The Raptors are Dead. Long Live the Raptors!

Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer): It [basketball] is the archetypal male bonding ritual.
Niles Crane (David Hyde-Pierce): Couldn't we just go into the woods, kill something, and have done with it?

Such was my attitude towards basketball, until this past season.

When it comes to sports, I am an inveterate homer. So when the Raptors came to town twelve years ago, naturally, I became a fan. Not much of a fan, mind you--not fan enough to watch an entire game. Enough to keep tabs on them in the newspapers, and catch the odd fast break when there was absolutely nothing else on television.
Part of the problem, of course, is that the NBA and NHL seasons overlap. Given a choice between watching a Maple Leaf game and watching, well, just about anything else that could possibly be on TV...no contest. In fact, on those few occasions I find myself away from a television whenever a Leaf game's on, I am possessed of a curious itching sensation that only goes away once I track down a radio and get the score. Then you'll have to drag me away from the radio...

But that's only part of the problem. The other part was that I just couldn't get into the game.

My dad's a big enough hockey fan (when you're born and raised in Parry Sound, the home of Bobby Orr, it kind of comes with the territory) that a knowledge and love of that game just kind of seeped into me through my diapers. Baseball I picked up on my own, and it appeals to my leisurely side--what's not to like about a game with no time limit, where vast stretches of it are played standing still?
My first real exposure to basketball came in that Raptors inaugural season. I'd played it in gym class, of course--actually, it was one of a very few sports I had any proficiency in whatsoever. I still remember one gym teacher criticizing my extremely unorthodox shot...until I made ten straight free throws. "I don't know what you think you're doing," he said, "but keep doing it."
But that was long ago, and in any event, watching a sport and playing it are vastly different. And watching these Raptors and their opponents scrabbling up and down the court put me in mind of spiders. I like hockey's frantic pace--but hockey players don't score practically every time they go down the ice; if they did, it would be boring as hell. (ARE YOU LISTENING, GARY BETTMAN?)
I quickly learned that basketball games came in two flavours: blowouts, which are only fun to watch if your team's winning them, and nail-biters, which always come down to the last minute of the game. That last minute seems to take about an hour to play, and the way I used to think, it renders the rest of the game meaningless.

But still, if I followed any basketball team at all, to any extent at all, it was the Raptors. Used to the annual soap opera that is the Toronto Maple Leafs, I felt right at home throughout the tumultuous history of their hoop-shooting cousins; the Raptors were more entertaining off the court than they were on it. Player-coach blowups, player-player feuds, insane trades and signings--yup, these guys have Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Limited's fingerprints all over 'em.
Until MLSEL wised up and hired Bryan Colangelo out of Phoenix.
Now, I'll be the first to admit I couldn't have told Bryan Colangelo apart from a bowl of lemon Jell-O. But he came very highly recommended, having won the NBA's Executive of the Year Award. And, in what may have been only the second smart thing MLSEL's done in twenty years (after hiring Colangelo in the first place), they left him alone to run the team the way he saw fit.
With their new GM installed, a flurry of trades and signings followed in short order, completely overhauling the team. A bevy of Europeans was brought in: Calderon, Bargnani, Parker, Garbajosa, Nesterovic...A team with no depth at all was suddenly transformed into a very deep team indeed.
After the typical Raptor start to the season (2-8), things gradually improved...and kept right on improving, past the .500 mark into the strange new land of division titles and homecourt advantage. With the Raptors suddenly contending, I figured I owed them a real look. I'd try to get over my dislike of the game they played and cheer them on. (Shallow of me, I know...but everyone loves a winner.) The fact they were playing Vince Carter in the first round was just icing on the cake.

Vince Carter. He's the Martin Straka of the hardcourt. Scads of talent, the ability to effortlessly outclass everyone he's matched against...when he feels like it. And he usually doesn't. His Wikipedia entry, at this writing, contains the following text:

"Carter made it clear in the 2004 offseason that he wanted to be traded from the Raptors since he was a little baby that quit on his team like a sore loser."

God, I love Wikipedia. I know it's prone to fraud every once in a while, but man, that's priceless. And true...backed up with this, a little further on:

In early January, 2005, he admitted in a television interview with TNT's John Thompson to not giving effort in his last months as a Raptor; when asked if he always played hard, Carter replied, "In years past, no. I was fortunate to have the talent. You get spoiled when you’re able to do a lot of things. You see that you don’t have to work at it.”[

Ugh. My respect for the man, once sky-high, went underground. Maybe Michael Jordan didn't have to work at it, either...but he did.

I actually watched a couple of Raptor games this post-season, start to finish, and have altered my opinions on basketball. Played by a team that distributes as well as the Raptors can, basketball is something like hyperkinetic ballet. So what if nearly every possession results in a field goal? That just makes defense that much more important. The winning bucket might have actually taken place three quarters ago, whatever happens in that final minute. The atmosphere, which I had once found to be far too cluttered--imagine! Music played during the game!--suddenly became electric.
I had little hope for them, honestly. It's axiomatic, no matter the sport, that a new roster's first appearance in the playoffs rarely goes well. Sure enough, they played maybe one good half in their first four games and found themselves down 3-1.
Game five, though! The Raptors stormed out and utterly demolished New Jersey in the first half, scoring at will. The Nets picked and clawed their way back, aided in no small part by injuries to T.J. Ford and Jose Calderon, and nearly won the game. But Toronto held tough.

"You know", I said to colleagues at work today, "if they lose by less than twenty I'm going to be absolutely amazed. And proud of them." I'd figured neither Ford nor Calderon would play, eliminating the luxury of depth at a key position.

Both did. Both had great games, considering the injuries they were playing with. I have to say, they could have been hockey players. And the Raptors lost--and were eliminated--by one whole point.

I know the goal is a championship. (Unless you're the Leafs, then it's making the playoffs and "anything can happen..." The Raptors failed in this attempt at the goal. But mark my words, you won't hold this team down much longer. Congratulations on a fine, fine season. And thanks for making me appreciate basketball.