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We’ve seen it before: Toronto trailing and in need of a spark. The players look around and they know all that’s needed is a couple plays, that’ll be enough to get their crowd going. And then it happens, a monster block, a couple big threes, maybe even a thunderous dunk that sends the Canadians with a reputation for being friendly into a frenzy and turn Scotiabank Arena into the most intimidating place to play in the NBA.

Now, the fans will finally be able to feel that magical feeling again. Oct. 20 marks 599 days between regular season games for the Raptors at Scotiabank Arena, a duration no other NBA team can relate to. For 72 games last season, Toronto played on the road and it showed. COVID-19 and injuries significantly hampered the team but the lack of fan support was also sorely missed for a franchise that has built a special home court advantage.

Let’s go Raptors! Clap, clap... clap, clap, clap. Let’s go Raptors!

Over the past 20 months, Gordon Sealey has desperately missed chanting those words and can’t wait to do so on Wednesday. When it comes to watching the Raptors in-person, Sealey has a strict no-phone policy to make sure he’s fully immersed in everything going on at the arena, he’s going to dance his butt off at every opportunity, and will stick around for the kids who usually get to play on court at halftime in the hopes he might be watching the next Steph Curry.

Having grown up a Detroit Pistons fan watching Isiah Thomas’ Bad Boys, allegiances switched quickly after Sealey emigrated to Canada from Guyana in 2005 and became enamoured with Chris Bosh in a Raptor uniform.

“It’s going to be emotional, it’s going to be loud, and it’s going to be like the first game the Raptors have ever played in Toronto,” Sealey said. “I think it’s gonna have that type of atmosphere because we Raptors fans are hungry, we’re starved, and we just can not wait to get back in that arena.”

The Raptors called the SkyDome -- now the Rogers Centre -- home for its first couple seasons but also played some exhibition games as well as Boxing Day games at Copps Coliseum, which is now FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. Born and raised in Burlington which is just a short drive away from Hamilton, Jef Moore can remember being taken by his mother to watch the Raptors there as a child and being thrilled to receive a Raptor foamhead but equally disappointed about not receiving thunder sticks because he wasn’t sitting in the sight line of free-throw shooters. Like many back then, he didn’t actually understand what the thunder sticks were for.

Moore was a rarity to find in his parts during the 90s, a caucasian male with Irish roots who didn’t quite take to hockey and wanted to spend all his time consuming basketball. The friends he made playing basketball as an adolescent have become best friends to this day. In fact, it was one of those best friends who helped secure tickets to the Raptors’ home opener against the Washington Wizards.

“For anyone who feels like they’ve been an outsider before, that is kind of their church,” Moore said of the in-game experience. “Outside the arena, 20,000 people could have 20,000 disagreements about 20,000 things… but inside the arena, we’re undisputedly the same. We are on the same side, cheering for one thing, and that’s a win.”

As the Raptors fan base has continued to evolve over time, they have earned a reputation for being good travellers. Games in Detroit have become notorious for being filled with Raptors fans, and one of the most memorable fan moments of the championship run was seeing them shut down Oracle Arena after clinching the title, screaming ‘Let’s Go Raptors!’ and singing the national anthem.

Toronto last played a home game on Feb. 28, 2020, a loss to the Charlotte Hornets. For Sabrina Madhani, a Toronto native with Tanzanian roots, that isn’t her last live experience watching the team. While attending home openers had become tradition for over a decade, Madhani had never watched a game on the road. Planning a trip long before the world was turned upside down, Madhani and her husband were deciding when to travel to Arizona and found an easy answer because of their fandom.

“We timed it so that the Raptors were there at the same time,” Madhani said. “We decided we’ll catch the Raptors game, we’ll get a little vacation in Scottsdale, we’ll see our friends… not knowing that that was the last time we would both be on vacation or watching the Raptors for a very long time. There were so many Raptors fans, it was incredible.”

Toronto defeated Phoenix 123-114 on March 3, 2020 and played three more games before the league shut down due to COVID-19.

Sonia Cheung spends whatever spare time she currently has on maternity leave reading about her favourite team. She recently read We The North: 25 Years of the Toronto Raptors by Doug Smith and is halfway through head coach Nick Nurse’s Rapture. Of Chinese descent, Cheung was born and raised in Toronto but didn’t become fully captivated by the team until the 2014-15 season when the passion of her co-workers got her fully invested.

She’s flipped the script since, becoming the one to organize jersey days at work and find other creative ways of celebrating the Raptors. Now a mother of two, Cheung has got her 10-year-old son all the way in on the team from knowing all the players on the roster to meeting the Raptor and expects nothing less with the newborn.

The past year-and-a-half has been traumatizing in the words of Cheung, who is a healthcare worker and was pregnant through the pandemic. Add the disconnect felt from having her favourite team play away from Toronto, and there was not much to be found in the way of momentary relief, either.

