Basketball in Canada

[Pinus]

Basketball.............. Meh.

[megadude]

I'm okay with the bandwagoners. The more support during the run the merrier. Lots of women in my office had Raptors t-shirts on. Some are clearly new, some they bought when they went to a Raptors game once, some they borrowed from their son. There's the odd one who actually has at least followed the team casually. There's also a dude here who admits he doesn't follow sports but just went along with his friends to spend hours at the bar and borrowed his cousin's DeRozan jersey.

But I do wanna punch people in the face who say I've loved the Raptors my whole life!!! but can't even name five Raptors in history let alone the starting five.

There's a video of some dude in corn rows wearing a Kawhi jersey was walking down the street and people stopped him for autographs despite being 7 inches shorter. Selfies were fine because it would be jokes to take a pic with him, but people were actually getting autographs from him.

That was as lame as when Irish supporters descended upon some Japanese city during the 2002 WC and locals were asking for their autographs.

[EpicPonyTime]

Originally Posted by megadude

I'm okay with the bandwagoners. The more support during the run the merrier. Lots of women in my office had Raptors t-shirts on. Some are clearly new, some they bought when they went to a Raptors game once, some they borrowed from their son. There's the odd one who actually has at least followed the team casually. There's also a dude here who admits he doesn't follow sports but just went along with his friends to spend hours at the bar and borrowed his cousin's DeRozan jersey.

But I do wanna punch people in the face who say I've loved the Raptors my whole life!!! but can't even name five Raptors in history let alone the starting five.

There's a video of some dude in corn rows wearing a Kawhi jersey was walking down the street and people stopped him for autographs despite being 7 inches shorter. Selfies were fine because it would be jokes to take a pic with him, but people were actually getting autographs from him.

That was as lame as when Irish supporters descended upon some Japanese city during the 2002 WC and locals were asking for their autographs.

I want to hate on bandwagoners until I remember that the reason I became a Raptors fan was because I was a child and their logo was a dinosaur.

All fans have to start somewhere. It's stupid to pretend that you are and have always been a massive fan when you're not; just admit you have gotten caught up in the hype and it made you a fan. I don't see why there's a stigma against that. Honestly, it would be problematic if there weren't bandwagoners during this run.

[megadude]

Originally Posted by EpicPonyTime

I want to hate on bandwagoners until I remember that the reason I became a Raptors fan was because I was a child and their logo was a dinosaur.

All fans have to start somewhere. It's stupid to pretend that you are and have always been a massive fan when you're not; just admit you have gotten caught up in the hype and it made you a fan. I don't see why there's a stigma against that. Honestly, it would be problematic if there weren't bandwagoners during this run.

Exactly.

[SignalHillHiker]

Formerly local reporter tweeted about the crowds on arches and buses and trucks saying "The biggest surprise in all of this is how good Torontonians are at climbing."

And an American reporter tweeted: "If you didn't know Canada legalized marijuana, you're learning something in this crowd."

Laughed at both haha.

[suburbanite]

There were shootings in both Oakland and Cleveland during recent years celebrations.

[SignalHillHiker]

Asif Hossain's whole thread about drivers expecting to get through downtown TO yesterday is also hilarious.

"Which suburban AM talk radio host failed these people?"

https://mobile.twitter.com/asifintor...30305658822656

"May they be stuck in traffic every time they come into Toronto all by themselves in their car!"

[wave46]

Ah, SSP, never change.

In a thread about basketball and the Raptors, we have:

- Unrelated politics about Trudeau and Doug Ford
- A pissing match about cities' populations
- An existential look into 'what is Canadian sport and how does that culturally reflect on us'

And finally....

The sport in question and the championship team involved.

Congrats Raptors. Awesome parade!

[megadude]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Asif Hossain's whole thread about drivers expecting to get through downtown TO yesterday is also hilarious.

"Which suburban AM talk radio host failed these people?"

https://mobile.twitter.com/asifintor...30305658822656

"May they be stuck in traffic every time they come into Toronto all by themselves in their car!"

This is funny. I also ask the same question on a regular weekday. How did you think this was gonna go? But on parade day, you do truly have to live in a bubble to be a GTA resident and not know there would be a massive parade to shut things down. And you know what, ignorance is a bliss and I sometimes wish I wasn't so aware of things myself. But on this occasion, you want to be aware or use google maps.

Five years ago I was driving from Madison, WI to Lansing, MI and I had regular GPS and I got caught in a shit storm of traffic heading into Chicago on a Saturday at 5pm. When I got to the toll guy, he said this is every weekend.

Of course, now I have a smartphone that is capable of US data package for cheap and I can use google maps and it would have made me take a detour. I lost at least 30-45 minutes.

[WhipperSnapper]

On the other hand, the city can't shut down just because their basketball team won a championship. Not everyone is given a choice. The parade was contained to a large area but not the entirety of downtown. The drivers that pulled over on the Gardiner to view the parade were beyond ignorant should be prosecuted to the fullest. How many hours and millions lost did their selfish act cause?

