Drake has smoke for everyone these days. During a recent concert, the platinum recording artist was thrown a DeMar DeRozan jersey by some fans in the front row. Upon seeing the back of the jersey and seeing the name, Drake had a disgusted reaction and threw the jersey to the floor. Clearly, there are a lot of hard feelings between the two former friends.
Drake throws away this DeRozan jersey 👀 pic.twitter.com/2huSUaIcJZ
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) February 17, 2025
Drake and DeMar DeRozan, despite what the above clip might suggest, were very close at one point. DeRozan played for the Toronto Raptors from 2009 to 2018 and was the face of their franchise. Drake, who is a Toronto native, was a massive Raptors fan and an ambassador of the franchise, and struck up a friendship with DeRozan, often chopping it up with him while sitting courtside at games.
Even after DeRozan was traded away from the Raptors, the two maintained a strong friendship, greeting each other whenever DeRozan visited the Raptors while playing for the San Antonio Spurs or the Chicago Bulls. So that begs the question: what happened between the two?
Like with most other issues Drake has in life, the answer boils down to Kendrick Lamar. Drake and Kendrick had a massive beef in the spring of last year, going back and forth over diss tracks that got very personal. The public consensus was that Kendrick Lamar got the win, which is mathematically supported by the song ‘Not Like Us’ going massively viral and becoming one of the biggest hits of last year.
In the song, Kendrick referenced DeMar DeRozan, who is a California native like himself, noting that he was glad the former All-Star left the Raptors as the city (and more specifically Drake) did not deserve him. DeRozan even appeared at Kendrick’s pop-up show in Los Angeles to dance on stage. To make things worse, DeRozan seemingly picked a side by making an appearance in the music video for the song.
DeMar explained his decision, noting that it had nothing to do with any issues he had with Drake and that it was all love between the two, but he considered Lamar to be like family. Well, Drake didn’t see it this way, and if there were no issues between the two before, they were definitely created with his appearances.
During a Raptors game when Drake was on commentary, he was asked about the franchise possibly retiring DeRozan’s jersey in the future. He noted that should the Raptors decide to do that, he would be the first to climb up and tear his retired jersey down from the rafters.
DeRozan had a cheeky response to this, telling Drake he would have to climb a long way to be able to do that.
Drake’s issues with NBA players don’t just end with DeRozan. He was also very close to LeBron James. However, LeBron’s support of Kendrick Lamar has seemingly put an end to that relationship, with fans speculating over the matter when they noticed the ‘Hotline Bling’ rapper had unfollowed the King on Instagram. Things escalated as Drake appears to have also dissed LeBron in a recent song.
Drizzy is a massive NBA fan, but it appears he is prioritizing himself and drawing a line in the sand between himself and Kendrick Lamar. Anyone who shows support to K-Dot, publicly or privately, is an enemy of Drake’s going forward. Maybe this is why he said he’s ‘got a lot of enemies’ years ago.
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