CALGARY — You can still spot a few “We The North” shirts dotted among the Flames and Stampeders paraphernalia floating around downtown Calgary. A few clawed basketballs adorning hats where flaming C’s might usually sit, bobbing casually through the crowd.
A couple weeks ago, you would’ve been hard-pressed to catch a glimpse of anything but such Toronto Raptors tributes, with thousands milling about the downtown area en route to the city’s East Village, the site of Jurassic Park Calgary.
Save for Kawhi Leonard’s four-bounce masterpiece, or the on-court outpouring of joy that followed the final buzzer in Oakland, there may be no image from Toronto’s championship run more iconic than Jurassic Park, of the thousands-deep throng who stuck it out through lengthy lines and tumultuous weather to celebrate their team as a unified pack.
It was the group parked outside Scotiabank Arena that led the charge. A lengthy list of fellow Ontario cities soon followed suit. But all across the country, stretching coast to coast in either direction, a bigger movement took hold during the Raptors’s historic run. While the team pushed on, Jurassic Parks continued to spring up even in the most unlikely of places, joining the wave, transforming some of the most hockey-crazed towns into basketball havens.
In Calgary, it was a matter of giving the city a chance to be part of something bigger.
“We felt passionate about it,” says Jen Andrews, who runs a local group called YYC Food Trucks, and organized the city’s Jurassic Park iteration. “We felt like it was something we needed to do, both for Calgary as well as to be a part of the collective for the country. We didn’t want to miss out on that.”
However, putting a plan into action and taking the first steps towards launching such an event were no small feats.
“We privately funded it — my husband and I wrote the cheque and said, ‘We want this to happen,’” says Andrews, adding that support from Calgary-based Genesis Basketball’s Eddie Richardson and others in the community were key to getting things off the ground quickly. “It’s just nice to see people pitch in and say, ‘Yeah we’re going to make this party happen’ — there’s nothing in it for any of us other than just good will, and that’s enough.”
When all was said and done, thousands were flocking to the viewing party, Raptors gear in tow.
Up the road in Edmonton, it was a similar story, with a local Canadian Elite Basketball League club — the Edmonton Stingers — also scrambling to arrange a viewing party for Albertan basketball fans. Once it came together, the response dropped jaws.
“There were 3,000 people in our venue who were passionate, passionate fans. I couldn’t believe it — I didn’t even know that existed in our city,” says Andreas Morse, the Stingers’ director of business operations. “It’s a struggle in Alberta to sell [basketball] — I’ve been in professional soccer as well here in Edmonton, and it was a tough sell in that sport as well. If you’re not the Eskimos, if you’re not the Oilers, you’ve got to fight for everything you can get.
“And that event just galvanized everybody, and said, ‘We can do this. We can make this happen here in Edmonton.’ It’s clearly a basketball city — we just have to break through. And that event really, really helped us break through.”
A few hours drive east of Edmonton, a fellow CEBL club, the Saskatoon Rattlers, served as the catalyst for Western Canada’s inclusion in the Raptors’ run.
“I think we were the furthest western city to get a viewing party done for Game 2, so effectively we were the first in the west, which was super cool,” says Brad Kraft, the Rattlers’ director of business operations, and organizer of ‘JurasSask Park.’ “It was pretty humbling to see how many people came out on such short notice, even for Game 2, just because they wanted to see the game in this unique atmosphere. … People stuck with it and people loved it. I think it really showed exactly what Saskatoon is, in that it’s a big small town. Everybody just wants to be a part of the community.”
For cities in the west, long the staples of Canada’s hockey culture, celebrating Leonard and Co., was a novel experience, a transformative one. On the other coast, further east of Scotiabank Arena’s Raptors hub, Jurassic Park Halifax had a different goal in mind altogether. But the process of enacting it was no less gruelling.
“We were exhausted, working 12-hour days the entire way through the Finals,” says Gab LeVert, co-founder of Halifax-based agency Tidal League, which organized the eastern-most Jurassic Park event. “Games 1 through 3 we had a great turnout, and then Games 4 through 6 were just beyond anyone’s imagination.”
And rightfully so, says LeVert, given Halifax’s long-established connection with the sport.
“It was incredible. I mean, we are a basketball city through and through, and we’ve proven it over the years,” he says. “To see people coming together for an event like this, that’s why we did it — we did it because the city deserved to feel like they were a part of it. We’ve heard it a million times: This is Canada’s team. And we wanted to show that, especially on the East Coast, this is the hub for basketball.
“It’s not every day that we get to showcase that on a national, and even international, level.”
