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NBA Asks Drake to Avoid Attending Games in Oakland

Published 06/16/2019, 4:16 AM EDT

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Canadian rapper Drake is hugely notorious in the sporting circles, especially with the ‘Drake Curse’. According to this curse, any team that Drake visits, often loses their next event. Some of his victims include Serena Williams in 2015 at Wimbledon, the Kentucky Wildcats basketball team, NBA team Golden State Warriors, Conor McGregor, Manchester City Player Sergio Aguero, Serie A team AS Roma and many more.

Now, the NBA has asked Drake to not attend games at Oakland’s Oracle Arena during the league finals. However, this request was unrelated to the Drake Curse, as the officials were concerned that Warriors fans would attack the Toronto Raptors global ambassador.

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The NBA officials reportedly sent a warning to the rapper regarding the behaviour of Golden State Warriors fans. They feared that the crowd may taunt him and throw items at him, possibly endangering Drake and other fans.

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According to Drake’s father, Dennis Graham, the league possibly kept the rapper’s high-profile court-side appearances in mind. As he he often watched the Raptors at the Maple Leaf Square, fondly known as ‘Jurassic Park’.

via Imago

Speaking to TMZ, Graham said, “When people see you in Toronto and you’re making sideline things like that you have to be careful. With the rowdy fans, you can’t take chances.”

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When the Raptors took on the Golden State Warriors and won, Drake hosted a watch party at Jurassic Park and partied in Toronto. In the end, they finished 2nd in the Eastern Conference behind the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Raptors clinched 58 wins and 24 losses on their way to finishing as the runner up. They also amassed 707 points with 32 wins at home and 26 wins away. However, they also lost nine games at home and 15 away games, which possibly hurt their title bid. Their final game was against Golden State, where they won the series 4-2.

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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