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Championship season not just about Toronto

This would be a great time for someone in Canada to run a basketball program. The Toronto Raptors, being a sports team from Canada that did well, suddenly got a ton of fans over the past few months.
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This would be a great time for someone in Canada to run a basketball program.

The Toronto Raptors, being a sports team from Canada that did well, suddenly got a ton of fans over the past few months. Great for them, and the excitement did mean that a lot of people who were not regularly watching the sport had suddenly become big basketball fans. There was more Raptor memorabilia out on Yorkton streets in 2019 than there was ever before.

This is great for that team, because they’ve got more people watching and they’ve got more people willing to come to games. For a lot of people in the upcoming season, a Raptors game is going to be a thing to do in Toronto, to a level that it hasn’t been before.

The real effect is that people suddenly care a lot more about basketball.

This will, naturally, fade, as people realize that outside of the thrill of a championship they don’t actually care that much about basketball. But, they were still watching basketball in their house, with their family, cheering on the team or shouting at Drake for making a big scene on the sidelines. And that’s the important bit, more televisions were tuned to basketball than ever before, and more eyes were on the sport. Young eyes, and ones who suddenly discovered that this basketball made a lot more sense to them than the hockey and football that have been staples of Saskatchewan sports.

A championship season is the kind of thing that makes a future team. There are going to be a ton of new kids trying the sport out, inspired by the Raptors. It’s going to be great for basketball coaches across the country.

It’ll continue to be great for several years, as kids discover their true feelings toward the sport. More people trying it out means more people will like it, and it’s going to have a lot more interest than it had ever had before.

Will that interest fade? Maybe, that depends on how excited people are about basketball at a higher level, and whether those same kids can see themselves continuing to play. If basketball continues to draw eyes thanks to the Raptors, it’s possible the NBA could see interest in markets they haven’t explored - Calgary, perhaps – and markets they failed in before – Vancouver, obviously. The Raptors could make Canadian basketball a real force, though it could mean they’re no longer Canada’s team in the end. But that’s fine, because they won’t have to be.

What every sport needs is something that gets people excited about it, and makes them want to try it out. On a local level, that could mean inspiring coaches and friends who like to play. On a national level, it means a team that does well. The Raptors have made people care about basketball in Canada, and that’s good for the sport.

Plenty of people still don’t care about basketball, of course, but there are people who don’t care about every sport. They don’t matter here, it’s all about the people who do care, and about the people who just started to care. They might have their interest sparked by this season, and it’s going to change the sport for the better in Canada.