Toronto Raptors and Kentucky Basketball Must Be Careful With Drake

Sports and pop culture go hand-in-hand, so it makes sense to have the two connected at some point. This has happened recently with the Toronto Raptors bringing on rapper Drake as an ambassador to the team. Unfortunately for them, it’s a college program that he enjoys supporting that could lead to trouble in the future.

Drake, a popular rap artist, has gotten much notoriety for his “bandwagon” ways. He likes to jump from team to team, player to player and latch on to whoever is successful at the time. Personally, I don’t care who he roots for or wants to be associated with. That’s his business and, as sports fans, don’t we all want to root for teams that win? But now we’re getting off topic.

Because of his popularity, people flock to him but Drake is more interested in doing the flocking. He has become synonymous with the Kentucky Wildcats basketball team, one of the most popular sports brands in the country. Nobody’s really sure when he became a fan, but let’s just say he suddenly started supporting them when they made it to the national championship game last season. Also, he’s still trying to get with Skylar Diggins, but she’s above that.

Anyway, since Drake is hanging around Kentucky and the Wildcats have seemingly embraced his support, this puts everybody in a really dangerous situation.

A native of Toronto, Drake became an ambassador to the Toronto Raptors last season. The pairing is actually quite brilliant, though it’s hard to say just how much he’s helped up the popularity for the franchise because, well, he spends most of his time at Kentucky, it seems.

However, because of Drake’s ambassadorship, he has different rules to play by. Earlier this summer, the Raptors were fined $25,000 because Drake tried to openly recruit Kevin Durant to Toronto during a concert this summer. He’s a public figure and now has to watch what he says and/or raps about. Sneaking lines into songs about players, which he likes to do sometimes, probably won’t fly anymore.

Here’s where all of this gets a little muddled. Being an ambassador for an NBA team and spending his free time with Kentucky, who has the most future NBA players of any team in the country, is a combination that can lead to a lot of trouble for everybody.

Drake, with his popularity, power and wealth is someone that just wants to make friends and find love, like the rest of us. We all know this, but having those three things is very appealing to college kids looking for some cool new toys and a few bucks here and there. Who’s to say that he won’t, at some point, buy the guys some clothes or food or something? It certainly wouldn’t hurt in the pursuit of friends, but it can also be considered tampering with recruits and future players for Drake’s Raptors.

Toronto may have to make some changes or, at the very least, tell him to tone it down. Drake even spent this past Friday at Kentucky’s midnight madness, decked out in Wildcats gear and participated in their layup line shooting drills. It seems harmless, but could lead to some trouble down the road if he doesn’t reel it in.

Right now it’s just conjecture. We don’t know if he’s out clubbing with players or buying them anything, though it is something that both the Wildcats and the Raptors need to keep an eye on. It’s a love triangle that could end poorly for everybody. It could be as simple as a comment to, say, Karl Towns Jr. at some point saying “You’d look really good in a Raptors uniform.” Harmless, right? No. That can get everybody in trouble.

Having already been fined for Drake’s tampering, Toronto may want to let the rapper know that he needs to be very careful. Being a fan of a college team is one thing, but it’s rather interesting to see that it’s Kentucky Drake has chosen as his new team. After all, nobody in college basketball has sent more players to the NBA over the last five years or so than John Calipari and Kentucky. They’re basically a pro basketball farm system at this point and have at least 10 players on the 2014-15 roster that could be in NBA uniforms within the next four years.

What makes this situation even more dangerous is how much the NCAA loves, absolutely loves, to find scandals. They may say that it’s their job, but we all know they live for a scandal. You can almost feel how ready they are to pounce on potentially taking down Kentucky and an NBA team. After all, they need some headlines again.

Toronto Raptors and Kentucky Wildcats need to be on high alert with Drake roaming around both places. Nothing has come of it yet, but they all must be very careful and make sure he doesn’t cross any lines.

Tread lightly, everybody.