The Toronto Raptors will host Game 1 of the NBA Finals tonight, and there’s no doubt Drake will be sitting on the sideline. He’s behaved like an unruly dingus courtside in Toronto, blurring the lines between participant and bystander in ways that would make Spike Lee blush. Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer, for one, wasn’t amused in the previous series.
The rapper might be toned down for the Finals. According to ESPN’s Michele Steele, the NBA “spoke to the Toronto Raptors during the Eastern Conference finals about Drake’s activity and presence on the sideline.” (Last postseason, the league warned Drake after he called Kendrick Perkins, among other things, a “fucking pussy.”)
In an interview with Yahoo’s Chris Haynes, commissioner Adam Silver said he had spoken to the rapper directly:
Obviously there’s some lines that even “ambassadors” shouldn’t cross, and I think in the heat of the moment to give a coach a massage—I think Nick Nurse said after the fact, “I didn’t even know.” How much he’s in the moment, he didn’t even realize that Drake had done that.
I think Drake understands that as excited as he is, and appreciative of we are of his support, there’s gotta be lines drawn. And obviously you don’t want to end up touching a coach because the coach may not realize what’s going on in the middle of the action. I think there’s a line too in terms of sitting right on the floor, in terms of engagement whether it’s with the referees and players on other teams. It’s hard to calibrate sometimes exactly where that line is and I think he has a better understanding now of where that line is.
And his manager Future [Adel Nur] who sits with him too, we’ve all talked, all of us together, since then. There’s been conversations that’s taken place. It’s more just, let’s find where that right line is.
Here’s hoping he figures it out! Based on recent history, it doesn’t seem like Drake has had much trouble locating lines during a basketball game.