Watch: rapper Drake sparks altercation with Cavs after OT thriller
When it was all said and done Tuesday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Toronto Raptors 113-112 in overtime to take Game 1 of their second-round playoff matchup.
Aside from the game itself, though, what really got fans’ attention was the altercation between rapper Drake, the Raptors global ambassador whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham, and Cavaliers reserve Kendrick Perkins.
It all started at halftime in Toronto, when Perkins and Drake first exchanged words.
Drake had apparently heard Perkins talking trash to the Raptors’ Serge Ibaka, who used to play with Perkins in Oklahoma City.
“I was f—ing with Serge, my old teammate,” Perkins said after the game. “I wasn’t talking to (Drake).”
At that point, according to Perkins, Drake butted into the conversation.
“(I was) telling (Ibaka), ‘We about to win this game,’ and Drake butted in talking s— to me,” Perkins told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. “So I said something back to him.”
Drake, though, wasn’t having any of it.
“He said something slick, so I said something back: ‘Sit your a– down and watch the game,'” Perkins recalled.
According to the rapper himself, who referenced the encounter in a since-deleted Instagram post, the exact words he used weren’t particularly vulgar. “I just said I like the hem on his capris,” Drake wrote in the post.
Things got more heated following the Cavaliers’ overtime win.
After Perkins left the court, Drake was approached by Cavaliers security personnel, ESPN reported. In a video taken by ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, Drake could be heard saying, “I never said that s—.”
Drake eventually left the court as well and headed for the Toronto locker room, then appeared again yelling obscenities at the visiting team’s locker room, where Perkins likely was.
Later, when Perkins was leaving the building, a member of the security staff asked if he needed an escort to the team bus, just in case he had another encounter with Drake.
“I’m fine,” Perkins replied. “What’s he going to do?”
It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the remainder of the series. Of course, it should be noted that this beef is not going to have any sort of impact on the outcome of the series. Drake is really just a glorified superfan, and Perkins is a backup center who didn’t even play in Game 1.
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