“Knowing that they’re so far from their fans and the only team that’s not actually playing their season at home was like a sense of defeat,” Cheung said. “It’s like when you’re separated from your family, that kind of feeling. You can’t reach them, it’s just so distant. Now, knowing I’m gonna see them on our court at home, I think it’s just going to be so emotional, I’m ready to cry, I’ll bring tissues, I think it’s going to be overwhelming and unbelievably exciting.”

For Mozammil Chaudhry, watching the Raptors has always been a communal experience. From his 80-year-old grandparents to now a two-year-old nephew, this household of Pakistani heritage is glued to the TV when their favourite team is in action. Born and raised in Vaughan, Ontario, Chaudhry would frequent the Dufferin Clark Community Centre as a kid and talk basketball with his friends but didn’t even realize he was watching the Carter effect play out firsthand as Andrew Wiggins and his brother could also be spotted there.

Though he grew up a Carter fan and has vivid memories of the dunk contest, it is the greatest Raptor of all-time Kyle Lowry who is No. 1 in his heart now. Chaudhry got married this past March and, ironically, went to Miami for a short honeymoon. Their plans were placed on hold on trade deadline day, as Chaudhry knew there was no way he could think about anything besides whether or not Lowry would remain in a Raptor uniform.

“I just remember sitting in the hotel room, I told her I literally can not do anything until I know,” Chaudhry said. “I knew, no matter what, this year he was gone, I know how contracts and all that stuff works but I was still hoping for one last run.”

Among the list of traditional Gameday experiences, the Lowry introduction is the one that was consistent across Sealey, Moore, Madhani, Cheung, Chaudhry and presumably many other fans to be most missed. They are excited for this new beginning, though, and seeing what fresh faces like Scottie Barnes and Dalano Banton bring to the table alongside the young veterans in Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby.

Old or new, as long as the front of the jersey says Raptors, the fans are ready to cheer, ready to let this team know how much they’ve been missed, and remind the opposition just how difficult it is to come into Toronto and leave with a win.

For many members of this intensely passionate fan base, it’s the Raptors who have always been home for those who’ve been made to feel like the away team in some shape or form in their life, made to feel like the other. It’s time to reunite, it’s time to feel at home, it’s time to be the north again.

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Toronto, this is for you

torjlopez

The reverberations of the hate crime on June 6, 2021 will be felt by London’s Muslim community forever. Purple and green ribbons can be seen on people’s chests as a show of unity around the southwestern Ontario city, and the impact of this despicable act can’t be shaken.

Walking the streets as a Muslim can’t be done without a heightened sense of one’s surroundings. While following culturally traditional or religious customs publicly always came with the awareness that some form of misinformed judgment was possible, that it could be fatal -- here in Ontario, Canada -- is an altogether different proposition and daunting reality. Yet, the Muslim community still looks to represent in the fullest way possible, with both pride and love.

“As muslims, we don’t hate,” Naj Mankal, President of the Islamic Centre of Southwest Ontario (ICSWO) said. “We have love because, only through love, that’s how you’re going to eliminate hate.”

MLSE and the Toronto Raptors want to show the importance of reciprocating that love and support as a stand against hate and so will hold their annual open practice at London’s Budweiser Gardens on Saturday, Oct. 2 while Maple Leafs alumni will face each other in a game on Sunday.

When John Wiggins, Raptors’ vice-president of organizational culture and inclusion, first learned of the incident, he knew a public statement wasn’t enough. When he went out to visit London, he could feel a somberness in the air whether it be in conversations with people or just the general lack of energy in the city. He and his team have committed themselves to a mantra of showing intent with their actions and so anything other than tangible support wouldn’t have upheld the standard the organization hopes to maintain.

“If we’re going to position ourselves as champions for social justice, it had to be more than a statement,” Wiggins said about how the plan to visit came together. “It was, ‘What can we do?’ and I think we kind of paced ourselves with giving some space to the time and to the community, the people involved. When some time had passed, we went out to London wanting to talk and find out what we could do.”

Reaching out to Talha Ahmed, CEO of Penny Appeal Canada -- one of the largest Muslim NGO’s in Canada -- who Wiggins had already established a strong relationship with in the past was a big factor in getting the wheels in motion. Ahmed’s involvement became integral in establishing engagement with the London Muslim community which led to the ICSWO, London Muslim Mosque, as well as the Muslim Association of Canada (MAC) becoming resources for both guidance and buy-in. Initial conversations regarding covering funeral costs and medical bills evolved into legitimately having a presence in London and maximizing the Raptors’ platform to send a united message against all forms of hate.

“I hope to see people of all ages and all backgrounds unite,” Ahmed said. “We all cheer for the same team, we all boo when the calls don’t go our way and sports is one thing, irrespective of race, religion, ethnicity that unites us all. The fact that we can come together as a diverse community under one roof is gonna be something fun.”

Opportunities to feel a true sense of freedom and togetherness have been infrequent, largely due to the pandemic. Daily prayers at the mosque have been cut down to just Friday, when three separate gatherings are made possible. Aug. 15 provided a momentary exhale, as Muslimfest -- an event to gather the community in a show of peace, harmony, and unity -- brought performing artists, food vendors and even a Ferris wheel to thousands in attendance over the course of the day in London. Events like that and the one this weekend aren’t just nice, they’re necessary.

