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Drake celebrates Drake Night by celebrating his crush on Doris Burke

dan devine
Senior writer

The schedule-makers didn’t do the Toronto Raptors any favors this week, putting them in Ohio to take on the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night before sending them home to the Great White North for the second game of a back-to-back against Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors. Making matters worse, the Raps will be coming off a hard-fought, final-minute loss to the Cavs, and facing a Warriors team coming off two nights of rest. Harsh stuff, Tom Carelli.

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There is, however, a bright side for the Raptors. It’s Drake Night, y’all! In seasons past, the night celebrating the Raptors’ relationship with the Toronto-born music megastar and “global ambassador” has brought sneaker giveaways and resale controversy, Drizzy-helmed player introductions, and even a “Hotline Bling” light box in which dancing fans could get their Drake on. (Oh, and wins.)

For this year’s model, Drake upped the ante, showing up the Air Canada Centre in a shirt sure to send basketball diehards searching for an online shop to cop:

Yep, that’s right: Drake is celebrating the occasion and the contest, which will be broadcast on ESPN, wearing a shirt bearing the image of the great ABC/ESPN sideline reporter and analyst Doris Burke, atop the phrase “WOMAN CRUSH EVERYDAY.”

Drake turned up to Raptors-Warriors wearing a shirt with Doris Burke's face on it. (Image via @ewingsports)
Drake turned up to Raptors-Warriors wearing a shirt with Doris Burke’s face on it. (Image via @ewingsports)

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Unfortunately for your man Aubrey, Burke isn’t in Toronto to work Raptors-Warriors. Here’s hoping Mark Jones, Hubie Brown and Israel Gutierrez take no offense at not having their faces on Drake’s shirt.

This isn’t the first time Drake has gone out of his way to show appreciation for Burke, one of the most talented broadcasters the game’s got, with some wicked handles to boot. Burke discussed it earlier this year in an interview with Rembert Browne of New York Magazine:

You can’t talk about the NBA without talking about popular culture. The worlds of entertainment and basketball—

They’re overlapping now.

You go to a Raptors game and Drake is sitting there.

Can I tell you something about the last time I was there? I just could not believe this happened. Drake turned around — my seat at game six was right behind him — makes a heart shape [with his hands], and points at me. I’m looking around behind me to see who’s there, turn back to him, and then he points and he does it again. I texted my daughter and said, “You need to know Drake just did this to me.”

This … well, this kicks things up a notch.

I think she gets it, my dude. Hell, we all do.

Not content to simply let his shirt do the talking, Drake continued to sing Burke’s praises as the night went on:

… and then appeared to take things a bit too far with an invitation for a private rendezvous:

… except that Doris is wiiiiiiiiiith it:

… which is, well, quite something!

While Drake was making his feelings extremely public, the Raptors were trying to fight back from a 19-point deficit. They came close, drawing within four in the closing seconds, but couldn’t get all the way there as Golden State held on for a 127-121 win behind huge nights from Curry (35 points on 19 shots, seven assists) and Durant (30 points, nine rebounds, six assists). Although, to hear do-everything forward Green tell it, there was another key contributor to the Raptors loss:

Any other night, Draymond’s kick-roasting might have stuck in Drake’s craw. On this one, though? The guess here is that Drake’s too busy planning the dinner menu to mind.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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