Why I am a Toronto Raptors fan

It starts a continent away, on a small island, where basketball is king. Why? No clue. Hilariously, the populace would be better suited to football, baseball, or anything else not height dependent. But nope. It just had basketball.

People would live, eat, and breathe basketball. Basketball was everywhere. From posh air-conditioned wooden courts, to makeshift hoops made from hangers in the poorest shanties. There was no shortage of action either. You have a pro-league (which used to be more than one), a semi-pro league, two separate collegiate leagues, town leagues, street leagues…it was everywhere.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that I grew up with basketball the same way a stereotypical Canadian grows up with hockey or a stereotypical [insert nationality here] grows up with football.

I watched the end of the great rivalry between the Lakers and Celtics. Michael Jordan was but a jump away from starting a three-peat. And the Bad Boys Pistons were about to convince Stern to change the rules.

Then I moved to Canada…

I was so excited to move to Canada believing that I’d be able to check out more NBA games. Welp. That didn’t work out so well. Everything was hockey. Hockey, hockey, hockey. Then David Stern with the help of Nike catapulted the NBA on the back of their most bankable star into a global phenomenon.

I became a Michael Jordan fan—not a Bulls fan—a Michael Jordan fan. I can only imagine what people who have never seen him play (or know much about basketball) thought when they first watched him.

Was he another Pele? Maradona? I don’t know. What I do know is that he became a global icon. Before the ’92 Olympics, MJ was already a player to watch. Nike and the Olympics cemented that legacy.

Magic, Bird, Kareem and Dr. J were famous. Around the world? Maybe. MJ took that fame to an entirely new level and the NBA hasn’t been the same since. Maybe, just maybe that little boost in popularity finally paved the way for an NBA team (or two) in Canada. And then…?

I was elated in hearing the news. A team. My own team. It was unbelievable. I was getting my on home team to root for.

Of course, the dark side to all this was reading all the negative reports: It won’t work because no one cared about anything that wasn’t hockey especially when the seasons overlapped; It was bad because NBA players were [insert negative connotation here] (something about drugs and brawls, which is HILARIOUS considering the other sport wherein numerous players are doped up on pain killers and paid to, you know, fight).

But whatever. I was going to have a team. My team. My NB-freaking-A team! Woohoo! After years of watching Charlotte, Orlando, and Miami get expansion teams, it was nice to get our very own. It was a novelty at first. Watching the games at Skydome in the nosebleeds was laughable. It was a terrible venue, but it was fun. It was amazing seeing how diverse the crowd was. It was weird. I didn’t feel like I stood out. I felt like I belonged with this weird group of people, watching a sport supposedly no one else in Canada cared about, and supporting a team that was utter crap. It was glorious.

Was there a lot of growing pains? Sure. Trying to explain to the lady a seat over why a pick is legal and a body check is not was interesting. Watching Damon going 1 vs 5 and hearing people cheer him on then standing up, and yelling, "pass the fucking ball!" and having people glare and boo at me was an experience.

I don’t recall much of note post Damon, pre VC. Suddenly, Toronto was in danger of being a never-been NBA franchise in danger of being relocated!

Then Vince happened.

The ROY, the slam dunk championships that put Toronto on the NBA map, the league attendance records, the playoffs! It can’t be undervalued that a whole generation of Canadian kids would grow up watching Vince do Half-man-half-amazing things! No one grows up wanting to be Damon Stoudemire, but kids wanted to be Vince. A few bumbling choices later you get the always wonderful Smitch and Rob "Araujo" Babcock. Dark times were ahead.

Through the thrill of the inaugural season, to watching the team flounder, through the magic of the VC era, it was such an amazing time. This was my sport. This was my team. The Raptors fans, my family.

It was great to be a part of something. Where will the next chapter lead us? I don’t know. Will Masai bring a championship to Toronto? Maybe.

All in all, TL;DR, I’m a Raptor fan.