“A lot of people are suffering in silence,” Mankal said. “We don’t know what they’re going through. Just because it’s kind of out of sight, out of mind, doesn’t mean that people are not significantly having problems with what happened and how to cope. So, when you can provide them with a Muslimfest or this MLSE event, it puts a smile on their face and that’s priceless.”

Among those in attendance for the Raptors’ open practice will be Jenna Khorshed, a Muslim girl born and raised in London who still feels the shock of June’s tragedy. She has played basketball since the age of 7 and is now not only playing for her high school St. Andre Bessette Catholic Secondary School, but also in a competitive league for the London 86’ers. This will be her first live experience watching the Raptors and finds her favourite team coming through for her community heartwarming.

“I think this means a lot to so many people, myself and my friends and family included,” Khorshed said. “It shows that we aren’t alone in this. There are people outside who have acknowledged what happened and they’re trying to prevent it from happening again and to show that we are all equal. We’re stronger together and the Raptors coming here to acknowledge that is a big part of being able to grow and evolve as a community and society.”

With improving health and safety protocols, over 2,500 people will be expected in the 2,650 capacity arena. There is a minimum donation of $20 for each day with proceeds benefiting MLSE Foundation’s Change the Game campaign. Over the last couple months, Penny Appeal Canada has provided and will continue to provide mental health resources to families and individuals in London. They also purchased 500 total tickets -- 250 per day -- for youth specifically identified through the ICSWO, London Muslim Mosque, and MAC.

Going beyond the weekend, MLSE and MLSE Foundation have worked with the City of London and local Muslim community stakeholders including Mankal and Ahmed to develop a legacy project in the city to be announced over the weekend. The project is an infrastructure investment designed to engage youth and unite the community through sport.

“We want to uplift that city and that community,” Wiggins said. “I’ve been to London a couple times and this is truly something that has rocked the city. We want to bring a positive energy back to that city by having our guys show up and just have some fun, remind -- especially the youth -- that they’re valued, that they’re important, that they need not be scared, and that they’re a part of something bigger, whether that’s Raptors nation or a Muslim community that loves and cares for them.”

change-the-game

Change The Game

Tucked away in the living room of a close friend’s house in Louisville, David Johnson watched the 2021 NBA Draft waiting for his name to be called. At 47th overall, he heard Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum announce it would be the Toronto Raptors extending that privilege to him and what followed was a warm and extended embrace with his mother Sheritha Bousso that included tears of joy and cries of “You did it! You did it!”

All Johnson wanted was an opportunity, and with the Raptors having since committed to a two-way contract for the 20-year-old, he has every chance to make the most of a moment he’s wanted since middle school.

“It was a surreal feeling knowing that all the blood, sweat, and tears that I’ve put into this game, up until this point, finally paid off,” Johnson said. “It’s what I’ve been looking forward to all my life regardless of whether it was the first pick or the sixtieth pick.”

As a child, Johnson admitted he was quite spoiled. His two sisters -- Ashley and Rayona -- are 14 and 11 years older, respectively, and so he was always treated by mom as the baby of the family. The only time he did house work was when mom was running her nail salon and his sisters would take charge. Johnson would spend most of the day outside when he could, either playing sports or riding his bike. When he was inside, playing with American muscle car toys and learning the latest technology was what piqued his interest most. From a young age, he became the resident IT expert for family and friends. It was all part of who Bousso wanted him to be: independent, kind, and generous.

“Since the day I was born, she always pushed me to be the best person possible,” Johnson said. “Never forced me to do anything I didn’t want to, everything she did tell me to do she knew would be beneficial to me.”

Basketball and football were the two sports that appealed most to Johnson and he thrived in both. At around Grade 4, though, he started to grow upwards rather than outwards and so basketball became a natural choice, especially with AAU programs clamouring for his talent. The sport became everything to him, and just how much it meant to him was put to the test after a significant injury in middle school.

Playing a school basketball game in Grade 8, Johnson received the ball on the run and saw an open lane. As his eyes locked in on the rim for a dunk and he planted his left foot to leap, his left knee buckled and his growth plate broke. The invincibility teens feel was quickly gone.

Johnson was home a lot for the next four months, with his mother and sisters tending to him. While he did everything to stay positive during his recovery, he had no idea what to expect physically once his cast was removed after six months. To keep his mind engaged, he would still go to practices and games of his AAU and school teams.

“It wasn’t the same, I was watching other guys develop and get better,” Johnson said. “I was thinking to myself, the easy thing to do would be to just not play anymore because it’s gonna be hard to catch up since you’re kinda behind.”

But deep down, Johnson knew he wanted to be remembered for something. Louisville didn’t have a professional sports team, so he consumed Louisville and Kentucky college sports and his main source of inspiration was seeing those kids fulfill their dreams. His mother wasn’t the type to force the issue and so the decision was always his to make. This was the moment Johnson knew he loved basketball more than anything, he was ready to fight for it.