But it’s about more than just Halifax, or Edmonton, or Saskatoon. That Jurassic Park began as a seed that took root in Ontario and stretched all the way to the far reaches of the country illustrates the weight of what it really means to have an NBA club represent an entire nation, about what it actually looks like to be ‘Canada’s team.’
“I think this is a statement that we haven’t had the chance, as a country, to make. That this is what we do,” says LeVert. “We’re not just the friendly neighbours who are grateful to have a team — no, no, we have a real fan base. And it’s not only in Toronto. Sure, we had 2-3 million people at the parade in Toronto, but I’m sure there were people that came from all over the country. And we’re just happy that we got to prove to the world, beyond Halifax, that Canada is a basketball country.”
There should be no doubt at this point, given the efforts of LeVert and all others around the country who proved their respective cities could be basketball strongholds. But speaking with those who brought all these communities together, one thing rang true — Jurassic Park’s greatest gift wasn’t what it told the world about Canada. It was what it showed us about ourselves.
“It was just really fun to see the diverse group that was there, from all walks of life, all cultures, all ages, all different backgrounds,” says Calgary’s Andrews. “It was just fun for me to see everyone have this common and collective happiness together.”
“I took two minutes and stood back and looked throughout the crowd,” recalls Edmonton’s Morse. “A lot of families can’t afford season tickets to a sporting event — they’re putting their money toward things they need like shelter and food and clothing, so going to a basketball game is not on their radar at all. But we noticed that’s who was in the crowd — families from around our area, who could walk here, who could take the train, and they loved it. It was a release for them. It was a way that they could feel part of something.”
We’ll look back on this moment for decades. And it won’t be because the Raptors finally got to pose for photos with the Larry O’Brien Trophy, or raise their first championship banner to the rafters. It’ll be because of the process by which that happened — a collective one, and an undeniable one, whose impact will be seen in Canadian ballers for years.
It’s already happening, in fact, with cities like Edmonton already seeing improved engagement with basketball.
“We had a home game the very next day, after Game 6, after they won, and we saw an uptick in tickets just over that 24 hours,” Morse says of increased support for the Stingers. “We had people coming up to our box office right after the viewing party, buying tickets for our game the next day. And then we started getting calls from Alberta Basketball … [they’ve] already seen a spike in registration. So it meant huge, huge things for basketball in this province.
“This was the turning point, in my opinion. It was an absolute turning point. Now it’s up to us to capture it, and work with the people who did get bitten by the bug.”
And the impact on Canada’s teams won’t just be felt locally, but at the higher levels too, on the ever-growing national program that cities like these continually feed. Dan Vanhooren, coach of the University of Calgary’s men’s basketball team and Canada Basketball’s U19 men’s team, can appreciate both.
“Basketball Canada has done a pretty good job of making sure those kids have the resources around them to continue to develop, but I think the influence or impact of something like this can create even that much more in the way of resource development towards a sport and towards Canada Basketball and our ability to develop our talent,” says Vanhooren. “So it’s a very, very exciting time. And it certainly creates a bit of pressure for us, but I’m looking forward to that.”
"Let's Go #Raptors" this crowd in Saskatoon's JurasSASK Park is pumped up in the 4th quarter! #WeTheNorth #yxe pic.twitter.com/JZgEYLrkH8
— Chris Vandenbreekel (@Vandecision) June 11, 2019
No impact on Canada’s relationship with the game will be more significant than the one on the kids who get caught up in the wave and are eventually compelled to pick up a basketball. Who hope, in that pure manner only youth brings, to do it like Leonard, Kyle Lowry or Pascal Siakam did.
“I think it’s even more important that they’re following a team and a group of guys that did it the right way, that have sort of that workman quality,” says Vanhooren. “They’re humble. You look at a guy like Kawhi, and he’s very understated. All things that you’d love our children to be able to do and to emulate. And to have a role model like that around our Canadian basketball players I think is terrific for everybody.”
Much like the local ticket sales that spiked in the 24 hours post-Game 6, the effects of Leonard and his Raptors’ banner campaign are already taking hold. In cities like Saskatoon, the shift has already begun.
“The summer camps, they’ve already seen boosts. I would expect registration numbers jump. It would be silly if they didn’t, right? We’ve got this wild wave of fans across Canada now,” says Kraft of his city’s basketball love. “I know they will — I sit on a hockey association board and a number of people sitting at the table the other night were like, ‘Yeah, my kid’s not playing hockey this year. They’re going back to basketball.’ That’s crazy, right? In a hockey-driven community, to have people quitting hockey to play basketball, it’s wild.
“I drop off my kids to school every morning and you see dozens, dozens of people walking with basketballs, dribbling down the street, where in the winter it’s hockey or lacrosse sticks. Even in the spring it’s lacrosse sticks a lot of the time. But now it’s all basketballs.”
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