Robert Gray is a Toronto-area writer and a devoted Raptors fan since Day 1. He’s been a fan since Walt Williams revolutionized the knee-high sock industry. He once asked Lamond Murray for an autograph in a convenience store and Murray thought he was being sarcastic.
As a life-long fan of the Raptors, the apparent American perception of our team makes my skin crawl.
If someone were to add up all the bones I had to pick with what was said in the U.S. coverage of Thursday night’s game vs. Cleveland, I might be awarded an honourary P.h.D. in Palaeontology.
While sports journalism can be entertaining when certain columnists take staunch stances on certain subjects (hello!), such biased b-ball banter seems to lose its charm when everyone in a discussion takes the same side.
And while I relish snippets into the brains of basketball’s best, like Magic Johnson or Gregg Popovich, the majority of U.S. coverage consists of preposterous preconceived pontificating by players who are past their primes— and like much of our sources of information today, facts don’t seem to matter (hashtagfakenews).
My (beautiful and patient) wife showed me a clip on her phone last week that made me snap. It was a “Panel of Experts” sitting on comfy couches, talking Raps. The Panel: former stretch-big Rashard Lewis. surefire-Hall-of-Famer Kevin Garnett, career-under-achiever Al Harrington, and owner of the best neck tattoo of a set of hot lips, Kenyon Martin. In other words, three Schnooks and a legend.
The topic of conversation: Who is the GROAT? (Greatest Raptor Of All Time).
When asked if DeMar DeRozan deserved the title, they all deferred to the “Vinsanity Defence.” Now, I can understand such a point of view, after all Vince Carter is perhaps the greatest showman in the history of the sport. But the next comment sent me into a full-out Three Stooges stupor.
“I put DeMar at … third. Obviously behind Chris Bosh”- Kevin Garnett
Snap… Crackle… Pop….
I untwisted the plumbing wrench from my nose and asked myself, “How could KG— such a genius on the court— possibly hold such a nefarious notion? It made me realize just how little any of these turkeys are watching our Raptors.
But KG wasn’t done wowing me with his wisdom.
“The Raptors’ depth is not where it needs to be.”
This comment came during a game when a Lowry-less, Ibaka-less Raptors were pummelling the Cavs— this at a time when the Raptors are by far the deepest they’ve ever been. Dwane Casey is regularly utilizing nearly every man down the bench!
Jakob “The Big Schnitzel” Poeltl has hands like Cal Ripken Jr. Delon Wright is so long he makes lay ups from the free throw line. VanVleet’s confidence is so pure, Prop Joe and Stringer Bell would call a truce to sell it.
Surely the rest of the couch-crew didn’t hold the same misguided opinion as Garnett. Yet the panel was unanimous.
“The Raptors have to take the next step for us to take them seriously.” — Shaquille O’Neal (among others)
One of the most tired and uninspired comments that I’m sick of hearing about is the fact that the Raptors have to prove themselves in the playoffs before they can be considered in the same league as a Cleveland or a … BOSTON!?
Obviously, I cannot refute the claim that we aren’t at Cleveland‘s level. I get it. They’ve won the title. They make the Finals every year. They are terrifying.
But BOSTON?? How did they sneak in there?? What has this Celtics team done that we haven’t?? This isn’t the Bill Russell Celtics of the 60s. This isn’t the Larry Bird Celtics of the 80s. This isn’t even the “Big 3” Celtics of a decade ago (whom I partially blame for this Super-Team trend that has buggered the NBA’s competitive balance).
This Celtics team has gone to the Conference Finals…just like the Raptors did two seasons ago. Only unlike the Raptors, these Celtics never even saw a game six. I’m just looking for a little consistency. Help me out here.
Here’s another one that Shaq, Kenny Smith, and nearly every other analyst south of the border like to hide our team’s proficiency behind:
“The regular season doesn’t matter. The Raptors choke in the playoffs.”
What’s most frustrating about this classic claim is not that there is some truth behind it. There is no doubt that we have had some serious stretches of under-performance during the past few post-seasons. Lowry’s gone cold in big games. DeMar has, too. A Washington sweep comes to mind.
Yet what is most annoying about this criticism is the that the same argument is mirrored by panellists and used to shield Cleveland from any condemnation over the course of their 82 game season:
“The regular season doesn’t matter. The Cavs thrive in the playoffs.”
Well I’ll be damned. It’s like you can’t win until you win it all, I guess.
Charles Barkley came right out and said it on last Thursday night’s broadcast:
“Nobody takes the Raptors serious.”
Well I must say that that is not true. The Raptors take themselves seriously; and that’s a good thing. Because there was a time when that was not the case.
True Story:
When I was 17, I was working part-time as a valet at an obnoxious restaurant in Yorkville. When it was time to go for my break, I would cross the street and head down Cumberland. One day, I entered a local convenience store only to find myself standing face to chest with none other than… Lamond Murray. THE Lamond Murray!!
I’m not making this up. He was right there in broad daylight. He just stood there, liquorice in hand, waiting for this star-struck-parking attendant to say something.
“Lamond Murray!!!” I gushed.
“Yup.”
He must be shy, I thought. “How’s it going, man!?”
“Ok.”
The strong and quiet type. That is SO Lamond!
Now, you have to remember that there was a lot of pressure on Murray at the time. Glen Grunwald brought him in to replace Yogi Stewart, the $24 million-dollar-1.4 points per game-powerhouse. Grunwald had good reason to believe in Lamond. After all, he was Tracy Murray’s cousin. To be fair, aside from probably Vince Carter, Lamond Murray would go on to become the greatest Raptor of all time to have had a cousin named Tracy also play here.
“Welcome to Toronto!” I squawked. “What do you think of the city so far??”
“Not much.”
Taken aback, I wondered if I had heard him right.
“No?”
“Nope.”
“Where would you rather be playing?” I asked, heart-broken. Looking back now, it’s funny because he was coming from a pretty crappy team: the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Home.”
Aww. He was a homebody! Phew, for a second I was worried that he didn’t like it here.
“Where’s home?” I asked, curious.
And quite matter-of-factly, he replied: “The United States. You know, where we play REAL basketball.”
You see, sometimes you meet one of your heroes and they are everything you want them to be. Like when I saw Rick Moranis in a clothing store and he joked with me till I cried tears of laughter. And sometimes, you meet Lamond Murray.
End of story.
My point is that while a deep-seeded sense of the Raptors’ futility as a franchise may still linger south of the 49th parallel, it no longer exists within the Raptors organization itself.
Our own players and staff will proudly relay to anyone who asks that they believe Toronto has something special.
And we, the fans, believe it too. No matter how often those talking heads try to convince us otherwise. At least I think we do. We do. Don’t we?
Now our players sound like this:
“I’m not complaining. It’s okay. I mean, I don’t get why we win 50 games a year, two seasons in a row, go to the Conference Finals… and people still count us out, call us the underdogs, leave us out of the conversation. But I’m okay with it. It means we get to do our own thing, bring our new guys into our fold and teach them about what it means to be a Raptor.” — DeMar DeRozan
As a team and a franchise, and as a basketball city, it’s amazing to see how much we have evolved. But the recent American coverage of our red-hot Raps was a frustrating reminder that in spite of how far we’ve come it seems that in the eyes of the rest of the league, we’ve still got just as far to go.
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