Drake Has Raptors Announcers Near Tears Laughing With Troll of Celtics’ Payton Pritchard

The musician hopped on his hometown broadcast with uproarious results.
Drake Has Raptors Announcers Near Tears Laughing With Troll of Celtics’ Payton Pritchard
Drake Has Raptors Announcers Near Tears Laughing With Troll of Celtics’ Payton Pritchard /

The Raptors have a unique distinction in American sports: the most famous person associated with the franchise has never played for or coached them, or any other team for that matter.

Drake may dwarf Doug Christie or Donyell Marshall in notoriety, but 15 years into a storied musical career he remains eager to shine the spotlight on his hometown teams. Sometimes that entails designing a garish chain simply in case the Blue JaysMaple Leafs or Raptors win a championship.

Other times, it entails leaping on the Raptors’ telecast and taking potshots at their rivals—as he did to hilarious effect Friday evening during Toronto’s 108–105 loss to the Celtics.

“I feel like I’m in a time lapse right now. First of all, this guy’s not Nick Nurse. I haven’t been here in awhile,” Drake said, alluding to new boss Darko Rajaković. “I don’t know where we’re at. The court’s a completely different color.”

Then, the artist behind Take Care turned his attention to the Raptors’ opponent.

“Payton Pritchard’s out here looking like a crypto scammer,” he said of the Boston guard. “What’s going on, boys?”

After exchanging pleasantries with Toronto’s TV crew, Drake again self-deprecatingly noted it had been a minute since his last trip to Scotiabank Arena.

“I feel like the last time I was here was 1998,” he said.


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Patrick Andres
PATRICK ANDRES

Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .