Throughout the NBA playoffs, Toronto Raptors mascot Drake has been gamely doing his job—running around courtside, giving the head coach shoulder rubs, jawing with opposing players, cutting sweaty promos, and generally acting like enough of a clown to draw the ire of NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
An essential part of any mascot’s repertoire, though, is his costume, and Drake has not disappointed on this front. For Game 1 of the Raptors’ Finals matchup against the Golden State Warriors, Drake went the subtle route, wearing the Toronto Raptors jersey of Dell Curry—Golden State star Steph Curry’s father. For last night’s Game 2, however, Drake went for a more pointed approach with his outfit, trolling the injured Kevin Durant with a custom-made Home Alone hoodie.
This is, indeed, a pretty good troll by Drake. Durant, perhaps the best overall player on the planet, has been sidelined for nearly a month with a calf injury. Before his injury, the Warriors were expected to nuke the Raptors (or any other team they faced) from orbit. They may well still wind-up crushing the Raptors, but for now Toronto has managed to steal a game, and the series is even at one game per side. In addition to being one of the league’s best, Durant is definitely among its pettiest, so this will be sure to set him off. For Drake, it is just the right kind of infuriating obnoxiousness coming from a man who has also not yet played in this series, because, you know, he’s not a basketball player.
While Durant went the tried-and-true faux-humble route in responding to Drake, and did not address his attire directly, one person who made it clear they did notice Drake’s hoodie was the other Kevin in question, Macauley Culkin.
In all, a solid effort by Drake, and it is nice to see him supporting Toronto’s local screen printing industry. Unfortunately for Drake, however, by definition you cannot troll a man whose jersey number you have tattooed on your own body, and as such we must award this troll a 0/10 by default. Drake has until Wednesday night to plan out his outfit for Game 3 in Oakland.
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