Borough President Adams wants Toronto Mayor Rob Ford to come talk to Brooklyn children — after he kicks drugs.
The Beep said as much after winning a wager with the embattled Canadian civic leader over the playoff series between the Brooklyn Nets and the Toronto Raptors, which the Nets squeaked out by one point in Game Seven on Sunday night. Ford stepped down from office last week to check in to rehab following the emergence of stills purportedly from a drug dealer’s cellphone video that shows the executive smoking crack cocaine, just days after making the bet with Adams. The borough’s booster-in-chief said that if Ford gets off the hard stuff, he should stop by to scare our youth straight.
“He could become a symbol,” Adams said. “When something can impact the mayor of a major city, you can only imagine how it affects everyday people.”
The terms of the gentlemen’s agreement mean that Toronto owes the Beep some music. Adams says he is ready to put it to good use.
“I’m going to be rocking to my Drake CD while I’m exercising,” Adams said.
Ford has been mired in controversy for more than a year, since another dope peddler claimed to have filmed Toronto’s mayor smoking crack. Ford finally relinquished his duties as top Torontonian on Wednesday after audio surfaced of him drunk and ranting at a bar, saying such things as “I’d like to f—— jam her” about a rival mayoral contender and “If you don’t give me another shot I’m going to knock your f—— teeth out.”
Ford has reportedly traveled to Chicago to enter a drug treatment program.
In light of the recent developments, and with the Nets sending the Raptors into extinction this weekend, a member of Toronto’s Council has stepped up to make good on Ford’s wager.
“A deal’s a deal,” said Councillor Josh Matlow, who represents Toronto’s Ward 22. “Toronto made a promise, and it should keep it.”
Matlow said he would send an album from Toronto native and actor-turned-rapper Drake, as promised.
The fill-in pol said he is sick of Ford’s antics and that the playoff series served as a good distraction for the people of his city.
“After the international embarrassment of our mayor, it was really nice to be represented by some world-class athletes,” Matlow said.
The pol went so far as to question whether Ford is in fact headed to get clean.
“That’s what he said he’s doing,” Matlow said. “But he hasn’t always told the truth.”
The skeptical representative hopes Brooklynites will think associate his city with is big-name musician rather than its crack-smoking mayor.
“I want them to think of Drake before Rob Ford,” he said.
Adams first bet Ford a six-pack of Brooklyn Lager after the general manager of the Raptors, Masai Ujiri, yelled “F— Brooklyn” during a Toronto pep rally ahead of the first playoff game. Adams agreed to the musically oriented terms when Ford expressed concern about how the media would construe a wager involving alcohol in light of his boozing and drugging problems.
Days later, Ford stepped down.
“My heart really goes out to the mayor,” Adams said after winning the bet. “I hope with the help he can turn things around.”
Adams is ready for the next Nets playoff series against the Miami Heat, which starts on Tuesday night in Florida. He plans to reach out to Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado to see if he is a gambling man.
“Miami Beach is out, Brighton Beach is in,” Adams said. “And since he’s not in rehab, maybe we can make it about some tasty Brooklyn beer.”
Asked if he had a message for Rob Ford, the often-philosophical Adams had this to impart:
“Hang in there. A bend in the road is not an end in the road, unless you fail to make the turn.”
