swearing and name-calling, he should do the obvious. He should call him on his cellphone. Now that’s something Drake can relate to.