Raptors have stage to themselves
COMMENTARY: With no Canadian teams in the NHL playoffs, NBA squad has nation pretty much to itself
Leo Rautins grew up in a Toronto in which few people outside his immediate family gave a damn about basketball or the NBA.
It was his sport and his brother’s sport, but not necessarily anyone else’s.
Out of St. Michael’s College, he got a scholarship to Syracuse University. And out of Syracuse, he was drafted into the NBA. And from a professional playing career came careers as coach and broadcaster: He knew Toronto then, when basketball was his dream, and it was lost in the growth of the Blue Jays, the Argos’ latest Grey Cup run and the deep unfettered devotion that engulfs Leafs Nation.
And he knows Toronto now, this sporting city of angst and celebration, this city of torturous defeats and unrivalled dread, a ball of a city all curled up, waiting for the best of days. Remembering the worst of stories.
And these may be them — the best of days.
The Blue Jays coming off a season as American League East champions. The Leafs happily finishing last and being rewarded by winning the NHL Draft Lottery. And the too often forgotten Raptors, sometimes the niche team, now in Round 2 of the NBA playoffs, winners of a best-ofseven playoff series for the first time in 21 seasons.
Rautins, who has coached the national team, has been here for all of it and watched the growth of basketball on so many different levels and so many different ways.
The Raptors have the most unique fan base in the city: It looks like Toronto. It isn’t all white. It is white and black and brown and Asian and younger and male and female and just about everything else.
The players, like the city, like the country, are from the U.S., Congo, Lithuania, Pickering, Ont., Argentina, Brazil and whatever planet it is that Terrence Ross comes from.
The growth of the sport nationally has been well documented. From Steve Nash to Andrew Wiggins to Jamal Murray. With Cory Joseph waving a metaphorical flag every time he plays a game for the Raptors.
But this is the next step now: The great opportunity. Isiah Thomas talked about it years ago, believed in it and never got to this place. This is crossover time for the Raptors and I don’t mean on the dribble.
This is their opportunity to find a national audience they have rarely known and bring along for the ride the bandwagon jumpers this city is so famous for.
When the Blue Jays opened the season at home, they attracted eight times the television audience the Raptors did that night. On Sunday, with Game 7 of the first-round series against Indiana on at night, the Raptors enjoyed their largest television audience ever: An average of 1.53 million viewers, with an audience peaking at 2.63 million as the series came to a conclusion, significantly larger than the Blue Jays ratings.
The Raptors drew more than 10 times their regular season television audience Sunday. That makes the Raptors mainstream maybe for the first time ever.
“It’s huge,” said Rautins, who has been handing out Raptors cards for more than 20 years.
“Interest is incredible. I can’t go anywhere without someone wanting to talk basketball.
“In 21 years of doing this, it’s never been close to this. There’s an unbelievable opportunity here because this is real, this is good, this is fun, this is something we should be enjoying and watching.
“There is a chance here to capture people who haven’t been exposed to this before.”
There is no NHL playoff hockey in Canada. This is just the second month of the baseball season.
“If you haven’t caught on to this, now is your chance,” he said. “Who wouldn’t want to watch at this point?”
The Raptors play the Miami Heat next, a team more sexy in name than in delivery. LeBron James has gone back to Cleveland. Chris Bosh isn’t healthy enough to play.
This is a series the Raptors can win if somehow Kyle Lowry can find some health and his jump shot. This is sport and business meeting as one, with both the team and game poised for some kind of victory.
This is a chance for the Raptors to go national — as national as they can ever go. They have the country to themselves. They have the stage. They have the opportunity. Now, for them, it’s showtime.