Last month, Drake became the Toronto Raptors’ Global Ambassador, so it’s about time he put out a heartfelt commercial showing his love for the team.

In the new video, Drizzy talks about bringing the zealous fandom of college sports to Toronto’s team. He wants other teams to “hate coming to play the Raptors.” I mean, it’s likely they already don’t love it— customs, passports, what a drag. But, we like where your heads at, Drake.

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It looks like Drake is following in Jay-Z’s footsteps. No, no, Solange Knowles is already taken. But like Hova and the Brooklyn Nets, Drake just became an executive for the Toronto Raptors. He signed on as a host, consultant, and business partner, the Toronto Star reports:

The nuptials will start Monday with an announcement that Drake is partnering with the Raptors as they accept the 2016 NBA All-Star Game. He’ll be drafted in as a non-official host of festivities. An actual MC, as well as a figurative one.

The hip-hop star will also launch a clothing line in conjunction with the team. Most intriguingly, he is being asked to consult on a complete redesign of the club’s image to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the franchise in the 2014-15 season.

Drizzy is obviously the man for the job. He frequently sits courtside at games and he’s Toronto’s biggest star, besides Geddy Lee, of course. Come to think of it, a co-rebranding by Drake and Lee would be inspired, but what do we know.

Mazel tov, Drizzy! If only you were around in the early 2000s, then maybe Vince Carter would’ve played harder.

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Over at Tablet, Jordan Teicher introduces us to Sandy Pyonin, a little-known basketball coach from New Jersey who’s been responsible for getting 34 players to the NBA, most notably Kyrie Irving and Al Harrington. His latest prospect? Tyler Roberson, who recently committed to Syracuse.

Still, no one seems to have heard much about Pyonin, whose day job is at Jersey’s Golda Och Academy, where he runs the basketball program and teaches gym class. The guy doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. What gives?

Former players regularly use the word “crazy” to describe their coach—crazy as in ridiculously focused, intense, and fanatical. Zack Rosen, point guard for Hapoel Holon of the Israeli Super League, trained with Sandy from 2003 to 2005. “The guy knows the game and he knows how to work you. He pushes you every day.” Before joining Hapoel Holon, Rosen had an accomplished career at the University of Pennsylvania, winning Ivy League Player of the Year in 2012 and earning a spot on the Philadelphia 76ers Summer League roster after graduating. Rosen believes Pyonin helped him develop a strong work ethic in those early years at the Y.

The NBA’s Jewish Playmaker [Tablet]

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• This is kind of awkward, but Lebanon wants to sue Homeland for its depiction of the country.

• Over at Vulture, Jewcy contributor Jesse David Fox poses some absurd plot lines for Homeland’s Brody. Our favorite is the one where he plants a recording device in Saul’s beard.

• What we can learn from George Costanza about the pigeon code in New York City.

• Rashida Jones, Jewcy’s patron saint, talks women writers in Hollywood.

• Amare Stoudemire, the Hebrew-studying New York Knick, gets ready for the season.

• Jerusalem, meet Gangnam style. It was bound to happen sooner or later, really:

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There’s a great article today in Tablet Magazine about the epic rise and fall of Tamir Goodman, the high school basketball phenom nicknamed ‘Jewish Jordan’—and his unlikely friendship with Omri Casspi, the first Israeli to play in the NBA. When Casspi was traded from the Sacramento Kings to the Cleveland Cavaliers, Goodman, who lives in Cleveland, brought over a mezuzah! How do you say ‘bromance’ in Hebrew?

The two bonded, it seems, not only over their shared faith—Casspi, who was raised in a secular Israeli home, has gotten more religious since getting drafted to the NBA in 2009—but also over their professional experiences. When Casspi struggled last season, he turned to Goodman for advice. If anyone knows how to deal with disappointments on the court, it’s the former ‘Jewish Jordan’ himself, who retired from the sport at 27 and now happily coaches basketball camps for young Jewish kids.

From the article:

“Omri is the story of the underdog, the self-made man,” says David Blatt, the coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv, who has worked with both athletes. And Goodman’s is the story of how the weight of expectations can overwhelm a young athlete. “Even today the term ‘Jewish Jordan’ makes me cringe because it did such a disservice to him,” Blatt says. Despite their different trajectories, however, Casspi and Goodman would discover they had more in common than they realized. They would share the same agent, Steven Heumann; the same team uniform, Maccabi Tel Aviv; and then, in 2011, the same Cleveland area code.

The Jewish Jordan Subs Out [Tablet Magazine] From the archives: Will There Ever Be a Jewish Jordan?
Why I’m Glad There Isn’t A Jewish Tim Tebow

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