Raptor-mania, not

While some may put it down to a natural curmudgeonly streak, there is no excitement bubbling up in this quarter for tonight’s #WeTheNorth match as the Toronto Raptors look to bring the NBA championship to Canada for the first time. None. Not an iota.

Some will see this as heresy – a rejection of tribalism and nationalism all rolled into one. It’s not. When it comes to sport, tribalism is alive and well. And it’s not a dislike of Toronto (though the words The Six will not pass through these lips). Hockey, it’s the Maple Leafs and in baseball it is the Blue Jays. And with both comes long-suffering.

A team is always your team is my mantra. A change in geography doesn’t alter that. Adopting a new team with every move seems a perfidious action. Own and suffer – just like I’ve had to for the past 25 years.

Maybe that explains the lack of enthusiasm for the Raptors. When the team – who resembled and played like Barney – first entered the league this scribe was already enconsed in British Columbia. Any loyalty at that point would have gone to the Grizzlies. There’s no connection to the team, no youthful memories to dredge up and start the adrenaline going.

With the Leafs, so hard to highlight one of the humiliations. The whole Ballard era, the hope of Sittler and Lanny, followed by Wendel and the damn Kerry Fraser call. And with the Jays it was shivering in Exhibition Stadium and skipping school to watch from couch the very first game when, in the snow, Doug Ault homered to beat the White Sox.

With the Raptors, nothing. And there was no connection to the Grizzlies. And not just because they sucked and were always in chaos. In all honesty, the problem is the sport itself.

On paper, basketball shares a dynamic with soccer. The best players find space, create openings and have moments of individual brilliance. It’s a team sport but a Jordan or Messi can still change the outcome with one dramatic intervention.

But in practice… it’s so boring. Up and down, up and down, score, score, score. It’s the only sport where you expect to rack up points on every possession (unless you count darts as a physical activity).

Athletic, yes. The range shown by LeBron and Zion Williamson is astounding. But it’s so boring. It’s 42 minutes of back and forth. In contrast, the excitement of soccer is knowing that one moment can change the outcome. That each foray into enemy territory is meaningful in a way that lugging the ball up court isn’t.

There. It’s out of my system. The sport isn’t that exciting to me. Nationalism isn’t really in play for me. The Raptors win, good for them. Instead, I’ll be crushing yoga.