Raptors push ‘We The North’ in bid to net former rival fans’ love

Amir Johnson is considering renting a bike to ride by the big billboard that bears his likeness in downtown Vancouver.

“That’s dope,” he says of the huge advertisement he spotted from the team bus to practice.

Billboards of Johnson and Toronto teammate DeMar DeRozan and the Raptors’ “We The North” slogan dot downtown Vancouver roadsides. Commercials play on TV screens, and posters line bus shelters — advertisements for the team’s pre-season game Sunday at Rogers Arena, and part of the team’s ongoing efforts to make the Raptors truly Canada’s team.

“‘We the North,’ spreading it around,” says Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri. “There’s a huge advantage to being the only team in the country, and this used to be an NBA city, great fans here, great support.”

The Raptors’ pre- season opener against the Sacramento Kings at the 18,630-seat Rogers Arena is expected to be a sellout — only 70 scattered single tickets remained Friday morning.

Ujiri said he gets a sense of growing support for the Raptors in Vancouver, home to the NBA’s Grizzlies from 1995 to 2001. Toronto’s thrilling playoff series against the Brooklyn Nets last spring didn’t hurt.

The team is practising

at Fortius Sport & Health in Burnaby, a shiny almost-new facility that combines medical and training facilities for some of the country’s top athletes. While the Raptors practised Friday, Christine Sinclair, Diana Matheson and the rest of Canada’s women’s soccer team trained on the pitch out back.

One plus for the players: the building has dorm rooms, so they’re able to rest between practices.

After Friday’s practice, the players loaded onto two buses, one headed for a hospital to visit with sick children, the other to the Strathcona Community Centre, where DeRozan, Kyle Lowry and several other players put the kids in the centre’s basketball program through a spirited clinic.

The presence of the Raptors in Vancouver has once again created talk about the return of an NBA team to the city.

“I’ve always said that ( Vancouver have an NBA franchise),” head coach Dwane Casey says. “Vancouver and Seattle both, you’re preaching to the choir with that because I think it’s a great basketball city. So is Seattle (the Super-Sonics relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008).

“Those two cities, I think the fans there are a second Toronto as far as their fans are concerned. Both cities are passionate about basketball, and I think we’ll see it Sunday once we play here.”