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A compendium of Drake's sporting allegiances

Drake is a fan of every team that is winning. Let's run down the list!

By Rodger Sherman

After Kentucky beat Wisconsin to reach the national championship game, Drake ended up in the Kentucky locker room:

Drake1_medium

Drake is a rapper from Canada. He has never lived in Kentucky. He did not attend the University of Kentucky. And yet here he was, inside the locker room of the University of Kentucky's basketball team after their biggest win of the year. After all, he's "ALWAYS" been a Kentucky Wildcats fan.

(To be fair, he did get a ring last time they won.)

Everybody wants to be Drake's friend, and thus Drake has a lot of friends, and it seems quite a few of them are athletes. Therefore, Drake has been sports-attached to various teams over the years. This led to people making jokes:

At this moment in time, we thought we'd attempt to make a list of Drake's sporting allegiances.

We do not claim this is a comprehensive list, as Drake's sporting allegiances are too far and wide for us to possibly capture them all in one post. But we hope to get as many of them as possible.

NBA

Drake is very literally affiliated with an NBA team: he's got some nebulous role with the Toronto Raptors, described officially as a "global ambassador" of his hometown team. They even had DRAKE NIGHT, where he got to do the intros:

Look at how much he cares about the Raptors!

He was even a prop in Terrence Ross' dunk contest dunk:

The Raptors didn't make the NBA Finals last year, though. The Miami Heat did, and they won in Game 7. And when they did, Drake was there to congratulate them in their locker room.

Errrr, he was there to try to congratulate them in their locker room.

He didn't make it into the locker room, but he did make it to the club, where he and the Heat ate pizza.

To be completely fair, Drake's dalliance with the Heat was before his partnership with the Raptors, but still. Rarely are soon-to-be-team-representatives seen eating pizza in the club with a different team.

Football

Is Johnny Manziel a bigger Drake fan? Or is Drake a bigger Johnny Manziel fan? Let's go to the tale of the tape:

Johnny Manziel is a bigger Drake fan

- Johnny Manziel has "OVO," the name of Drake's label, tattooed on his wrist.

- Manziel does this hand symbol when he does good things, taken from some of Drake's friends.

- Manziel credits Drake's tutelage with some of his adjustment to fame

Drake is a bigger Johnny Manziel fan

- Drake gets called on sports shows to talk about Johnny Manziel

- Drake watches Texas A&M games while wearing a custom Johnny Manziel jersey Manziel_medium - Drake has a Johnny Manziel sweatshirt

- Drake's latest song, "Draft Day," is kinda about Johnny Manziel.

It's tough to say. These two are clearly caught in a bad bromance, and it would be unwise of us to attempt to quantify who is more bromantic.

Soccer

Lyrics and this video seem to indicate that Drake began his soccer fandom as a Man U supporter.

Drakemanu_medium

But he is friends with Didier Drogba:

Bekiy_chelsea3_722111_medium

And has name-dropped Mario Balotelli, then made his lyric into a t-shirt.

Balotelli_medium

Sure enough, this has made him the target of criticism. Shouts to Complex for digging up this meme:

Yoso_medium

But he's tried to defend himself:

Oh, and he's also taken a moment to support Toronto FC, reportedly playing a role in luring Jermain DeFoe to his hometown MLS club.

http://www.topdrawersoccer.com/the91stminute/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Drake.bmp

Baseball

Drake hasn't really shown much of a liking for hardball, but he did film his "Headlines" video in the Rogers Centre while wearing a Jays hat.

Drakejays_medium

He threw out the first pitch at an Indians game in 2011:

When pressed, his response was "I'm kind of an Indians fan right now!" before saying he supported his hometown Blue Jays and saying they were having a great year. They finished 16 games behind the Yankees in the AL East that year, so, yeah.)

Hockey

Drake definitely reps Toronto and the Maple Leafs:

And he performed at the 2012 All-Star Game:

However, here we find out that Drake's team-switching is not limited to fandom. Drake claims to have played hockey as a youth. Here's a 2010 interview with ESPN:

The Life: Did you play hockey growing up?

Drake: Yeah, I did. I played for the Weston Red Wings.

The Life: Were you pretty good? What position did you play first of all?

Drake: Right wing.

The Life: A fast little guy?

Drake: Yeah, I was all right. I ended up making it to Upper Canada College hockey camp, which is where good kids get sent.

The Life: And then what happened?

Drake: And then I got cross checked in the neck and my mother wouldn't let me play anymore.

The Life: And then you went into acting and played a guy that ended up in a wheelchair, so it was bound to happen eventually.

Drake: There you go, in a wheelchair one way or the other.

Weston Red Wings, huh? But what team did he tell the Zdeno Chara he played for in the locker room at the All-Star Game?

"You know I grew up playing hockey, right? Yeah, I used to play right wing. Weston Lions, man."

We might never know whether Drake played for the Weston Lions or the Western Red Wings, or whether they were perhaps separate teams in the same youth league?