The Cleveland Cavaliers Are Muting Drake’s Golden State Warriors References

Regardless of whether or not they repeat as champions, the Cavaliers have already achieved peak pettiness.

April 16, 2017

Drake introduces Stephen Curry #30 of the Western Conference
Image via Getty/Nathaniel S. Butler

Aside from parlaying his success into an official NBA job with his hometown Toronto Raptors, you can still catch Drake regularly dropping references to his favorite NBA players. But if you’re hoping to hear bars about “Chef Curry with the shot” or “gettin’ cheddar packs like KD,” don’t expect the Cleveland Cavaliers to oblige.

Saturday, as the Cavs warmed up for their first round playoff matchup against the Indiana Pacers, the person in charge of the Pacers’ Snapchat account picked up on the fact that Drizzy’s shout out to Golden State’s Oracle Arena had been scrubbed from the song “Free Smoke.” Sports Illustrated ripped the self-deleting snap for posterity, adding it to the Cavs’ growing list of reaching peak pettiness when it comes to the Warriors.

SoleCollector also caught the Cavs scrubbing out references to Oracle Arena and Kevin Durant as the team warmed up to “Free Smoke” back in March.

Instead of, “Mama never used to cook much/Used to chef KD/Now me and Chef, KD/Bet on shots for 20 G's,” listeners were treated to dead air in place of each mention of KD.

The Cavaliers have been flexing on the Warriors since completing a historic comeback by defeating them in the 2016 NBA Finals. And all the references to the Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead aside, this isn’t the first time the Cavs have sent the Warriors a reminder. Back in December, Tom Withers of the Associated Press caught a nice troll job by the Cavs in the form of them hanging a picture of LeBron James’ game-sealing block against Andre Iguadola just down the hall from the Warriors’ locker room.

Whether or not they repeat as champions, the Cavaliers have already won at being petty. The rest of the 2017 NBA playoffs should be interesting.