Networks replaying Raptors’ title run
Sportsnet, TSN finally filling gap for frustrated fans
OK, I don’t want to be the guy who opens the gift and mutters: “Is that all?”
But really, TSN and Sportsnet, what took you so long?
With live sports programming all but non-existent, and a growing number of Canadians self-isolating and social distancing, the two national sports networks have finally worked out the kinks and will give us all something we all thought we would have had by now: a threehour reprieve from boredom with 24 consecutive nights of the Raptors’ run to the Larry O’brien Trophy from last spring.
It’s not like the two conglomerates didn’t have this teed up already, but thank the basketball gods they finally agreed to put it out there.
The run captured an entire country like nothing before, save maybe an Olympic gold medal hockey final, any one of the four Blue Jays playoff runs over the past 28 years, or going back a little further, the 1972 Summit series.
Sporting events that can bring an entire country together aren’t exactly commonplace.
This one started slow in that first series against Orlando, but by the time Kawhi Leonard’s four-bounce miracle shot dropped to win the Eastern Conference semifinal over Philadelphia, it’s fair to suggest the run had caught the entire country’s attention.
The two stations are dubbing this one “Bringing Back the Unforgettable,” which we’ll give them proper credit for, because this really was an unforgettable run.
Sportsnet and Sportsnet One tip it off Friday night with perhaps the only game in the series that won’t necessarily hold your attention, but don’t worry, it gets much, much better.
TSN has Game 2 on Saturday night and, from there, the two stations alternate nights until the grand finale on Sunday,
April 12 with Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
Turns out it wasn’t just the Raptors in Utah a week ago Monday that required a voluntary self-isolation period due to the positive test for the COVID-19 virus by Jazz centre Rudy Gobert.
Dan Tolzman, the Raptors assistant GM and director of player personnel, wasn’t in Utah on Monday, but over the previous weekend he was in Boston and actually stayed at the same hotel as the Utah Jazz, who were there taking on the Celtics.
Tolzman took in the game, and afterwards, enjoyed a friendly post-game beverage with one of the many national writers that cover the NBA.
A few days later he got a text from that same writer informing him he had done a close quarters one-on-one interview with Gobert following the game about 10 minutes before he joined Tolzman for that beverage.
“When I relayed that info to our doctors they said, ‘Yeah, we should maybe get you tested to be safe,’” Tolzman said.
His test, as every member of the Raptors travelling party in Utah did, came back negative, but as a precautionary measure, Tolzman, like thousands and thousands across Canada, is now home for a 14-day stay, just to be safe.