Bousso saw the determination in her son and he was always on top of his rehab appointments, constantly finding ways to progressively push his body to the limit so he could accelerate the process.

“That period of overcoming, David was just so determined because he spent so much time being alone,” Bousso said of observing her son during that period. “Not being able to do anything, that desire to be in the game, that’s how he realized, ‘That’s where I want to be.’”

At Trinity High School, Johnson made first team All-State as both a junior and senior and was considered a four-star recruit. Staying close to home, he chose Louisville for his college career and after missing the start of his freshman season due to a shoulder injury, came on strong primarily in a bench role. Johnson takes pride in filling the stat sheet and his game logs consistently showed healthy returns across the board.

“I think everyone loves to be in the game and on the court,” Johnson said. “Learning how to do everything, defending is one thing that I’ve emphasized over the last few years, especially at the next level, that’s gonna keep you on the court. Being able to score, pass, rebound, all those things will keep you on the court. It’s hard for a coach to turn that down.”

Under the tutelage of Louisville head coach Chris Mack, Johnson learned the secret to real confidence. His first interactions left Johnson thinking this wasn’t a relationship that he wanted, but time showed it was certainly one he needed. When told as an 18 and 19-year-old that it wasn’t the coach’s job to instil confidence, Johnson wasn’t quite sure what that meant. But, over time, in understanding how Mack operated, he realized that the lesson being taught was that confidence wasn’t going to come as a result of the words being said, but rather the work that was being put in day-in, day-out.

“Your confidence starts to come from the hours that you put in the gym,” Johnson said. “The more you work on something, that’s where you become confident. I started to realize that as I got older. Over the last six months, I realized the things that I do are the things I work on, so, worked on new things and became an even better player.”

Along with the desire to have a well-rounded guard game, his physical attributes made him that much more appealing to the Raptors. At 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, Johnson ranked second in standing reach (8-foot-8) among guards at the draft combine, second among guards in wingspan (6-foot-10.5), as well as fifth among guards in the three-quarter sprint.

Johnson is quickly getting acclimated to the team. He got his first taste of action against the Knicks and has quickly built a rapport with the players on the summer league roster. Among the core group he’s had a chance to meet, OG Anunoby has welcomed him with open arms while he’s quickly been impressed by head coach Nick Nurse.

“I see why he’s the highly touted coach that he is,” Johnson said. “There’s a reason behind everything that he’s telling you. He’s not gonna tell you anything without telling you what the outcome of it might be. When he’s saying stuff, he’s saying what’s gonna happen if you do it, what the reasoning behind it is and that really helps me as a player to understand.”

That’s the next step, understanding the pro game, understanding the grind, understanding exactly what it takes. Johnson believes he has not just the skills but the mindset to play at the highest level, and is excited by the prospect of an organization with one of the best developmental reputations in the league to tap into all of it.

“I’m really confident in my style of basketball, the way that I play,” Johnson said. “I feel like with me being a team-oriented guy first, my personal development is only going to get better. I’m focused on the team winning, individual things come from that.”

david-johnson-ready-for-the-opportunity

David Johnson: Ready For The Opportunity

Making the NBA was the dream. Unlike countless others, DeAndre Bembry’s came true. What he couldn’t have ever imagined is that when he was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks with the 21st overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, it was with a heavy heart. Just two weeks prior to the draft, Bembry’s beloved younger brother Adrien Potts became a victim of gun violence. Bembry’s brother was his lifelong best friend. The two separated by just two years in age, making it to the NBA was just one dream they had shared together. Now Bembry had made it, but his little brother wasn’t by his side. 

The trauma of losing a loved one can change a person. The pain can dull the good moments and sharpen the sting of low ones. It can be easy to forget that Bembry has experienced such tragedy in his own life because of how freely he gives away joy, sharing it with anyone in his vicinity. 

To be around the 26-year-old is to smile. He’s good at making you feel lighter, and of brightening any room that he enters. Another part of that, though, is finding ways to help heal his heart from the aforementioned loss. For Bembry and his mother, Essence, a crucial part of that healing has been giving back to others and helping those who are hurting the way they themselves had hurt. This is done through the AP World foundation. 

 “I want to take advantage of this platform [and give back],” Bembry said. “I think that’s the biggest thing. That, and having something positive for our family. We wanted something to remember his name, a couple other family members, their names. We wanted to do a face of [the foundation] with my little brother’s name, AP.”

Originally formed to help families who are dealing with gun violence, DeAndre and Essence soon realized there were many ways they could aid the families in their community. Though DeAndre has spent the past year with the Raptors playing in Tampa Bay, prior to becoming a Raptor, he spent the first four years of his career with the Hawks in Atlanta.

“We do so many different random things,” DeAndre said of his foundation’s work. “You can’t really picture every situation that we’ll be in, but we’re all the way in the community and we’re connected to different cities and different people that are really working to make things better.”

