Drake Was a Promising Hockey Player Until an Injury Prevented Him From Pursuing His Athletic Dreams
Drake is fully embedded in American pop culture and is more than willing to travel the globe to find the next musical trend for a new hit. But for all the references to Houston and Calabasas, he is still a Canadian product through and through.
While growing up in Toronto, a young Drizzy suited up for a childhood hockey team before a scary hit took him off the ice for good. While he tends to show up at different sporting events these days, Drake still shows an interest in hockey via his ventures as a producer.
Drake had money concerns even after joining ‘Degrassi’
In case you haven’t heard, Drake started from the bottom before he was here. Given his unique path to rap stardom, it was easy for many to assume that Drake grew up more comfortably than many of his peers. But he dealt with many struggles as a child.
His parents, Dennis and Sandra Graham, separated when Drake was five. Dennis was scarce in his life for years after leaving Toronto and moving to Memphis. (They’ve since reconciled to the point that they have tattoos of each other.)
Drake agreed to be on Degrassi: The Next Generation because he and his mom badly needed the money.
“Everybody thinks I went to some private school and my family was rich. Maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I haven’t talked enough about it, but I didn’t grow up happy. I wasn’t in a happy home. My mother was very sick. We were very poor, like broke,” he told Complex in 2011.
An injury ended his nascent hockey career
Back when Drake still felt compelled to give interviews, the artist talked to ESPN following the release of his debut album Thank Me Later on the eve of a performance at the Indiana State Fair. (Started from the bottom indeed.)
Since it’s an interview for a sports website, the conversation inevitably lands on Drake’s memories and appreciation of local teams back in Canada. The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, but they did well enough to inspire a young Aubrey to pick up the stick himself. He played right wing for the Weston Red Wings and showed enough promise to earn an invite to Upper Canada College hockey camp. “Where good kids get sent,” Drake boasts.
So why hasn’t he been a competitor for the Conn Smythe trophy (the award for playoff MVP) for the past decade? Drake was cross-checked in the neck so severely that his mom wouldn’t let him play anymore.
Drake soon found other entryways into the entertainment industry. He appeared in a sketch during the 1997 NHL Awards riffing on Martin Brodeur and Ron Hextall’s status as the only goalies to have scored multiple goals and dropped out of school to pursue a career as an actor after earning the role of “Wheelchair Jimmy.” He put out his first mixtape Room For Improvement in 2006, and the rest is history.
Drake’s love of sports is now part of his celebrity persona and business dealings
Drake is the “global ambassador” of the Toronto Raptors, collaborated with the franchise to make jerseys and other pieces of merchandise, and obtained naming rights for their practice facility, the OVO Athletic Centre.
But his sports fandom extends far past his beloved hometown. As he’s become a bigger celebrity and friendly with more superstar athletes, he supports dozens of teams in various leagues. Drake felt such a connection to the dynastic Golden State Warriors that he got tattoos honoring Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. He is also friends with LeBron James and Devin Booker and has taken pictures in so many jerseys that “The Drake Curse” became an accepted notion.
Drake and LeBron went into business together as two of the producers for Black Ice, a documentary based on the 2004 book Black Ice: The Lost History of the Colored Hockey League of the Maritimes, 1895 to 1925 by George and Darril Fosty about the all-black hockey league that existed in Nova Scotia for over four decades.
Controversy now plagues the project after Billy Hunter, former executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, sued the producers and the Fosty brothers for $10 million in damages and shared profits from the film.
As explained on Huffington Post, Hunter alleges that the Fosty brothers made a deal behind his back after he had already paid them $265,000 for exclusive intellectual property rights to produce Black Ice. When he confronted the authors about the deal, the Fostys stated that the doc was now a separate entity that existed outside the parameters of their agreement.
Black Ice premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and won the People’s Choice Award for Documentaries.
