TORONTO – The NBA, in all its global glory, has descended on Toronto like never before.
This much is certain following the absolute circus that is Media Day at the NBA Finals. From run-ins with Hall of Famers, to a horde of media of all sorts from across the planet, a transformed Scotiabank Arena, and the Toronto Raptors in the centre of it all, here are takeaways from the first ever Finals Media Day in Toronto.
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The Scene
Oh, it was a scene alright. Outside of Scotiabank Arena preparations are underway for the broadcast of Thursday’s Game 1. Staffers fasten NBA Finals decals on pop-up television sets in Maple Leaf Square, which for Wednesday’s events have been transformed into a mini-city of trucks and trailers. The decals are connected to what must be many kilometres worth of cables running across Jurassic Park and snaking throughout the arena to distribute the feed around the world.
Inside Scotiabank Arena, a mix of international media, former NBAers, throngs of producers and other crew members fill the concourse and the Raptors’ home court, which is converted into a media marketplace featuring four makeshift podiums along the two baselines. Hundreds of people mill around the court in between.
Walk through the halls and you’ll see all sorts of familiar faces. You’ll brush by last year’s No. 1 overall pick, DeAndre Ayton, who takes part in some interviews, and catch Grant Hill broadcasting live for NBA TV. There’s a small contingent of retired former Raptors — Chris Bosh is here, as is Tracy McGrady (more on him later) — while Guillermo from Jimmy Kimmel Live draws a surprising amount of onlookers and photo requests from his fellow media members.
When the podium interviews begin on the court, the Raptors draw mammoth crowds. Serge Ibaka is particularly popular, while OG Anunoby is also greeted by a mob of cameras, mics and notebooks. He’s not even playing, if you want an idea of the pack mentality that seems to have overtaken parts of the crowd. After his scrum, Anunoby walks to an empty chair behind the baseline and grabs a seat alone to catch a breath and take in the scene.
In the bowels of the arena is a large press conference area where the stars of the series take turns fielding questions — Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Steve Kerr are among those who take part.
One thing that’s impossible to ignore is the internationality of Media Day at the Finals. It’s a common observation from any Finals given how global the league’s reach truly is, but certainly feels apropos given this is the very first NBA championship series to be played outside of the United States. As you walk through the proceedings you hear a number of languages fill the air, including French, Spanish, Mandarin, Italian and many more.
As he often does, Siakam fields some questions en français, and it’s clear that in this environment the Raptors’ roster, which features several multi-lingual players, is a real asset given the amount of non-English speaking media on hand.
Seen and Heard
Masai Ujiri holds court near the Raptors locker room, greeted and congratulated by all walks of people present. At one point as I pass by him en route to the court, he’s on his phone, and can be heard saying, “All good. We’ve got Kawhi, so it’s all good.”
At the beginning of Media Day, I found myself outside the arena at one of the locked entrances. I tug the locked door, and begin to head over to the actual designated entrance a few gates down when Tracy McGrady appears. As I begin to explain the door is locked, he tugs on the locked door as well and knocks, peering inside. Perfect, I’ll just head in the side door with T-Mac, I think. Nobody comes to open the door for him — somebody inside does see him and motions for him to go around to the designated entrance and we walk away dejected. If you thought McGrady would help open some doors around here, you, evidently, would be wrong.
While waiting in the very long line to pick up media credentials, Brian Scalabrine, a longtime Boston Celtics player currently covering the Finals games in Toronto for Sirius XM radio, chats up a media member who made the trip all the way from China. The conversation quickly turns to the potency of shaojiu.
There was a refrigerator with bottles of water and cans of soda near the press conference area that had a very stubborn door that required a few tugs from this reporter in order to open. When Klay Thompson wanted to grab himself some water from said fridge, he too struggled to open the door, clearly frustrated. Stars — they’re just like us.
What they said
You’ll see, hear, and read plenty on what the players and coaches had to say at Media Day on sportsnet.ca today and tomorrow, but here are a few notable quotes.
As you can imagine, Kawhi fielded many questions regarding his evolving thoughts on Toronto as a basketball city. Before he joined the Raptors, Leonard says he knew “their crowd comes out [but] now I’m here for 41 games during the regular season, you get to live in the city and see guys or girls wearing hats and jerseys, and [see] how much support is really around the city. Now in the playoffs you get to see everybody outside the arena and see how excited they are for the game and how the support is there, too. It’s been an exciting year.”
Regarding Leonard, Warriors star Draymond Green — who Nick Nurse drew comparisons to when asked about Kawhi’s impact on defence, and whom Steve Kerr said has never been better than right now — explained why the Raptors’ superstar dominates games in his own unique way.
“I think the challenge with Kawhi is that it doesn’t look the same. When Steph [Curry] dominates a game, when Kevin [Durant] dominates a game, when Damian Lillard dominates a game, when LeBron James dominates a game, it just doesn’t look the same as when Kawhi is dominating a game. And so it can fool you into saying…’We don’t have to put too much focus onto him,’ because [his style] is not as pretty. But boy is it effective.”
Steve Kerr gave an update on the status of two Warriors’ all-stars, saying that Durant has yet to practice with the team and won’t take part in the series until he does. But it sounds as though DeMarcus Cousins could make an appearance as early as Game 1. Kerr mentions that the centre has scrimmaged with teammates “a couple of times” this week, adding that “if this were the regular season I’d throw him out there.”
The Golden State Warriors head coach called this series “very different” than the last four his team have taken part in now that the streak of facing LeBron and the Cavaliers has broken. Kerr then praised Toronto’s home crowd while acknowledging the significance of the Raptors’ Finals debut, saying that his team “can feel how important this is for a whole country.”
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