While in Atlanta, AP World provided Thanksgiving meals and helped families with Christmas gifts, as well as provided winter coats and shoes to children in need. Though DeAndre's NBA uniform has changed, his commitment to the families he and Essence worked with in Atlanta has not. 

“I have families that I’ve dealt with over the past four or five years,” he said. “And we still have a relationship today. My mom still talks to the single mothers of different families, just checking on them throughout the year.”

Though the mission has expanded, AP World is still there for families who have been affected by gun violence, providing the type of support that can only be given by those who understand the pain of losing a loved one.

From helping to sort through planning details and helping to walk family members through what happens next in the days after a family has suffered a loss, to providing food and having a text chain available so that the family can forget about those extraneous details, AP World has been there and will continue to be there.

“Us going through it a few times, we know that families don’t want to go through and deal with all those things while you’re grieving at the time,” DeAndre said. “There's so much other stuff you can be doing during that time. We just want to take some of the pressure off of the families and help them so they don’t have to deal with some of the stuff you really don't really want to deal with at the time. That was a thought of my mother’s. She came up with the idea and we decided to run with it. Obviously we do more than just that, but that was definitely the start of it.”

Giving back is something that comes naturally to DeAndre as a result of the example Essence has set throughout her life. Essence, as a single mother raising two boys, often had to work long hours, sometimes working two and three jobs during DeAndre’s childhood. He says she is his example when it comes to work ethic, but also when it comes to love. 

“She’s definitely the person I’ve looked up to my entire life and I just want to make things better for her and the rest of my family,” he said. “[My mother] was a single mother at a young age so meeting some of these families, she already has a comfort zone because of what she went through when she was younger. She worked at a shelter home when I was younger. We’ve been around these types of environments most of our lives. Giving back to these environments actually helps my family.”

Researchers at Boston University found that black men were twice as likely as white males to die before age 20. In addition to providing support after a family has suffered a loss, AP World recognizes the critical importance of providing on-going mental health resources. The foundation has connected families to mental health support as well as connected children to mentoring organizations like the Boys and Girls Club and Big Brothers, Big Sisters.

 DeAndre isn’t just a name behind his foundation, either. Throughout the NBA season, as well as during the offseason, he is an active member of various public and virtual events, most recently serving on the Wear Orange virtual panel on June 4, to share his family’s story as part of the 7th annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day. On a day-to-day basis, DeAndre is involved with the foundation's board meetings and social media channels and media, as well as providing ideas for fundraising and partnering events.

Though he has yet to hit the Scotiabank Arena court for a home game in front of Raptors fans, DeAndre’s impact is already being felt off of the court in Toronto. During a virtual school assembly for Toronto’s Huddle Up Bullying Prevention Program, a program aimed at promoting a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion, DeAndre’s presentation was broadcast to thousands of youth across 100 schools in Ontario. 

AP World’s reach isn't limited to the cities that DeAndre is playing in either. In February, it was the Boys and Girls Club in Indianapolis that received 500 pairs of new shoes as AP World partnered with Shoes that Fit. Whatever the need or situation, DeAndre says the AP World is ready to work to find a solution.

“I will do whatever is needed to make an impact on the community and help families that went through what mine went through,” DeAndre said. “No one should have to go through that pain, and anyone who does go through it needs a lot of support and love. AP World wants to give that.”

As a result of the steadfast and continued work DeAndre is accomplishing with AP World, the Toronto Raptors forward is a nominee for the 2020-21 NBA Cares Seasonlong Community Assist Award Presented by Kaiser Permanente. 

Though recognition and accolades weren’t ever on DeAndre’s radar when it comes to giving back, being named as a nominee for the NBA’s award is an honour.

“I think the biggest thing about the situation, and these types of organizations,you have to put your time in and I think that’s what we’ve done so far,” DeAndre said. “I think it’s pretty cool that five years later we're able to talk about this and say that I'm [nominated] to receive an award for it. I'm enjoying the process of it. It’s good that we’re bringing it up and it’s catching people’s attention. I’m just looking forward to continuing to get it out there and keep pushing.”  

As AP World continues its work, within the community and beyond, DeAndre and Essence know they are keeping the memory of Adrian alive. There is no greater legacy than one of goodness and the work being done through AP World is just that.

“Everyone who knew my brother knows that he was a very smart kid, ahead of his time,” DeAndre said. “He was very loving and generous. I think that for the most part, you get that out of a lot of people in my family. [His passing] hit a lot of people in my family, on different sides of my family, looking for answers. We’ve just tried to come together and just get some type of peace. I’m just trying to live out his life the best way I can.”

Through AP World, DeAndre and his family have helped other families during some of their darkest days. It has been through giving back that they themselves have found light.

“We’re just a genuine family,” DeAndre said. “We started AP World because of a negative thing but we’re trying to make some type of positive out of a negative situation. You still feel the pain. Doing this stuff is obviously for the better, but also we enjoy doing it. It eases the pain for us a little bit.”

