You can’t do that, Drake.
The Toronto-based hip hop star may be a fan of wherever LeBron James is playing — notice how much he was around the Heat and trying to get into their locker room after they won a title, don’t be shocked if he’s now in Cleveland a lot — but he actually has a position in the Raptors organization. Officially he is their “Global Brand Ambassador” which means doing some marketing stuff, and maybe helping design some alternate jerseys, and likely not much else. Save for rolling lint.
If you’re a team official you cannot, no matter the circumstance, recruit players under contract. At the Toronto OVO festival Drake did a little light-hearted recruitment of Kevin Durant, as you can see in the video above (Durant was at the show). When it happened PBT’s Dan Feldman called it tampering, and apparently the league agreed, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.
Hearing Raptors fined $25,000 for comments Drake made at a concert about Kevin Durant that were seen as violation of anti-tampering rules
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) August 11, 2014
Not a shock. Also pretty much just a slap on the wrist. But a reminder to Drake he has to go the full Jay-Z and give up his share of the team before he can go talking about players now.
Durant can be a free agent in 2016 and that has already become a buzz-worthy topic. Even though right now not even Durant knows what he is going to do. Two seasons is a couple lifetimes away in the NBA.