FanPost

Confessions from a Raptor fan

On opening night I was 12, sitting on the soft carpet of my family’s TV room, captivated by a shiny purple basketball court.  “Why don’t all NBA teams put colour inside the three point arch?” I asked my brother.  It was catchy stuff for the aesthetic disposition of a preteen and I became an easy hook that night. I was a kid who loves sports, was old enough to follow the game, and young enough to hope endlessly. Those first three years of the franchise are beautiful in my memory.  So many times we (yes, it has always been a we) were down 10 in the fourth and all I was hoping for was a close game. Poor Leo Rautins was imploring the Raptors to drive to the basket, while all I wanted was for Walt Williams or Tracy Murray to shoot a three to bring the opponents lead closer to single digits. Walt and Tracy concurred with me, never failing to launch.

And Damon was great back then. Oh Damon.  His life was good in Toronto. He must remember the game when passing wizard Oliver Miller, found a cutting Tracy Murray to put the Raptors up in the final minute against the Bulls? A great play call by Coach Malone. Of course Damon had to leave.  But that was okay, because we weren’t good anyway and the trade brought new players to love. I confess I was excited about Gary Trent’s debut even if Kenny Anderson didn’t show up. And I enjoyed the rest of the season, watching John Wallace shoot those beautiful mid-rangers, giving us 14 points a game and not a lick of defence.  I enjoyed watching Tracy McGrady stumble into the realization that he was good.  And I took pleasure in watching Chauncey Billups blindly shoot threes before people called him Mr. Big Shot for taking them.

About midway through my high school years they became a real team.  Is Charles Oakley the second most important player to become a Raptor?  Can Kevin Willis please come out of retirement for one game to see how many points he can still score off his baby hook? He has to be in great shape still. And all the good vibes were because of Vince. Oh Vince. I watched him play in one of his first exhibition games. Did Bill Russell say you can’t teach hustle?  It’s okay. I’m not disappointed in his career.  If I was blessed with his talent wouldn’t I take the millions and do the bare minimum?  He is a nice guy. He is a balanced guy.  He loves video games and grits, his mother and his millions.  I’m not mad that he was satisfied. 

When I graduated from high school and went off university Vince was still a pretty good player. Luckily, I found university to be fertile ground for nurturing my love for the Raptors. Even in my semester studying abroad, when I was falling in love with a girl and learning to love wine and pretending that I knew French, almost every day I’d head to the internet cafe to read Doug Smith’s latest report.  Did they win? Was Sam Mitchell really this good of a coach? Is Vince getting his game back?

But we all know the story, soon we had to say goodbye to Vince and that is when I said hello to graduate school.  There was still time for the Raptors though.  I’d come back to my basement suite late in the afternoons, my brain feeling like mush from a day of reading and writing papers and I’d turn on the TV as I prepared dinner (I love West Coast sports times).  The Raptors were subpar again and I was old enough to know they weren’t going anywhere. But I’d put together a little bit of chicken, some broccoli, and rice (I was old enough then to eat healthy with my beer), and for two and half hours I wouldn’t think about school, the girl from France, or the little amount of money I had.  We were building around Chris Bosh at that time.  Oh Chris.  I was never angry at him for leaving. If you had a chance to hang out with the popular kids and pay no income tax wouldn’t you?  Yes, it would have been nice for him to tell management he was leaving earlier, but honestly, he probably didn’t know for sure and didn’t want to burn a bridge. I might have done the same thing. Plus when Chris left, the team was more entertaining because we didn’t have to watch him hold the ball while jab stepping ever other play. 

Anyway, here we are now. I’ve been working for a while and I might be moving from beautiful Vancouver and back to Toronto for family reasons. Maybe I’ll buy season tickets to my beloved Raptors! Why not? I want to see how DeMar develops with the help of Dwayne Casey and I miss watching Jose get angry at the Celtics.  My only problem is this little matter of the lockout.

Now I don’t understand the complex economic factors involved in a multi-billion dollar industry, so rightly or wrongly, I’m not morally outraged.  I’m not even annoyed at this point.  But isn’t that the biggest problem for the NBA? People who are frustrated are going to be the first ones back cheering. I was that fan in 1997, but I was fifteen then and I thought playing three games in three nights was wonderful. I’m a bit older now, with less spare time, and the morbid, grandmaster David Stern and the wrinkled brows of the players are beginning to induce a thick blanket of malaise around my concern for the league. So I’ve stopped checking NBA.com for updates.  And I’ve stopped worrying about how they will have a draft this year if no games are played (spoiler alert - Stern will rig it so the Knicks or the “Brooklyn” Nets get #1 overall).

I’m not a bitter fan. I do find myself caring less though.