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SeasonLong NBA Cares Community Assist Award: DeAndre Bembry

torbnaje

When the Raptors asked me to write something for Asian Heritage Month, I thought about this photo of myself I dug up from my parents’ basement several years back (That Leafs hat is going for $200 in certain places, so word of advice: keep all your stuff). 

So many memories come flooding back when I look at this picture. 

I immigrated with my parents and sister from Hong Kong to Canada in 1992. As an eight-year-old with just a brief grasp on English living in a new country, everything was foreign. 

I look at this picture and remember how frightening that was, for myself, my sister, and my parents. 

I also remember two things that made me feel at home. 

The first was the neighborhood where I grew up. 

Markham was called a “majority-minority” city in an article a few years ago. This is what I remember most about my childhood. The Chinese grocery stores, the Saturday Mandarin classes, the dim sum restaurants, and begging my parents to buy me the new Dragon Ball Z manga. 

They were all little things which made me feel more at home. 

My parents were avid fans. When we moved to a bigger house, they installed a basketball net on the driveway for me. I lowered the basket and won so many dunk contests against myself. My favorite memories come from playing on the high school basketball team. 

I still remember how exciting it was when an NBA team came to Toronto.  

Having your own basketball team to cheer for can be life-changing. 

I want to tell you about the community I am a part of, the one I belong to, and the one I am proud to represent. 

I want you to know their faces, their names, their experiences, and their stories. 

Let me tell you about the Chinese community of Raptors fans. 

I want you to know about Lisa Louie, a project manager born and raised in Toronto by her parents, who immigrated from Macau and Hong Kong in the 1960s. 

The newspaper photo above of her is from 1994, when Lisa attended one of the Raptors’ earliest community-building events at Jarvis Collegiate Institute.

Lisa grew up in a hockey household. The main television belonged to her parents, who watched the Leafs religiously. She crowded with her siblings around the smaller TV watching the Raptors and eventually became a season-ticket holder and a section 318 regular. 

Basketball helped Lisa find and establish her identity. Things changed once people around her realized how passionate and knowledgeable she was about basketball. 

“Suddenly, the stereotypes about girls not knowing about sports — especially a geeky Chinese girl — were thrown out the window,” Lisa recalls. “Being a Raptors fan was about defying the stereotypes of Chinese women and what we were supposed to be.” 

When I exchanged emails with Kelvin Kwan, a Chinese-born Canadian who grew up in Scarborough and now lives in Guelph, he said something that resonated with me. 

“It was when the ‘We The North’ era began that I knew something special was about to happen,” he tells me. “The franchise made a genius move and embraced being the other. We accepted who we were and who we were going to be and held our head up high.” 

I know because only the day ones mention watching games on The New VR and instantly point to beating the 72-win Chicago Bulls as the franchise’s lone highlight from its inaugural season. 

I also know Kelvin is serious about his fandom because he sent me the photo above. 

He convinced his wife to go with purple as their complementary colour at their wedding with custom Raptors players’ jerseys as table numbers. 

What he said about the ‘We the North’ slogan resonated with me. Accepting being an outsider is central to any immigrant experience. To grow up in a new country while reconciling with the way your life differs from your parents can be difficult. 

Tony Liu grew up in Toronto and lives in Vancouver today. 

He’s been a Raptors fan since 2001 and remembers not sharing any interest or hobbies with his father, who is from Hong Kong.

It was basketball that brought them closer.

“We both had trouble communicating our emotions with each other,” Tony recalls. “There was always a language and cultural barrier between us. But when the Raptors came on the television, we shared the same excitement and passion for the team. The awkwardness went right out the window.”

As an adult, I feel closer to my parents in a way that a son always feels close to mom and dad, but also further now because of our generational differences. 

But like Tony, my parents and I also bond over talking about the Raptors. 

My mom still sends me WhatsApp messages almost every game (mostly to ask whether the Raptors have hit enough threes for her to redeem some free McDonald’s fries, but you get the point). My dad and I talk about the Raptors all the time. 

One of my favorite things during the Raptors championship run was seeing how many fans in the Chinese community got to share so many great moments with their families.

Dennis Chow was born and raised in East York. A long-time Raptors fan, the championship run officially became a family affair when he attended his uncle’s 80th birthday banquet at Scarborough’s Bamburgh Circle. 

The banquet took place during Game 6 against the Milwaukee Bucks. 

“Everyone was streaming the game,” Dennis recalls. “My uncle didn’t mind. He kept coming to our table to ask us about the score every 15 minutes.”

The Raptors won and clinched a spot in the NBA Finals. 

When Dennis attended his cousin’s wedding after the championship, his grandfather wore a Raptors hat (pictured above) for the entire day.

The photos Jerome Cheng posted of his father Luke during the title run brought me so much joy.

Jerome credits his father for his basketball fandom. 

They watched games together regularly at home. 

Jerome even brought his father to a St. Louis Bar &amp; Grill in North York to watch a Game 7 once with his friends. 

As he grew up and earned money, Jerome started taking his parents to Raptors games. 

The first call he made after the Raptors won the championship was to his dad. 

“I cried,” Jerome recalls. “Basketball and sports in general have been a natural way for us to connect as parent and son. As many Asians know, it's not a common thing for us to be very expressive. Through sports, it has opened avenues for us to figure out how to communicate better and understand each other better. Even if we struggled to talk about anything, he could give me a recap of last night's game, and naturally, it would be an opening to talk about more things.”

Basketball fosters this sense of belonging. 

There’s a sense of community that takes hold beyond just rooting for wins and losses. 

Clement Chu has been helping to build this community for years. 

He is one of the co-founders of the Canadian Chinese Youth Athletic Association (“CCYAA”), founded in 1995, the same year the Raptors entered the league. 

Over the years, Chu and CCYAA have worked closely with the Raptors, who he calls “pioneers” in the area of community-building. 

He pointed to 1997 when the Raptors became the first team in NBA history to have a cultural heritage night. 

“It was a flyer that was translated into Chinese with a discounted price point with a hotline where people could get tickets with a hotline number which was my phone number,” Clement recalls. “The Raptors had a Chinese language broadcast with Fairchild Television the following year. They had their first Chinese radio broadcast a few years later.”

Clement played high school basketball for North Toronto growing up and remembers seeing maybe one (or two, at best) Chinese players across all the teams he faced. 

CCYAA was created to give the Chinese community a place to become part of the growing basketball subculture in the city. 

The association has helped foster an entire generation of kids who grew up watching the Raptors and wanted to pursue playing basketball themselves.

Clement points to Cecilia Chan, who played at Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute, was the anchor of CCYAA’s women’s basketball team, and got a NCAA scholarship at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Jeremy Lin, a member of the 2019 Raptors championship team, as people who have left a lasting impact on the Chinese community.

“A lot of it has to do with role modeling,” he explains. “If there isn't somebody that the kids can see actually doing it, they don’t think it’s possible. This kind of role modeling creates a roadmap for a young person to see in terms of them being able to play at the highest levels.”

Clement says the most significant growth area for the association has been with the age 3-5 program.

“It’s neat to see parents say sports is a priority and basketball is what they want the kids to play,” he says. “A lot of it has to do with the influence of the Raptors.”

The team has been around for over two decades now, and the people who grew up following them are now passing their fandom on to the next generation. 

James Cam is a design director living in Toronto and playing basketball for the first time at a Hamilton school court.

“It was a crappy wooden pole with a crooked net,” he recalls. “Kids would jump off the pole and hang off the rim. It was the closest we got to dunking.”

James organizes Raptors nights twice a year at work now, going to home games with co-workers and teaching the game to anyone who wants to learn. 

He is also passing on his passion for basketball to his son (pictured above). 

“My son is convinced that when I go play basketball, I’m going to play for the Raptors,” James says. “He knows that I like the Raptors, so he gets really excited watching the games with me and wearing their gear. I can’t wait to take him to his first game and share more moments with him in the future.”

He has traveled to 20 different cities so far to watch the Raptors and intends on completing his NBA arena tour with his eleven-month-old daughter Evelyn (pictured above). 

“She has been the best thing that's ever happened to me,” Cliff says. “I've made sure to stock her wardrobe with lots of Raptors jerseys and onesies, so she will know who her favorite team is. I'm so excited to share my love of the Raptors with her. I’ve purposely saved Orlando for a family trip.”

Eddie Chan, 48, grew up on the Danforth before moving to Scarborough during high school. 

“Basketball as a father really changed my love for the game,” he says.

Eddie decided early on his boys would play basketball. 

He enrolled them in House League, where they played every Saturday for two hours. 

Eddie started helping with drills and eventually became an assistant coach on the rep league team. 

He still remembers his kids getting a chance to run drills with Kyle Lowry and Sherman Hamilton at the Scotiabank Arena practice facility. 

Susanne Woo was born and raised in Toronto with parents who immigrated to Canada in the 1960s. 

She has been an elementary teacher for over ten years in Markham and integrates her passion for the Raptors into her Grade 1-2 classrooms. 

Susanne uses Raptors game scores as a way to ask her students to solve basic math problems, finding any reason to tie basketball-related things to the curriculum.

Parents have told Susanne their families started watching Raptors games together at home because of her passion. 

Others credit her class for inspiring their kids to start playing basketball.

“My hope is that through the exposure to the Raptors in the classroom, it will translate to quality time my students will cherish and spend with their family and friends like I did while cheering for our team,” Susanne says. “On a larger scale, I hope they see themselves represented in the sport of basketball, in media, and in important roles of an organization.”

Three generations of my family are connected through the Raptors and basketball. From my parents to myself to my nephews (pictured above in beautiful championship gear) Henry, nine, and Owen, who is turning seven in August. 

the-importance-of-the-raptors-and-basketball-to-the-chinese-community

The importance of the Raptors and basketball to the Chinese community

A few hours ahead of a Philadelphia road game in March 1965, Wayne Embry was with his Cincinnati Royals teammate Oscar Robertson in their hotel room when the phone rang. It was Embry’s wife, Theresa (Terri), on the other end of the line, calling from their family home in Cincinnati, Ohio.

