One year ago tonight: Raptors are NBA champs

Oh the good old days. No social distancing required anywhere in Canada that night!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfylJb_iOMU

https://globalnews.ca/video/5391610/nba-finals-drone-footage-captures-thousands-of-fans-celebrating-in-the-streets-of-toronto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Pyad6HMFs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdKqWsA1BMs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chR4BLZVaKg

bah humbug :slight_smile:

#^()^&$(&(## 20 characters grrr

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If the NBA'a plan in Orlando falls through, the Raptors will have a successful title defense :grinning:

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Here is my video from First Ontario Centre here in Hamilton at the moment the Raptors became champions.
Hamilton Raptors Fans Celebrate

Remember, for all the noise from the Centre of the UNiverse media, the majority of Canadians didnā€™t care!

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unfortunately, probably a lot more cared than about the last grey cupā€¦sigh

Possibly ā€¦ but still nowhere near the supposed ā€œall of Canada from coast-to-coastā€ type claims that were/are made ā€¦ I doubt half go Toronto actually CARED about it

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'Majority of Canadians ā€˜didnā€™t careā€™? Hmm - not sure about that. I guess that depends on how you define ā€˜careā€™.

If somebody watched a part of the NBA Finals on TV - does that count as caring? If the answer to that is yes then the majority of Canadians did care - because 56% of us watched at least a part of the series.

Game 7 alone had some pretty staggering numbers.

  • 44% of the Canadian population (15.9 million) watched at least a part of the game.
  • 82% of TVā€™s in use in the GTHA (Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area) during the game were tuned in to Game 6.
  • Average viewership across the country was 7.9 million, peaking at 10 million in the closing minutes.

That seems to me to be a lot of Canadians caring.

Well regardless of ā€˜mostā€™, ā€˜allā€™, ā€˜a majorityā€™, etc etc. . .

Iā€™m not one of them. I didnā€™t care at that time, and still donā€™t care.

I am not a basketball fan, have no interest in the sport, didnā€™t watch it at all.

Watching is not the same as caring ā€¦ people watch a car wreck but donā€™t necessarily care about it

and

BREAKING NEWS ā€¦ Canada extends far beyond Greater Toronto and Hamilton

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Like I said - it depends on how you define care. Me - If I donā€™t care at all about something I donā€™t watch it. My roommate doesnā€™t care about any sports and he didnā€™t watch a second of any of the Raptors playoff games.

And nobody claimed Canada was only the GTHA. Millions of other Canadians outside the GTHA watched. Heck 500,000 on RDS alone. Never mind all the big viewing parties outside Ontario. Thousands in Halifax, Thousands packing two blocks of Peel Street in Montreal or heck letā€™s tie this in to the CFL a bit - the 13,000 at Mosaic in Regina.

And I would be remiss if I forget to post some of the scenes from one year ago today. (Oops past midnight here - so these scenes from June 17, 2020. If only we had something to get so many excited these days. sigh!

image


good thing that event didnt happen last march

Yes, millions of graduates of The PT Barnum School of Awareness......What sheep. They were looking for anything to celebrate as long as it wasn't the CFL......Sad that many follow and many more jump on the bandwagon of a sport that is basically a bunch of millionaires playing a girl's game...C'est la vie.

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IMO many of the ā€œfansā€ watching the game be it at outdoor/indoor parties or just with friends were there for the ā€œparty/experienceā€ ā€¦ not the Raptors ā€¦ but it is all personal interpretation.

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My son's friend, who I think never even held a basketball, went all gaga over the Raptors in those last games. He kept telling us how exciting it was even though he had only watched those few games in his entire life....2 months later he admitted he 'had been caught up in the hype and went with the flow'.... His words, not mine.

 Baaaa  Baaaa Baaaa
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Exactly ā€¦ true Raptors fans and casual Raptor fans were Uber-excited ā€¦ some less-than-casual, fair weather Raptor fans jumped on the bandwagon as well ā€¦ but perhaps as many were like your sonā€™s friend ā€¦ doesnā€™t mean they didnā€™t have mega-fun but the party not the Raptors was the cause.

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Sheeple - lots of 'em at Wal-Marts too!

Though not related to this thread....closest one we have to a Raptor/NBA one.

Former Raptor Vince Carter announces his retirement today after 22 seasons.

The Hawks we're not going to play anymore this sort of season anyways.

He has nothing else to play for IMO, with the uncertainty moving forward this was the right call.

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15+ years from now a slew of great Canadian basketball players will be flooding into top ranked NCAA programs and the NBA draft - all talking about how what happened last spring was what motivated them. The exact same impact Vince Carter had from his early years with the Raps when he had kids (and basketball fans around the world) electrified with his high flying thrilling exploits. The massive success Canadians have had the last few years - with so many high NBA draft picks - they pretty much all credit a degree their success to Carter and their desire to be like him.

The Hawks at Raps game that was scheduled for shortly after the shutdown - that was the one regular season game pretty much every Raptors fan is so disappointed got washed out.

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Raptors completely shat the bed in the last Qtr last night in their playin game against CHI
Missed 50% of their free throws (18/36)
Complete choke job in the 4th qtr in typical TOR Leaf/Craptor tradition

@TravelPatB we do miss you!