[WhipperSnapper]

I doubt the demographics would be much different for a Leaf's parade on a Monday morning in Toronto. People that can go will go just to say that they were there. Whether they are fans or not is irrelevant. The majority of Toronto isn't white

[megadude]

I didn't go to the Jays parades when I was a youngster. But I heard that it ran down Lakeshore and rally took place inside the Dome.

Wonder if that's something they'll look into for next time. Will only be like 70,000+ in the seats and floor but at least they control the security for the large gathering place. And people can partake in the parade along the route.

Of course, there would be tonnes of scammers when it comes to the tickets.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by megadude

I didn't go to the Jays parades when I was a youngster. But I heard that it ran down Lakeshore and rally took place inside the Dome.

Wonder if that's something they'll look into for next time. Will only be like 70,000+ in the seats and floor but at least they control the security for the large gathering place. And people can partake in the parade along the route.

Of course, there would be tonnes of scammers when it comes to the tickets.

I always think the visuals of a parade taking over city streets are more impressive than the visuals of the celebration filling a sports stadium which can be filled by other sports teams in the market. It seems less impressive than seeing the Square or Lakeshore packed to the brim. You could still get that same vibe, of course, but seeing that square packed for six hours was pretty impressive.

[suburbanite]

For all the jokes about how Toronto has been "planning the parade" for decades, the whole thing yesterday was a shit-show. 3 hours late to get to Nathan Phillips Square where people were dehydrated and they had no entertainment to fill the gap. No barricades set up on the route so police had to clear the streets as they went.

Feel bad for those who went to NPS at 10 am and waited for 5 hours only to be part of a stampede as the shooting took place almost immediately after the team got there.

Extremely glad I caught the route at University/Front and went to a patio afterwards.

[WhipperSnapper]

We can say it was the fall season but, in reality, the decision to host in the SKydome was probably because the expensive stadium was still new and in public hands.

It was a free event and no one was allowed on the field.

The dome didn't fill up in 1993 however, in 1992, I ended up in the middle of a horde that stormed the gates and absolutely destroyed them. I ended up sitting on a step in the 500 level with hundreds of others. The dome is not a secure, containable structure against the hordes.

[megadude]

I agree that people who pulled over on the highway or climbed construction sites or buildings and what not shouldn't just go scot free. I don't think you can arrest them on the spot during such a moment for fear of mob mentality backlash, as was the thinking after games when people were jumping on cop cars. But they did release their pictures for two different incidents of that happening and a few of those guys turned themselves in.

I would be fine with cops going up to anyone climbing stuff and causing destruction and warning them to stop immediately or picture will be released and your name made public after the fact. All while wearing body cams.

If they don't climb down or immediately stop what they're doing then it's fair game no matter how drunk you are. It's a good way for the general population to get the message eventually. Well that and officials straight up warning people on TV and print days in advance not to do it and then at the rally, every half hour or so blast it out on loud speaker, in the most polite way possible, that if you do stupid shit like that there will be consequences afterwards.

After the two most famous examples of the one guy bashing a store window and the other trying to turn a cop car into a molotov cocktail, I wonder if Vancouver people would do the same next time. Of course, there will be some because people are stupid but maybe not as many.

[megadude]

I hope the people who went to NPS and especially those who went early early understood that a massive delay was always a possibility. I have no interest in standing around endlessly hours in advance on concrete for an hour of listening to people talk on the stage. But for those who don't mind that and they complained about the delay then I don't have sympathy.

Things never go according to plan, especially if you're entrusting government officials with no experience to do the planning.

These things can never be perfect, and I'm glad there was feel good vibes all around despite the massive delays. But beneath it all there really must have been some serious ineptitude and unfortunately, it's basically become accepted.

Obviously, some great work was done for such a massive event, but there were some glaring holes in planning.

[Berklon]

Yea, I didn't see any intended bashing by showing the scale of the event by comparing it to city populations. There's nothing to be offended about it as there's really nothing to bash in the first place. If a US city was used for comparison, would there still be crying about it?

Seems that some here are trying their best to downplay the whole thing by either inflating the significance of the shootings, questioning the authenticity of the fans who attended or just being downright jealous of the attention the Raptors are getting across Canada.

[megadude]

I posted this pic in the NHL thread a while back. Anyway, before game 6 someone at my work brought 6 of these to the office. Those were the last ones.

I've been inside two Hortons since that game and haven't seen anymore. I'm shocked. Now is especially the time to capitalize on these donuts.

Past two years there have been Leafs logo and jersey donuts. I've only ever seen Raps logo donut. They need to come out with jersey donut. Then donuts with back of player jersey with name and number. And then some ^NORTH donuts. And OVO black and gold colour scheme too.

Maybe they'll come out with more batches the rest of the summer. Anytime I buy a few for family gatherings the kids go nuts for them.

I was just at Tims and some guy bought a gift card. Lady asked which one? Of course the guys got the Raptors branded one.

[SignalHillHiker]

Of everything I've seen from people's posts during the parade, this is my absolute favorite. It's heartwarming, not funny, but still wonderful:

https://reddit.app.link/8rFjyv60DX