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Opinion: Drake is annoying and the Warriors need to ignore his shenanigans

Ted Berg   | For The Win
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The NBA Finals are here, the Raptors took a thrilling victory over the dynastic Warriors in Game 1, and all anyone wants to talk about is Drake.

The league talked to the Toronto team about keeping the rapper's sideline antics in check, and our Andy Nesbitt made a compelling case that Drake is doing the same thing we'd all love to do if we were in his enviable situation and should be allowed to express himself.

I fundamentally agree with that, and don't think any of Drake's Game 1 shenanigans — which included some playful words with friend Steph Curry, pulling a piece of lint off Curry's hair and mockingly selling it on eBay, and heated words with Draymond Green after the final whistle — should be prohibited.

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Drake is allowed to carry on the way he does, and I am allowed to call it self-serving and obnoxious and annoying. Right? That's how this works. I'm not here to censor Drake, and if I were, it'd be because sports arenas play his gratingly lousy 2013 hit "Started from the Bottom" with near-criminal frequency. There are other songs! That one stinks.

And I don't think for a second that Drake, for all his jocular distractions, had anything to do with the Warriors' Game 1 loss, and saying as much would discredit the excellent players on Drake's beloved Raptors. The Raptors won because Pascal Siakam stepped up and had a huge game with the Warriors' defense focused on pressuring Kawhi Leonard.

They definitely benefited from their home-court advantage, and I guess Drake and his steamrolled bros are part of that, and maybe one could make the case that Drake's performance as head cheerleader helped keep the whole crowd engaged. But it was the first NBA Finals game in Raptors franchise history. If you need Drake to fire you up for that, you shouldn't even be there.

Courtside celebrities are a fixture in the NBA and part of what makes the league so popular, and some of Drake's antics are at least mildly entertaining. But the move here, for the Warriors, seems obvious: Completely ignore this guy. I know he's your friend, and he's a mega-popular, super-cool famous person. But he's still going to be willing to be your friend and keep bolstering his brand in a couple of weeks when the series is over, and indulging his trash talk by responding to it just plays into his shtick and keeps people talking about Drake instead of the actual basketball game you're playing.

Green, one of Drake's Game 1 targets, said it best himself last week: Dude can't even shoot. You don't even need to put a man on Drake, just leave him wide open and he'll be neutralized. And you're the Golden State Warriors, for cryin' out loud! This is one of the greatest dynasties in the history of sports. Don't let Drake hitch a ride on your shooting star by making him part of the story of your fifth straight Finals appearance.

I hate the "act like you've been there before" argument used to keep athletes from celebrating because greatness is fleeting and players should enjoy it while it lasts. So this is not that. Just act like you've never even heard of Drake or his wildly overrated rapping, because nothing would more effectively troll Drake. Bump a bunch of Tupac and Too $hort and E-40 when the series returns to Oakland, and maybe throw in some KRS-One to completely stomp out any overblown talk of Drake's lyrical greatness.

Please do that, because I'd much rather watch basketball that Drake happens to be watching than watch Drake watch basketball, and right now it's not clear at all which we're doing.

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