Washington D.C. rapper Wale confronted Toronto Raptors play-by-play analyst Matt Devlin at the Wizards-Raptors game on Feb. 19 after the commentator mocked him during the broadcast.
After Toronto’s Rudy Gay converted a three-point shot attempt, he stared down and started trash talking Wale who supposedly had been heckling the Raptor.
“Supposedly, this fan is a well-known local rapper Wale — locally here,” said Devlin in reaction to the scene. “He’s not Drake, that’s for sure.”
While Wale isn’t as popular as Drake, he’s not just a local rapper like Devlin suggested. He’s a Grammy nominee on two of the most successful hip hop records labels, Roc Nation with Jay-Z and Maybach Music Group with Rick Ross. His latest album “Ambition” debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
By the third quarter, Devlin’s words had gotten around to Wale, who made his way to the Verizon Center broadcaster’s table to give the play-by-play analyst a piece of his mind. The SportsNet broadcast picked up Wale’s rant, but not clearly enough to interpret what he said. His taunts interrupted the broadcast, resulting in an awkward pause by Devlin.
“We’ll talk to him after the third quarter,” said Devlin recovering. Wale wasn’t just satisfied with jeering Devlin in person either.
“Watch your mouth,” he tweeted at the broadcaster.
After the game, the hip-hop artist, who apparently took heat for the confrontation, sent a series of tweets about how he felt the need to defend himself for being criticized as “less of a man.”
Toronto player DeMar Derozan even asked Wale on Twitter that night what happened between him and Devlin. Wale downplayed the feud like it wasn’t a big deal, but that was before his Twitter rant.
Wale could not be reached for comment on the quarrel.
Devlin refused to give a statement, but a Raptors representative said, “He wants to see things go away more than anything.”
Watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLyv2yCkSBY