Along
with thousands of other Canadians, I
am now a RAPTOR
FAN!
A
few days ago, I sent a writing about being a Sports Fan ~ more or
less. Today, basketball
is
on my
list
of sports games to follow. Sports writers have noticed with
immediate interest how we Canadians have quickly responded with
unsurpassed interest in this basket-ball-sporting
game.
NORTH
red-shirted Kawhi
Leonard
celebrates
after the buzzer ~
that
gave Toronto
Raptors their
first NBA championship ~
setting off a country-wide celebration.
His
photo was centered on many, many Sports Pages everywhere across
Canada...with outstretched arms diagonally above his head...his huge
'victory smile'...all expressing wide-open joy and elation. We honour
his #2 red and white shirt ~ along with all his team-mates who
fastidiously fought for every basket scored...in each of the 6 games
played against Golden
State from
Oakland, California.
So compelled was I,
every game I watched, often until 11 p.m. and up to midnight.
every game I watched, often until 11 p.m. and up to midnight.
Kings
of a Global Game
(Excerpts from Tim Reynolds' report to The Associated Press)
The Canadian flag, soaked in beer and champagne, was waved in the
Toronto locker-room.
Pascal Siakam
wore
the flag of Cameroon
around his shoulders.
Marc Gasol
was
yelling some happy phrase in
Spanish.
Every
team that wins an NBA title, calls itself “world
champions”!
These Toronto Rapters might actually be worthy of the moniker.
The
new kings of the NBA are
the first outside of the U.S. to wear the crown ~
and
they come from all corners of the globe.
Team
president, Masai
Ujiri was
born in
England and
raised in Nigeria.
Serge
Ibaka is
from the Congo.
Gasol
will
play again in his native Spain
this
summer in the FIBA World Cup.
Coach
Nick
Nurse won
his first championship in Britain
where
reserve OG
Anunoby comes
from.
Even
the team's superfan, Nav
Bhatia comes
from India.
It's a global game.
It's a global team.
They're the global champions!
It means a lot, just having guys from different countries
and
speaking different languages,” Siakam said.
I think it kind of got us closer together. And you kind of need
to have all those little kinds of friendship with guys that you can
speak the same language with, and from Spanish to French to English ~
different cultures. I think it kind of respresents Toronto in
general, having that diversity.
Jeremy
Lin, an Asian-American,
speaks
Mandarin.
The
assistants on Nurse's staff have backgrounds from stints as players
or coaches in France, England, Germany, Italy, Australia, Israel and
more. The director of 'sports science' is Scottish. The head trainer
is from Ontario. Jamaal
Magloire, who
has been on the staff since his playing days ended, is a Toronto
native.”It
means a lot,” Magloire said
as he watched champagne spray all over the Raptors' locker room in
Oakland's Oracle Arena.
“Canada
and Toronto especially are very diverse places.
And this team ~ all the diversity that we have, it served us well.”
There's a parade coming to Toronto's downtown on Monday. The red and
white flag with the giant maple leaf will wave. And a few Americans
will be on that route as well ~ like NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard
and the longest-tenured Raptor player, Kyle Lowry. They are a worthy champion!
“I'm
very happy for them,” Steve Kerr, head coach of the defending
champion,
Golden
State Warriors, said,
tipping his hat to the Raptors.
“Winning
a championship is the ultimate in this league ~ and they have got a
lot of guys who have earned this. So, Congrats to Toronto...to
their organization...to their fans.They are a worthy champion!”
Noteworthy
Fact
Basketball
Without Borders
is
the vehicle that basically helped
Siakam start
his journey to the league seven or so years ago. Today, there are
NBA academies popping up in Africa and Asia.
The
league is helping to establish a new pro-league in Africa that's set
to begin play in early next year.
The sport takes every opportunity it gets to promote
what
it bills as the Jr.
NBA Global Championship ~ a tournament for kids.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said before the series that the league is
aware of
700
million cellphones in use in Africa ~ more than half of them
smartphones.
The NBA wants people watching on these phones
and the infrastructure is such now in many places,
that it is actually possible.
“As
a kid,”
Pascal Siakam said, “I
didn't have the opportunity
to dream about this moment.
I didn't think I could make it.
I didn't think this was possible as a kid.
And I think a lot of kids don't think that it's possible.
Today, I can say to them: Hey! Look at me!
I was a little scrawny kid from Cameroon...
but here I am...as a champion!
The Toronto Raptors and their fans can truly say:
“Today,
They are World Champions!”
Compiled by Merle Baird-Kerr...June 15, 2019
Views
and comments welcome: mbairdkerr@bell.net
No comments:
Post a Comment