Oct 29, 2014
Naylor: Raptors have a chance to make more inroads in Toronto scene
We saw what it looked like last spring. Toronto as a basketball-mad city captured not just our own attention but that of those from around the NBA. The buzz in the city, the crowds at Maple Leaf Square represented by fans from nearly every ethnic demographic in the city ... and of course the atmosphere inside the Air Canada Centre. As TSN's Dave Naylor explains, it all felt like it might be a glimpse into the future.
By Dave Naylor
We saw what it looked like last spring.
Toronto as a basketball-mad city captured not just our own attention but that of those from around the NBA.
The buzz in the city, the crowds at Maple Leaf Square represented by fans from nearly every Toronto ethnic demographic ... and of course the atmosphere inside the Air Canada Centre – electric in a way it rarely, if ever, is for the local hockey team.
It all felt like it might be a glimpse into the future.
A future where the gap between the love of the local NBA and NHL teams might be small, where basketball might drive the sporting pulse of Toronto nearly as much as hockey.
We're not there yet and we may never get there, at least for a long, long time.
Outgoing Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment president and CEO Tim Leiweke promised an audience last month that within 10 years the Raptors would be more popular than the Leafs.
That statement may say far more about Leiweke's brashness and lack of sense for the market into which he's been transplanted. But the truth is we don't really know how close the Raptors could get because they've have been so underwhelming during most of their existence.
There is little less inspiring in sports than a bottom third NBA team playing out an 82-game schedule where most nights against good teams they don't stand a chance.
So to truly get a sense of how much basketball potential there is to unlock in Toronto, we're going to need more than just the Raptors running off a 48-win season, pushing a team to seven games during the first round of playoffs and coming up with a splashy television ad campaign.
We're going to need a sustained period of competitive basketball. One where the Raptors stay on the NBA radar, with Toronto players becoming part of the greater NBA conversation.
We're going to need marquee matchups, games on national television in the US. And rivalries that matter.
The challenge with the Raptors hasn't so much been about getting good for a season or two ... it's been about staying that way.
The Raptors have had six winning seasons in their 19-year history and one playoff series win.
This time has a chance to be different.
They appear to have the right management, the right coach and a team that is not built primarily around the skills of one player, whose discontentment or subpar performance could on its own completely reverse the direction of things.
There's momentum, youth and potential on their side this time.
And while an NBA Championship at the end of the road would be nice, what could come from the journey getting there would be far more significant in the long run.