LeBron James hits the Summer Sixteen stage, plays Drake's hype man
How would you celebrate putting pen to paper on a $100 million contract that makes you the highest-paid player in the NBA and sets you up to have the highest single-season salary in NBA history? Well, if you’re LeBron James — and, given the parameters of my question, you couldn’t really be anyone else — you head to Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, to not only take in the Summer Sixteen tour, but jump on stage with everybody’s favorite University of Kentucky walk-on:
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Yep, that’s right: your man King James joined Drake on-stage, much to the delight of the assembled Ohio faithful still basking in the afterglow of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ first-ever NBA championship and the city’s first pro sports title in 52 years. While he didn’t spit any bars, unlike his get-together with Drizzy six years ago, LeBron did admirable work as a hype man during his stint on stage for the hit “Pop Style,” which you can watch and hear below, provided you heed the warning and don’t mind a whole bunch of NSFW language … including some offered by the King himself:
“Ohio, if you don’t make some noise for the King right now, you’re out of your mind,” said Drake. You’re not going to believe this, but they did! They did make the noise!
Drake also altered some of his song’s lyrics to pay tribute to his backup-dancin’ pal — “All this for Ohio, man, he did his hardest / That’s all he ever did, and look where it got him!” — which was pretty nice of Drake to do!
After colorfully lauding Drake, Future and the rest of the gang for their performance, James exited the stage, feeling the vibe and bouncing all the way back through the crowd:
James was feeling so good that he even made time for a Golden State Warriors fan whose path he crossed in the arena:
Sure, Dave Chappelle might rep the Bay Area, but he and LeBron are old friends. (Old, old friends.)
It’s just nice to see that there were no hard feelings after Drake — who, as you might remember, serves as the “global ambassador” for the Toronto Raptors — talked smack about James and his Cavaliers during their Eastern Conference Finals win over the Raps back in May:
Drake’s been bringing out stars of all kinds during the Summer Sixteen tour, with Rihanna and Kanye West showing up in Toronto, and Cam’ron and Juelz Santana taking the stage in New York. James is the second basketball player to make a surprise appearance thus far, after Derrick Rose and his son P.J. came out at the second night of Drake’s Madison Square Garden run.
With plenty of tour dates in NBA cities still to come, and given how Aubrey’s famously fluid fandom has made him a mainstay in NBA celebrations in recent years, it seems a sound bet James won’t be the last. Let’s all cross our fingers for an Omer Asik sighting in New Orleans; on the low, my man’s got bars.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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