The 2019 NBA Finals are giving us way more Drake than we can handle

Drake’s a Raptors fan and a Warriors fan. He’s getting all of the attention no matter what.

The world’s most meme-able man will be front and center for the entire NBA Finals, his biggest sports spotlight since becoming “God’s plant” while wielding a virtual axe behind a bush in Fortnite with JuJu Smith-Schuster, Travis Scott, and Ninja. Drake will demand camera time to embarrass himself and others with corny antics and an unwavering passion to prop up his hometown of Toronto. Whether you like it or not, he’s coming.

And it happened quickly. In Game 1, Drake showed up in a Dell Curry jersey, with an armband covering up his Steph Curry and Kevin Durant tattoos.

Then after the Raptors won, Drake and Draymond Green got into a brief back-and-forth:

After winning Game 2, KD and Klay found Drake postgame. “See you in the bay Aubrey, you weren’t talking tonight were you? Bum ass,” Thompson said.

The Eastern Conference Finals were just a warm-up for basketball’s biggest celebrity superfan.

There, Drake made headlines after massaging the shoulders of Raptors head coach Nick Nurse mid-game.

(Seriously, why does the franchise’s now-unofficial global ambassador gets this much free rein? LOL.)

Then he became the topic of conversation again after feuding with Mallory Edens, the daughter of Bucks owner Wes Edens, after she wore a T-shirt of Drake’s sworn enemy Pusha T to Game 5.

And in what could (and will if the Raptors get blown out) be taken completely out of context for internet jokes, Drake compared the Raptors to a college basketball team after they knocked off the Bucks for good.

There’s still so much more to come.

Why? Because this series pits Drake’s beloved Raptors against ... his also-beloved Golden State Warriors.

Drake’s infamous rise as a legendary sports meme subject began with his cult following for anyone who has once dribbled a basketball. But the Warriors hold a special place in Drake’s heart: somewhere between his LeBron James and Kentucky basketball fandom, above his Conor McGregor devotion, and below his appreciation for Alabama football.

Bear with me here in this lengthy list of Drake-Warriors connections that will make you forget this guy actually (supposedly) roots for the Raptors:

• In 2014, Drake started his friendship with Steph Curry, coining one of his most iconic rap lines, “I been Steph Curry with the shot, Been cookin’ with the sauce, chef, curry with the pot, boy,” in his summer hit “0 to 100 / The Catch up.”
• That same year, Drake, then officially the Raptors’ global ambassador, tried to recruit free-agent-to-be Kevin Durant to Toronto at a concert. “Before we leave, I just want to show one of my brothers something,” Drake said to the crowd, according to ESPN. “You know, my brother Kevin Durant was kind enough to come to the show tonight and watch us. I just want him to see what would happen if he came to play in Toronto. Let him know what would happen.” Toronto was hit with a $25,000 tampering fine.
• In 2015, Drake went to In-N-Out with Curry and his wife Ayesha:

• In 2016, Drake released a song called “Summer Sixteen” in which he used Draymond Green’s name to compare his relationship with his bodyguard to Curry’s with Green.
• A few months later, he released “Western Road Flows” where he said, “Shout out to KD, we relate, we get the same attention.”
• In June 2016, Drake lost $60,000 to rapper French Montana after betting on his friends, the Warriors, to beat LeBron and the Cavs. (They didn’t).
• Months later, after KD signed with the Warriors, guess who wore his jersey at a concert in the Bay Area:

• In 2018, we learned Drake took his friendships to another level after he got tattoos of BOTH Curry and KD’s jersey numbers on his bicep?!

• Drake also wore DeMarcus Cousins’ high school jersey in his “In My Feelings” music video:

• When the Raptors beat the Warriors in Toronto at the beginning of the 2018-19 season, KD gave Drake his jersey:

What this leaves is endless meme potential for one of the most meme-able person ever

Drake is in the biggest win-win AND lose-lose situation in celebrity NBA history. Should the Warriors win big, that’s wonderful for him. Those are his friends! But he can’t show that in public, because he’s a Raptors fan. And if the Raptors win, he can’t showboat too much, right? Because again, the Warriors are his friends. Or, can he? Drake is going to show the peril of frontrunning live on national TV. The camera will NEVER stop rolling on him, so we won’t miss a moment.

There’s already precedent for popular artists dominating an NBA Finals scene thanks to Rihanna. In 2017, Rihanna, a mega LeBron fan, dabbed on fans before saying “King is still King, bitch.” She then Crying Jordaned herself and Instagrammed a meme video where she was Simba from the Lion King and LeBron was Mufasa. She’s set the bar sky-high for both Drake and camera operators looking to capture every legendary moment.

If there’s anyone who can live up to Rihanna’s prowess as the entertainer among entertainers in a venue they have no business entertaining in, it’s Drake. Maybe he’ll make for some of the most hilarious moments of the series. Maybe he’ll be cringeworthy throughout.

Either way, buckle up as everyone’s best friend continues to struggle through his very public conundrum. Don’t forget to get your Photoshop ready.