LeBron James broke 'The Drake Curse' by leading the Lakers to a play-in tournament victory after partying with the rapper
- LeBron James was seen partying with Drake just a day before the Laker's play-in tournament game.
- Athletes have suffered losses after associating with the rapper, resulting in "The Drake Curse."
- James, however, led the Lakers to a last-minute comeback victory, breaking the curse.
LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers overcame a 13-point deficit to beat the Golden State Warriors 103-100 in the NBA play-in tournament on Wednesday night, but James also overcame an infamous sports superstition involving hip-hop artist Drake.
Photos of James partying with Drake and other celebrities at a party in Los Angeles emerged on Tuesday via the rapper's Instagram account.
The photos coming out a day before the Lakers' play-in tournament game at Staples Center might have been considered a death nail in the team's playoff hopes based on the recent history of athletes and teams suffering humiliating losses after publicly associating with Drake.
These instances have resulted in "The Drake Curse" becoming a common phenomenon in sports pop culture.
In 2015, Drake was in attendance for the U.S. Open final, cheering on top-seeded Serena Williams against unranked Italian Roberta Vinci. Williams suffered one of her most stunning losses to Vinci in a historic upset.
In 2018, Drake made an appearance at Conor McGregor's weigh-in for his fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 236. The rapper had an Irish flagged draped across his shoulder to show support for McGregor, who went on to lose to Nurmagomedov in a lopsided defeat.
In 2019, Drake posted a photo with soccer player Layvin Kurzawa of Paris Saint-Germain F.C. to his Instagram account, and the team lost 5-1 to Lille two days later. The superstition took on such a presence in European soccer that the Italian soccer team Roma banned its players from taking pictures with Drake.
James nearly fell victim to the same fates as the other athletes who suffered from the curse, as he started Wednesday's night's game shooting 1-for-7 from the field as the Lakers fell behind 55-42 at halftime.
James and Anthony Davis, who also started poorly shooting 2-for-12 in the first half, led a rally coming out of halftime and played the Warriors to a 100-100 tie late in the fourth quarter.
Then James lined up a game-winning 3-pointer in the final minutes to cap off the comeback and ensure that the Drake curse wouldn't haunt the Lakers, even after getting poked in the eye by Warriors forward Draymond Green, which James admitted disrupted his vision on the final shot.
Drake even got a courtside view to watch the whole thing go down on Wednesday and was surely able to sleep better after the Lakers' win, knowing he didn't curse James with his presence earlier in the week.