Ahead of the festivities in Toronto on Saturday, plenty of fans expected a star-studded affair and a night worth remembering. However, it’s unlikely anyone expected two of those stars to publicly feud for everyone to witness.
That’s exactly what went down when the Raptors hosted DeMar DeRozan and the Sacramento Kings on the night of Vince Carter’s jersey retirement — the first such ceremony in franchise history — and the evening was underlined with drama involving the former Raptor and Canadian Rap icon Drake.
At halftime of what ended up as a 131-128 overtime win for Toronto, DeRozan watched the team he spent the first nine years of his career with lift Carter’s No. 15 into the rafters, a moment he had hoped would happen at some point.
“You just want to be able to see him get his flowers and for it to come full circle tonight with his number being the first number going up, as it should be, it was incredible,” DeRozan told reporters post-game.
And when asked about the idea of his No. 10 joining “Half man, half amazing” in the upper reaches of Scotiabank Arena one day, the five-time All-Star with Toronto answered in his typical low-key style.
“It’s just more so cool to see Vince go up then, without a doubt, Kyle (Lowry) is going to be up there,” said DeRozan. “I rarely think about mine going up there … I’m always humbled with just the thought of that even being an opportunity.”
The former ninth-overall pick in 2009 leads the lone franchise north of the border in total points (13,296), field goals (4,675), minutes (22,986) and games played (675), while helping lead the Raptors to a first-ever Conference Finals appearance.
And while that might make his case for a future jersey retirement clear to some, there’s one notable figure with ties to the organization who doesn’t seem to be on board. Drake, a global ambassador for the Raptors, was a guest on TSN’s broadcast during Saturday’s game and he made his feelings towards the idea clear.
“If you ever put a DeRozan banner up, I’ll go up there and pull it down myself,” said Drake when speaking to Matt Devlin and Jack Armstrong on the broadcast.
Earlier in the broadcast when commenting on the atmosphere within the arena for Carter’s retirement, the rapper ended his thoughts by adding: “unfortunately, we’re playing this goof tonight.” Most assumed that too was pointed in DeRozan’s direction.
Drake did at least take a moment to “shoutout Kyle (Lowry),” for what it’s worth. It appears his problem was not with former Raptors in general, but rather one in particular.
And what did DeRozan think of the sideline antics? Well, initially not much. When asked after the game about Drake’s comments about pulling down his potential banner, DeRozan responded with a quippy “He’s going to have a long way to climb to take it down, tell him good luck.”
The former Raptor didn’t stop there, however, taking to Instagram the next day and posting a scene from the movie Friday on his story. In the clip, Chris Tucker’s character says “I got mind control over Deebo … I’ll be quiet, but when he leaves, I’ll be talking again.” Many on social media immediately interpreted it as a follow-up jab in the direction of Drake.
But how did the pair get to this point? From starring on a SLAM Magazine cover together and sharing pleasantries throughout the golden years of Raptors’ history, to now exchanging cold shoulders and going back and forth digitally. And no, the beef wasn’t the result of Drake and Will Ferrell making fun of DeRozan’s name in a bit during the 2017 NBA Awards show.
If anyone knows the answer it’s another rapper, Kendrick Lamar. It’s no secret the Los Angeles-based artist partook in a public diss-track exchange with Drake throughout the summer. The most popular of which was Lamar’s Not Like Us, which had plenty of insults and accusations pointed in the direction of the Canadian rapper.
DeRozan — who, like Lamar, grew up in Compton, Calif. — first got swept into the drama when he attended the rapper’s “Pop Out” concert in LA and got on stage, along with fellow NBAer Russell Westbrook and other California natives, while Not Like Us was being performed.
In an appearance on the Breakfast Club in September, DeRozan explained his participation in the concert — which was an event on Juneteenth and in celebration of Black Music Month — had nothing to do with the highly publicized feud between the two rappers.
“I know it can seem like people celebrating whatever it comes to with the disses,” DeRozan said of his involvement that day in Inglewood, Calif. “But for us, the conversations that were had about certain people being in the same building that haven’t been around each other, having internal issues, hoods … for everyone to know they were going to be under one building and act accordingly, no problem, no issues … it symbolized what was really going on.
“That was the most incredible thing for me to witness.”
And just when tensions began to simmer down, DeRozan made a cameo in the music video for the diss-track and things started boiling again.
In an interview with The Sacramento Bee in July, DeRozan explained that Drake was “still my man, none of it changed,” and that at the end of the day “it’s music, entertainment … two of the biggest rappers in the world went at it from a competitive standpoint and they battled it out.”
Based on Drake’s recent comments, however, it appears those explanations may not have sufficed. The song attacked Drake as a person, and it seems Drake is taking DeRozan’s support of it beyond support of music and entertainment.
It’s hard to say if any of this is real or just fodder for social media engagement, but what can be said is that it leaves the Raptors’ organization and fans in an awkward spot. Especially if the rapper does get any say, no matter how unlikely, on whether DeRozan’s No. 10 gets retired one day. As it stands now, two undeniable figureheads throughout the “We The North” era are unexpectedly bickering online, and forcing those close to them to pick a side like a bad breakup.
