The Toronto Raptors retired Vince Carter’s jersey last week, the highest honor the team can give to one of the most iconic players in franchise history. The game happened against the Sacramento Kings, which are the current team of someone else who will probably get his jersey retired by the Raptors some day, DeMar DeRozan.
While the night was all about Carter, there was some tension between DeRozan and noted Raptors fan Drake, which presumably all revolves around DeRozan appearing in the music video for Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us.” The whole ordeal rubbed former Toronto player Lou Williams the wrong way, which he expressed on FanDuel’s “Run It Back.”
“If I’m gonna speak candidly, I thought that was selfish of Drake,” Williams said. “Drake, as well as the country of Canada, the city of Toronto, they know what DeMar DeRozan has contributed to the culture up there, and what he’s contributed to the Toronto Raptors, and to that community. It goes way bigger than his personal relationship with Drake, it goes way bigger than his personal relationship with Kendrick Lamar. So for Drake to say, ‘If you put up a banner and I’ll personally pull it down,’ it’s like, is it just about you or is it about the Toronto Raptors?”
Drake expressed during the game that if the Raptors put up a DeRozan banner, “I’ll go up there and pull it down myself.” DeRozan was asked to respond to this after the game and told the press that “He gonna have a long way to climb to take it down. So, tell him good luck.” The following day, DeRozan posted a clip from Friday to his Instagram Story, and it’s not hard to read between the lines that he was talking about Drake.