Drake used his new ICEMAN lyrics to draw a sharp contrast between LeBron James and Stephen Curry.
The NBA references stood out because they did not feel random. Drake appeared to take aim at LeBron while giving Curry a much warmer salute.
That contrast quickly became part of the bigger conversation around loyalty, the Kendrick Lamar feud, and which NBA stars still seem close to Drake.
LeBron James catches Drake’s coldest ICEMAN bar
As Yahoo Sports noted, Drake appeared to reference his strained relationship with LeBron James in ICEMAN.
“Please stop asking about what’s going on with 23 and me. I’m real and he’s not. It’s in my DNA,” Drake sang.
The “23” line was widely read as a LeBron reference because James has worn the number for most of his career. It also followed another lyric that seemed to jab at LeBron’s history of switching teams, making the target even clearer to fans.
The Kendrick Lamar layer makes the line sharper. LeBron publicly showed love to Kendrick during the Drake feud, including at “The Pop Out” concert, where “Not Like Us” became the defining anti-Drake anthem.
Steph Curry gets Drake’s loyalty salute instead
As Polymarket Hoops shared, Drake also praised Stephen Curry in ICEMAN with a line about his rise from Davidson to Warriors icon.
“Back when they was askin bout where Davison was at, now everybody got a blue 30 on they back,” Drake said.
The lyric points to Curry’s college roots at Davidson and the way his No. 30 Warriors jersey became one of basketball’s most recognizable looks.
That praise also lands differently because Curry has stayed closely tied to one franchise, unlike LeBron’s moves from Cleveland to Miami, back to Cleveland, and then to Los Angeles.
Drake’s treatment of both stars makes the message feel intentional. LeBron gets questioned over loyalty, while Curry gets framed as the player whose name and number became universal without leaving Golden State.
That is why the ICEMAN references sparked so much NBA reaction. Drake did not just mention two legends, he used them to draw sides in a personal feud that keeps spilling into basketball culture.
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