The Significance of Drake’s Relationship with the Toronto Raptors

Isaiah Belleth
1 min readSep 11, 2021

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Since 2020, Isaiah Belleth has been a student at Calvary Chapel Bible College. He attended Woodstock Collegiate Institute in Ontario, where he received recognition for his basketball prowess. One of Isaiah Belleth’s hobbies is watching the Toronto Raptors.

The Toronto Raptors is a professional basketball team based in Toronto, Canada. Founded in 1995, the team competes in the NBA as a member of the Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. The Toronto Raptors have had famous rapper Drake as their “global ambassador” since 2013. That year, Drake and his brand, OVO, announced that they would be forming a partnership with the NBA team.

Since then, Drake has offered a narration of team ads and inspired alternate team jerseys prominently displaying OVO’s black and gold colors. He has organized a “Drake Night” every season for years now too. Before Drake’s partnership with the raptors, they had not made the playoffs in five years.

Since the partnership, they have made the playoffs every year. According to Forbes, about six years after the partnership, the Raptor’s value doubled. Although Drake’s unabashed public support for the raptors may seem annoying sometimes, it is evident that it has positively affected the team and the popularity of NBA games generally.

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Isaiah Belleth

Isaiah Belleth is a resident of Woodstock, Ontario, Canada, where he currently serves as a sales advisor at Sport Chek.