Raptorsmania has hockey-town Winnipeg in its grips

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This article was published 16/06/2019 (1775 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LIKE most major Canadian cities, Winnipeg will likely always be a hockey town.

But for the past couple weeks, sports fans from across the country, including Winnipeg, were all-in on the game of basketball and the Toronto Raptors.

Of course, there are many fans in Winnipeg who followed the team since Day 1 and survived years of watching players such as Zan Tabak, Rafael Araujo, Pops Mensah-Bonsu and Bruno Caboclo suit up for the Raptors. To say there’s been some lean years for fans would be an understatement.

Just ask local comedian and die-hard Raptors fan Julian Rowan (who’s a must-follow on Twitter, by the way, @jules_rowan) about the pain of cheering for Canada’s lone NBA team over the years.

“I just remember watching the games and always feeling like it really didn’t matter because we just weren’t in playoff contention,” said the 25-year-old Rowan, who’s been hooked on the Raptors since Chris Bosh was the star of the team in the mid-2000s.

“There was so many rebuild years where you thought maybe the next year we’d have a respectable team. But then, what was probably the worst was seeing how good we got the past couple years and always meeting up with LeBron (James) at the end and have him completely destroy all hopes. It didn’t matter if we were the first team in the East, we still got swept. I think that’s what made me so pessimistic about this year because I was so emotionally drained. I just couldn’t see us getting us over that hump. But then, obviously, LeBron leaving to the West and us getting Kawhi, it kind of gave a glimmer of hope. Besides that, the Andrea Bargnani Primo Pasta commercials were probably the most painful moments of being a Raptors fan.”

But last Thursday, in Game 6 of the NBA finals, the Raptors finally got over that hump with a 114-110 victory over the Golden State Warriors to claim the NBA title for the first time in the team’s 24-year history.

But it wasn’t just fans such as Rowan — who watched Game 6 with 2,500 others at Bell MTS Place for Winnipeg’s version of Jurassic Park — who celebrated the win. There were also people such as my 82-year-old grandmother, who had never seen a full NBA game in her life prior to this year’s finals, who became enthralled by Fred VanVleet’s clutch-shooting, Kyle Lowry sacrificing his body all over the floor, and Kawhi Leonard’s dominating performances. People from all walks of life got behind the Raptors and their incredible championship run, which was officially celebrated Monday in Toronto with a parade that had more than two million people in attendance.

“I haven’t even been able to enjoy, really, the finals as much as I wish I could because as a die-hard Raptor fan, the No. 1 thing that kind of goes along with it is heartbreak,” said Rowan, who booked a last-minute trip to Toronto for Game 2 of the finals and spent $1,200 on a ticket in the upper bowl. “So, everyone was texting me when we were up 3-1, being like ‘This is amazing. We’re going to be champions.’ But I just couldn’t celebrate until it was all over. But when there was nine seconds left, I truly thought (Warriors star guard) Steph Curry was going to come down and drain a three. The feeling of having it almost taken away from you and still getting it was one of the best feelings ever.”

Yes, the water-cooler talk will likely return to hockey with the news of the Winnipeg Jets trading Jacob Trouba to the New York Rangers. But for a period of time, everyone was talking about basketball. And boy, was it ever refreshing, especially for those who grew up idolizing Raptors players such as Damon Stoudamire, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and Bosh.

“Obviously, we drank the Kool-Aid years and generations ago,” Basketball Manitoba executive director Adam Wedlake said. “But yeah, it’s nice to see a new wave of new fans, and hopefully, it’s more than just the short-term little buzz. Of course, there will be some short-term fans, but we’re hoping some, if not many, will turn into not just fans, but participants, too.”

The buzz has definitely been felt in the city, as stores such as River City Sports are clamouring to get more Raptors gear on their shelves. An employee at the St. James location told the Free Press they typically don’t sell NBA merchandise, but they’ve placed an order for Raptors championship apparel as they’ve been getting roughly 20 phone calls per day from people on the hunt for anything with a Raptors logo on it. But more important than what the Raptors have done to local shoppers is what their championship has meant to Winnipeg’s basketball scene in such a short amount of time.

“We’re definitely seeing a nice spike in camp numbers across the board for all ages. And then, just the general inquiries that we would normally see in September when people’s mindsets are shifting back into fall and winter mode, we’re getting those now,” Wedlake said.

“The sort of question that is essentially the same one every time is ‘I have a 10-year-old who now loves basketball. What can you do for us and what options does he or she have?’ And it ranges typically to that younger kid, who probably doesn’t have a whole basketball experience, maybe in gym class a little bit. But now they’re hooked with what they’re seeing on the TV with their (Raptors’) success. We definitely don’t get those this time of year. Most people are shifting into summer mode and not thinking basketball at all. That’s definitely a shift and that’s definitely from (the Raptors).”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31