It was a dream deferred, not a dream denied.
The Toronto Raptors have painted sa国际传媒 red and black from Victoria to St. John鈥檚, Monday night鈥檚 white-knuckle loss in Game 5 of the NBA final notwithstanding.
鈥淭he reaction across the country to the Raptors is unprecedented,鈥� said Ken Shields, who coached the University of Victoria Vikes to seven consecutive national championships in the 1980s and also the Canadian national team.
Shields and former University of Victoria Vikes great Eli Pasquale attended Monday鈥檚 Game 5 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
Because they are the lone Canadian teams respectively in the NBA and MLB, the Raptors and Blue Jays hold singular spots in the Canadian sporting pantheon. We haven鈥檛 seen this type of pan-Canadian response to a pro club team since the Blue Jays won back-to-back World Series championships in 1992 and 1993.
But this is even more so, said Shields. 鈥淚 haven鈥檛 seen this happen [for a pro club team] in sa国际传媒 in any sport, not even the Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993. There are big-screen outdoor viewing parties, and games are also being shown in movie theatres, in cities across sa国际传媒. It鈥檚 been unreal and wonderful for basketball and without question the sport will grow across the country because of this.鈥�
The Raptors 2017 training camp intra-squad game in CARSA gym at UVic was the hottest sports ticket in years on the Island. That interest has not waned.
Movie theatres across the country showing the NBA finals have been packed with fans, including an auditorium at Silver City Tillicum.
鈥淚t鈥檚 massive that the Raptors have made it all this way,鈥� said Connor Zawacki, who watched Monday鈥檚 game at Silver City Tillicum with girlfriend Halayna Peskett.
鈥淚t鈥檚 great that the whole country is involved. It鈥檚 quite a spectacle.鈥�
Said Peskett, pointing to Zawacki: 鈥淗e got me into it.鈥�
Also at Silver City were friends John Cowley, Ren Vagay and Joseph Bond.
鈥淚t鈥檚 fun to be in a community setting to watch history being chased,鈥� said Cowley.
Fifty-six Jurassic Parks have sprung up across the country with large-screen, outdoor viewing parties in cities from Halifax to Calgary. Night lights have turned Niagara Falls Raptors red during the playoff run.
This may represent a shifting cultural change, with the a story in Sunday鈥檚 New York Times noting a newer immigrant population is turning sa国际传媒 away from the expense of playing hockey and toward basketball.
鈥淏asketball sa国际传媒 registration has been growing at 10 per cent and this will add fertilizer to that mix,鈥� said Craig Beaucamp, head coach of the UVic Vikes basketball team.
鈥淜ids across the country are watching the Raptors. That might be the spark for them to pick up a ball and play.鈥�
Beaucamp pointed to the impact the U.S. and Canadian women鈥檚 national soccer teams, with their results in the World Cup and Olympics, have had in fueling growth of girls鈥� soccer across North America. 鈥淚t is going to be interesting to see what this Raptors run translates into for basketball in sa国际传媒.鈥�
Kathy Shields, who coached the UVic Vikes women鈥檚 team to eight national championships, said the impact will be felt across both boys鈥� and girls鈥� basketball in sa国际传媒: 鈥淭he Raptors have brought so much more awareness of the game to beyond even the casual fan. This will get more kids excited about playing the game. We are going to see an explosion of basketball in sa国际传媒 over the next 15 years. The impact would have been doubled if the [Vancouver] Grizzlies had not been taken from us.鈥�
The sa国际传媒 capital is among the Canadian cities most closely associated with basketball over the years. It included the Dominoes national championship dynasty of the 1930s, and Ken and Kathy Shields鈥� men and women UVic dynasties of the 1980s through to Victoria-raised two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash.
Victorians Doug Peden, and Art and Chuck Chapman were part of the last Canadian team to win an Olympic medal at Berlin in 1936, although the Pasquale-led Canadian team came close in 1984 at Los Angeles, finishing in fourth place. Now there is talk of the drought finally being broken by an all-NBA-player Canadian team at Tokyo 2020.
