I'm the type of person who loves hearing and singing along to the national anthem before games. Not only would I miss this as a Raptors fan but I only know 2 words to the Canadian national anthem.
I respect Raptors basketball. I once went to a game in Phoenix and saw Vince Carter drop 50 points back when he was still known as Air Canada.
But I couldn't pull myself to root for them. They're too far away, never on TV and I don't know any Raptor fans. I'm sure they're out there though, they have an entire country to themselves for God's sake.
As far as the players go, there are some good ones: I like Jose Calderon, he's fun to watch. Chris Bosh is one of the most fan friendly guys in the league, but he'll likely be gone after this season. DeMar DeRozan is a player I wanted the T-Wolves to take in the draft last year. However, none of these players could overcome the single biggest reason I won't root for the team.
The biggest reason I won't root for the Raptors is that "The Raptors" is just a dumb excuse for a team name. Los Angeles Lakers is also dumb but there could potentially be a lake in LA. I think it goes without saying that their are no actual Raptors in Toronto.
Also, the Lakers were once in Minnesota so they just moved to LA with that name. The Raptors have no excuse for their name, but here's the excuses they tried to come up with.
First, something I already knew... The Raptors chose their name partially because of the popularity of Jurassic Park at the time. Apparently in 1994, dinosaurs were to Canadians what vampires are to teenage girls nowadays. They saw them in movies and just couldn't take their minds off of them.
Teenage girls cope with vampire obsession by putting up posters in their rooms. Canadians coped with dinosaur obsession by naming their basketball team after them.
Some other things I learned during research... Sports teams have a funny way of making up colors. The Oregon Ducks like to refer to their colors as "Lightning Yellow and Thunder Green." When the Toronto unveiled the teams official colors they named them red, purple, black, and "Naismith silver."
Yep, Naismith silver, after the inventor of the game James Naismith, who apparently is a native Canadian. As a Kansas fan, this almost swayed me into not eliminating them. Then I realized that silver actually has no connection to James Naismith and it was just another step in a lot of bad decisions made while branding the Raptors.
Oddly enough, the original team name Toronto wanted was the Toronto Huskies. The name of the last pro basketball team in Toronto that folded in 1947. However, the name was scrapped because they decided the logo would make them look too much like the Timberwolves. Ironic, because not wanting to associate myself with the T-wolves is what brought me to this little tidbit.
Next, Toronto opened the naming up to public entries. Lots of names were submitted and considered, including the Raptors (which I'm guessing was written in Crayon on the back of a coloring book page) and the Hogs. Yes, that's right, the Raptors could have potentially been named the Toronto Hogs.
Not only would I have loved to root for the Toronto Hogs, but it would have made for hours upon hours of fun. The arena could be called The Sty. The fans could have squealed like pigs after every basket. Miss Piggy could have been used as a team mascot. Instead of "Air Canada" Vince Carter could have simply had the name "Ball Hog."
But instead Toronto chose the Raptors, and now they've lost a potential fan because of it.
This picture is full of mistakes.
No comments:
Post a Comment