“Wayne, Yvonne and I are going to Selma to march,” she told Embry.

Shock rushed through Embry’s body. Earlier that month, hundreds of civil rights demonstrators made the 54-mile march from Selma, Ala., to the state capital of Montgomery for the right of African-American citizens to vote. That march became known as Bloody Sunday for the violence that Alabama state troopers, brandishing billy clubs and firing tear gas, inflicted upon demonstrators. Embry’s shock quickly became concern.

“No, you’re not!” he insisted. “You’ve got three kids, you cannot go to Selma!”

But Terri could not be deterred. She made the plan to go with Robertson’s wife Yvonne, and specifically forbade Embry from telling Robertson until Yvonne could call with the news herself.

At Selma, Terri and Yvonne marched alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. and thousands of others. In all, more than 25,000 made the march to Montgomery, where King made his famous “How Long, Not Long” speech on the steps of the state capital building. The violence from the march, as well as two previous marches including Bloody Sunday, sparked national outrage and spurred eventual passage of the Voting Rights Act. Dogs were sicced upon the demonstrators, and sticks and stones thrown at them.

Later, Terri and Yvonne would huddle under a tarp on the floorbed of a truck in order to safely sneak out of Birmingham. The next day, Embry and Robertson met their wives, still visibly shaken, at the airport.

“They had the courage to persevere through it,” Embry remembers now. “She took that and used it throughout most of her adult life, that experience, to make a difference and to get others through the same.”

Whether in the era of the civil rights movement or that of Black Lives Matter today, the concept of struggle is not a new one. Throughout their lives, Embry and Terri have been pioneers and are known for their fierce activism. Embry became the first Black general manager and president in NBA history, while Terri tirelessly worked as an organizer for civil rights in her local community until she passed away in August last year.

Activists and civil rights leaders such as Dr. King, John Lewis, Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela were among those that the Embrys looked up to. They’ve endeavored throughout time to do their part, and especially to do so for the next generation.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the young [players] don’t even remember who was in the league 10 years ago,” said longtime NBA executive and owner Jerry Colangelo, who has known Embry closely over 60 years in pro basketball.

“If one has any interest in history, and they all should, about who brought them to the dance, Wayne is one of those pioneers in so many ways.”

As an NBA player, Embry was the big man carving a path through the lane for his team. He was a defiant rim protector with tremendous presence on the boards and he set raw, rugged screens for Robertson. The two players had an easy chemistry in the two-man game, with Robertson as the historically prolific point-man and Embry with his soft touch to finish plays using his signature baby hook. Along with Jack Twyman, they formed an All-Star core for the Royals teams throughout the 1960s.

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But Embry never thought he could make it to the NBA originally. He grew up on a farm in Springfield, Ohio, with no preconceptions of becoming anything other than a small-town farmer. The Harlem Globetrotters were the only example of Black basketball players back then, and his father initially tried to steer him towards playing baseball; Embry was ten years old when Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s colour barrier in 1947. Unlike Robinson, however, Embry wasn’t very good at baseball — as he would be the first to tell you. He only began to learn about the NBA being a possibility for himself once he got to Miami University in Ohio.

It was in the university’s student centre that he met Terri for the first time.=

“I looked over and saw this beautiful, young lady,” Embry chuckled. Since he was too shy to introduce himself, it was Embry’s teammates who brought Terri over to start a conversation. Their first date began with a rom-com awkwardness, when he walked her from her dorm room to see a movie and couldn’t find anything to talk about.

From that inauspicious start, Embry and Terri went on to have a 62-year marriage. Wherever he travelled over his basketball career, she became a passionate and dedicated member of that community who would immerse herself in local organizing. Terri encouraged the wives of Embry’s teammates to join her in action themselves. It was no coincidence that she was with one of those women when she went to Selma, but instead one of many times that Terri, inspired by other leaders in the civil rights movement, brought others to her cause.

“We had people [who] were close to us that were with Dr. King in his efforts and they became role models. I think Terri wanted to become a role model as well,” Embry said. “We adopted the philosophy that if we can get others to team [up] and accomplish [things] within the lives we lived, we could make a difference in the world and make a world a better place.”

No matter what organizations she was working with or where she devoted her time, Terri always created a lasting impact.

“Wherever she’s been, she’s changed the culture.”

In the NBA of Embry’s era, basketball was still exclusionary towards Black players. He was the only Black player on the Royals for his first two seasons in the league, until the team made Robertson the first overall pick in the 1960 NBA Draft and signed 1959’s No. 1 pick, Bob Boozer, that same year. The Royals also briefly rostered a fourth Black player, but he was soon traded.

“It was told to me that during that era, you couldn’t have more than three Black players on a team,” Embry said. “There was somewhat of an unwritten quota system.”

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