As the self-anointed 6 God, Drake's loyalty should always be to the Toronto Raptors. Yet, he's frequently enamored by his superstar athlete friends. The glow of his new-found relationship with Kawhi Leonard seemed to have blinded Drake to the point that he may have inadvertently assisted in Kawhi's escape from Canada.
In the latest cover story for ESPN Magazine, Ramona Shelburne reports that Paul George and Kawhi used Drake's Hidden Hills home as their headquarters when orchestrating a move to L.A.
There were countless text messages and phone calls and then two in-person meetings at Drake's house in Hidden Hills, California. (Drake had befriended Leonard during his season in Toronto and let Leonard — who lives in San Diego — stay there when he was in Los Angeles for free-agent meetings.) By July 1, they had decided to put their plan in motion: Leonard told the Clippers that he was interested in playing for them but only if they could improve their roster by adding an All-Star-caliber player like George.
To make matters worse, sources tell ESPN that one of the meetings at Drizzy's house came immediately after the incumbent Toronto Raptors made their free agency pitch to Leonard.
Drake's role as a Raptors superfan and Global Ambassador reached new heights during the team's remarkable championship run last season, so it came as a surprise for some fans to learn that Drizzy could have been an unwitting accomplice to essentially ending Toronto's chances of a repeat.
In Drake's defense, it's possible that he was blindsided like the rest of the basketball world when George and Leonard teamed up, and there's no word on if he knew they were using his home to meet. In fact, Shelburne herself clarified that she believes Drake was unaware that George and Leonard were meeting at his home.
Meanwhile, George claims that he didn't even anticipate things to happen so fast. George says that he was just calling Kawhi—who he has known since high school—to congratulate him on winning his ring. That quickly spiraled into them eventually becoming Clippers.
"It was congratulating him on winning," George said of the fateful phone call. "That's how it started ... then it took on a life of its own ... [I]t just trickled from there."
Shelburne also reports that Thunders GM Sam Presti was "stunned" when George approached him with a trade request, which contradicts George's earlier assertion that the trade was "a mutual thing" between him and the team, and that his time in OKC "was up."
Whether or not there's added fallout from George's revealing new interview remains to be seen.
