Metro Vancouver embraces Raptors ahead of NBA Playoffs
Posted May 30, 2019 9:29 am.
Last Updated May 30, 2019 9:32 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Is Vancouver a basketball town? It could be if you look at the buzz ahead of Thursday’s Game One of the 2019 NBA Playoffs between the Toronto Raptors and the Golden State Warriors.
James Cybulski with Sportsnet 650 says you don’t need to look hard to find a little excitement.
“When you look at the Raptors over the last half-decade, for the last five years, they’ve come here and held training camp in Vancouver. For those five years that they’ve been here for training camp, they sold out Rogers Arena, so there’s clearly a basketball market here.”
Businesses think so too. There are viewing parties at bars and movie theatres all over Metro Vancouver, as well as at “The Sportsbar” at Rogers Arena.
Cybulski says he’s not surprised that pro basketball is getting a lot of attention, even here in Vancouver where the Grizzlies left down more than a decade ago.
“You know who likes winning? Everybody! People love a winner, and this is why it’s an opportunity in this mudville of a sportstown right now with the Canucks in a rebuild, the Whitecaps dealing with all their off-field issues, the Lions trying to find relevancy again. People are trying to find a winner; the Raptors are in the Finals, they have the chance to do just that.”
There’s no doubt that a championship win for the Raptors would be history-making.
“Titles define markets, and it’s taken a quarter of a century since the NBA came to Canada with both Vancouver and Toronto. Now, one wound up sustaining, one didn’t — sorry, Grizzly fans — but it means something. We saw this 25 years ago with the Blue Jays in Major League Baseball.”
Catch previews of the game at :15 and :45 past the hour on NEWS 1130.
