Why I am not enjoying the Toronto Raptors anymore

Pretty bold way to start a Thursday right? Hope you have had your coffee. I’ve been holding back some feelings. As we near today’s trade deadline at 3pm EST, I am hopeful that we have some clarity on what this team is and will become. Because, watching what the current product is as a whole from on the court, to the broadcast and even the social media discourse, has become unenjoyable.

Let’s start with the actual team. In the past several months, any remnants of the 2019 title team has been removed. No more FVV, no more OG and no more Pascal. It’s clear how much we miss those guys due to how much we now focus on the Houston Rockets, New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers. FVV, OG and Pascal became part of the family.

At least in our household, we talked about them like we knew them.

Now we have a team mostly full of new guys. Sure, Toronto struck gold with drafting Scottie Barnes. Yes, there is still Gary Trent Jr. and Chris Boucher. But this team feels like it is in limbo. It has zero identity and zero feeling as a fan. I tune in to watch the game and I might as well be watching March Madness. Who are all these players?

RJ and Quickley are part of the future, but they have not been here long enough to register. Bruce Brown Jr. I assume gets traded today.

I could go on. Basically this team is not connected to the fan base right now. We are just watching a bunch of guys wearing Raptors gear play basketball.

Now I admit, as a long time Raptors fan, I have to acknowledge, we have been spoiled as fans. We had some pretty connected teams that had great success and built into what became a championship.

So many fan bases in the NBA would trade spots with us in a second.

But it also means we know what is feels like to be the best. Now everything is measured against that. A rebuild sucks. Watching whatever this is sucks. Now I am back to casually viewing and hoping there is a master plan.

So let’s see what team still stands after today’s deadline.

Now for the part that actually irritates me the most. Everything to do with TSN and Sportnet’s coverage.

Let’s start with how sleezy it is that they split the games 41 each so we need to have 2 different services.

Then, they continue to roll out the same talking heads and production value of the last several years.

Matt and Jack or Matt and Alvin, or Sherm and Leo have all run it’s course.

Let’s shake it up. Let’s get some new intro music, a new look and some new voices.

Basketball is big in Canada now. It isn’t the early days when we had to explain the rules. There are so many recently retired NBA players they could get to add some colour commentating as opposed to a NCAA coach from 300 years ago. But TSN/Sportsnet will never spend when they can just keep giving us the same. That’s Toronto sports broadcasting in a nutshell.

Also, let’s throw away We the North, stop including the 4 bounces in everything and look to the future.

Not only do we have to watch a pretty bad product on the court, we have to listen to Jack sing and talk about their days instead of call the game. There could not be a more comfortable with their jobs duo on TV.

Finally, to those who are part of Raptors Twitter or X. Chill out. This whole game to game drama and negativity is a real bummer. I get being a fan, but wow. I think for a team at the bottom of the league, we don’t need so many media members covering them. You all just say the exact same thing.

Ok, that’s my rant for the day. Don’t get me wrong. The Toronto Raptors are pretty important to me. They are my team. They are all I really follow anymore. But I may have to take a break for this season and see what they actually are going to be going forward.

2019 lives rent free in my head forever and I am so glad it happened.

Now I just have to learn to go back to maybe being a fan of just an average team again. Which is a bummer.

Happy trade deadline day everyone.

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *