‘Drake Curse’ Befalls Loyola Men’s Basketball

“Drake spotted wearing LOYOLA GEAR last night,” reads the caption of a video reposted by @barstoolblers on Instagram Nov. 5.

With over 171,700 plays and 4,350 likes, the 3.7 second clip quickly garnered significant attention from many corners of the Loyola community. The video — originally posted as an Instagram story by @photosbyastral, a photographer who routinely captures Canadian rapper Drake — features the Grammy award-winning artist in a Loyola Chicago Athletics sweatshirt. 

Abundant reposts of the @barstoolblers Instagram reel from Loyola community members were frequently accompanied by messages of excitement about the celebrity promotion. The most liked comment on the post, however, signals a contrasting disappointment.

“My god no one let that man make a bet on the barstool invitational,” third-year history and anthropology double major Tylor Serpico wrote in the comment. 

Serpico’s comment seemingly alluded to a phenomenon known as the “Drake curse,” a superstitious theory that every sports team or player the artist interacts with, wears merchandise for or bets on is riddled with bad luck in their upcoming games, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

Unfortunately for Rambler basketball fans, the Drake curse appeared to strike at the Barstool Invitational Nov. 8. The Ramblers suffered a 75-62 defeat at the hands of Florida Atlantic University — a disappointing start to the basketball season.

This loss is one of many in the history of Drake’s supposed curse.

The curse can trace back to various incidents across the early 2010s. The rapper’s support of the University of Kentucky’s Wildcats basketball team — demonstrated through his friendship with head coach John Calipari, regular appearances at games and merch donning — began in 2012, according to Fanduel Research. Since that year, the team has not won a title.

Drake’s curse became established as a widely recognized theory in 2015 when Serena Williams lost her 26-match winning streak in Grand Slam events to Roberta Vinci at the U.S. Open semi-finals, according to Uproxx. The shocking upset led some people to blame the rapper’s attendance for contributing to Williams’ loss.

Drake has also been charged with the losses of professional boxers Anthony Joshua and Conor McGregor, college football marvel Johnny Manziel and the University of Alabama’s football team, according to Uproxx.

The curse made noise again in 2016 when Drake bet rapper French Montana $60,000 that heavily-favored Golden State Warriors would beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA finals, according to an Instagram post by Montana. The unexpected win by the Cavaliers allegedly left Drake blighted by his own curse.

Serpico recalls becoming aware of the curse in 2018 when Drake supported UFC fighter Conor McGregor ahead of his UFC 229 fight for the lightweight title.

“My friends and I, who were also fans of the sport, were like, ‘Okay, well, he’s gonna lose now,’” Serpico said. “Not having any understanding of it before, it kind of made me nervous, and then it turned out to be true.” 

Serpico said he witnessed a “100% success rate” of the curse on outcomes of games that he was aware of Drake’s commentary or betting on. This strong correlation perceived by many in online sports communities could seem like more than coincidence. 

First-year and self-proclaimed Drake superfan Chiara Lardner said the curse is just a bit of fun and not something to be taken seriously.

“People want to make fun of him,” Lardner said. “If he does have bad betting skills, that just adds to his character.” 

Lardner said popular Drake memes paint the rapper as the “type of guy” whose personality makes him hard to take seriously, his evident bad luck adding fuel to the fire. 

“People may play into it, but I don’t think there’s much curse going on,” Lardner said.

Noah Henderson, a professor of sports management at Loyola, is also unconvinced. 

Henderson said the NBA’s Toronto Raptors have seen an increased bout of success since becoming partnered with proud Toronto native Drake. 

“These games have independent outcomes, and Drake’s track record is merely a coincidence,” Henderson said. 

When the artist became the Raptors global ambassador in 2013, the team made the Eastern conference semifinals for the first time in five years and continued to get to the semifinals for the next six years, according to Variety. They frequently lost in these semifinals, typically in games against Lebron James, sparking the phenomenon known as Lebronto, according to The Sporting News. 

Despite the superstitious odds against them, the Raptors eventually cemented their winning status in 2019, becoming NBA Finals champions in a historic win against the Golden State Warriors.

“As much as we would like to say that Drake has an impact on the game, the probability of that is incredibly, incredibly low,” Henderson said. “Outside of maybe one of the athletes hears about it and there’s some placebo effect.”

Henderson said he saw another possible harm of the Drake curse within the world of sports betting.

“It becomes problematic when we subscribe to these beliefs that are foolproof or never-lose,” Henderson said. “Then we’re betting on a sport that’s, you know, it’s no different than playing blackjack.”

Those who might base their bets on Drake’s involvement with a particular team or player could find themselves as unlucky as the rapper.

Henderson said legal gamblers in the state of Illinois can’t officially bet on collegiate teams that exist within the state, so Illinois residents won’t have to risk big bets on Drake-related matches. 

“The main danger issue is people overestimating their sports intelligence, which is, at the end of the day, what’s being shown,” Henderson said. “It’s more data science than sports knowledge that succeeds in sports gambling.”

Another adverse effect of the curse is revealed in an admission from Serpico who said he would, indeed, blame Drake for any bad luck encountered by the Ramblers this season. 

“People like finding connections and things, and people want to continue this,” Henderson said. “If they can use Loyola and our basketball season as a way to further the, if you want to call it ‘the myth of the Drake curse’ — the Drake curse as a way to kind of confirm that belief. 100% the public will jump on that train.”

Henderson said there’s no real reason for the Loyola community to fear the curse, though. In fact, he said being cursed is a positive thing for the school. 

“I can only see positive externalities coming out of any celebrity endorsement or celebrity interest in Loyola,” Henderson said. “Sports media as a whole loves creating narratives and storylines. This is another one. Loyola is somewhat fortunate to have fallen into this just because it is good publicity.”

If any publicity is good publicity, then Loyola can consider itself “fortunate” to be cursed, Henderson said. 

Lardner said she recalled a positive noise in the Loyola community over the initial post and that she saw excitement surrounding the upcoming basketball season as a result.

“It creates an intrigue in sports,” Henderson said. “People will tune in to watch because there’s another storyline that’s going on or, you know, it draws people in.”

Serpico confirmed this idea and said the curse would certainly be in the back of his mind while watching the upcoming games.
Despite the basketball season starting off with a loss, all hope is not lost for the Ramblers. The team is currently [3-3] and still has many opportunities to overcome the Drake curse.

Featured Image by Eliza Thomas | The Loyola Phoenix