#3. We the North (Saturday, May 25, 2019)

#3. We the North (Saturday, May 25, 2019)

What was your best day…of being there in person to witness history?

Part 1

As we near the end of our joyous romp through the hundred days that I found the greatest; it’s interesting to take a step back and think about how each of these specific experiences fits in within the grander scheme of the world all of us live in. And it’s humbling to realize how small my life, as with the vast majority of lives on this planet, ultimately is.

But for one night at least, I got to actually be part of something that was just a little bit bigger.

Eight days earlier, when the Toronto Raptors walked off the court at the Fiserv Forum, down 0-2 in the NBA 2019 Eastern Conference Finals to the Milwaukee Bucks, this day seemed inconceivable. All signs pointed to the Raptors making a quick exit, and the Bucks running off to a likely championship.

Then, Game 3, the Raptors grinded through two nerve-wracking overtimes (including this incorrectly-called blocking foul on Giannis Antetokounmpo that was the turning point of the series) to get back into it. Then Game 4, a slightly easier win, and it was all knotted up.

At this point, I had a decision to make. I had a free weekend coming up, and in my heart I wanted nothing more than to do one thing. Go to Toronto, go to Scotiabank Arena, attend Game 6 in person.

However, the tickets on StubHub and the other secondary market sites were going for upwards of three hundred dollars (plus ridiculously high fees). Pay that much to travel five hours to watch a basketball game from so-so seats, with my team likely behind in the series (I didn’t expect the Raptors to win Game 5 on the road) and probably losing either way?

But as I mentioned this to my close friend/co-worker/confidant Aaron Brookbank (#15, #12), he shut the discussion down right away. “Why are we even talking about this? You’re going,” he told me. And it was an order.

So I bought my decent 300-level seats, booked my two nights at the nearby university residence1, booked the Kangaride rideshare to Toronto. Then filled out the rest of my weekend.

Side Note: I would end up doing a Friday night bar crawl in Toronto with my old colleagues David Gu, Aleks Kostic, Jagmeet, and Andrew (#53)2 (which would ultimately end with us having a lot of Korean soju and gambling at the Woodbine casino until three in the morning); a Saturday afternoon Jays game (where they’d get thrashed by the Padres 19-43); and a Sunday lunch in Chinatown with my old roommate Kurt Huang (#106, #76, #13), who I hadn’t seen in seven years. (I wanted to hang out with my best university friend Masato (#69, #26, #5) too4, but he was volunteering as a guide for some famous Japanese anime guy at that weekend’s Anime North convention.5)

But before all that, the Raptors and Bucks still had a Game 5 to play on Thursday night.

Thursday comes. And with my best friend Faroz Mansour (#34), we go to the giant TailGators sports bar for Game 5, and watch as the Raptors make a thrilling second-half comeback and upset the Bucks 105-99. At that point, Faroz decides that he’s coming to Game 6 as well. So that night, he goes online and buys seats in my section – for $700 now, since the game has become a clincher.

A clincher. To go the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. At Scotiabank Arena, where I’d be seeing every second of it live. My body was ready.

Part 2

Game night.

As I make the short walk from the baseball stadium while a light rain falls on the downtown Toronto streets, Scotiabank Arena seems strangely ominous. Like, small and unsubstantial in a way that beguiles the massive significance of what’ll be taking place inside there tonight.

I get inside where the line-up of ticket-holders has already gathered. The tension among everyone is apparent6. After a bit of waiting, we file inside and it takes me all the way until fifteen minutes before tipoff to fully take in the surroundings that I’m in. Here I am, right inside the arena and inside the most important game of this Raptors franchise’s history. Looking down at all the superstars, in person, below, who are going on with their practice like any regular season game; while all 18,000 plus of us feel that we’re about to witness something really special. I go out to the concessions and buy two large cans of beer, and down them right away.

I am ready to go.

I meet up with Faroz when he arrives five minutes before tipoff (as expected7), and he takes the seat a few rows behind me. Then it starts. And for the next three hours, I – along with with every other person in that arena – am yelling my lungs out non-stop. The “De-fense” chants, the screams of “Yeah!!!!” whenever the Raptors make a basket or get a stop, and, more importantly, the heavy booing whenever the opposing players goes up for a free throw. And I swear that in this particular game, I could feel a collective energy in our booing that actually physically disrupted Giannis’s ability to shoot that ball. He’d end up missing five out of ten free throws.

Despite the energy inside the stadium, the Bucks open up a big early lead that they maintain into the third quarter; and as the minutes tick by, it feels more and more than this game is lost and we’re doomed for a Game 7 in Milwaukee. It gets to be a 15-point deficit at the worst point.

Then, in the last two minutes of the third, Kawhi wills the Raptors to a 9-0 run; and suddenly, as we head to break, the excitement inside me and the noise inside the stadium has built up to another level. We’re back in this, we’re so close to winning now – we’ve all just got to push it hard for the final twelve minutes.

In the next five minutes, the Raptors go on another run (15-3) to take the lead, and it feels even more surreal. Like, is this actually happening? Are the Raptors actually doing this? At this point, I’m leaning as far as I can in front of the railing, throwing my fist forward with every play while somehow finding the strength to push my vocal chords even harder. It all peaks when VanVleet hits that three to give them a five-point lead. The Scotiabank Arena is in total bedlam, and I am just losing it.

In the final seven minutes, all of that excitement gradually makes way to more nervous screaming as I count the seconds tick past while the Raptors keep hold of their small, precious lead. Then, finally, when Lowry grabs that offensive rebound with five seconds left and the Raptors up by four, and I see the screen with city blocks upon city blocks of people outside in Jurassic Park ready to explode in celebration; that’s when it finally comes to me. For the first time ever, we are going to win the Eastern Conference Championship.

The final buzzer sounds. The trophy gets presented. And I’m high-fiving Faroz and everybody around me as I still struggle to grasp with the reality of what’s just happened.

And the celebration carries to the streets, where it feels like all of Jurassic Park and all of us inside have converged at the intersection of King and University. Faroz and I join the uninhibited cheering and hollering as we see people setting off fireworks and climbing on buses (we refrain). The scene is out of control, and we want nothing more than to stay there for as long as this night lasts.

And I think to myself: This is one of greatest moments in Canadian sports history. And here I am, right in the middle of it.

We the North.

  1. Where, coincidentally, the high school Reach for the Top (#59, #10) players were staying that same weekend for Provincials. A fact I found out thanks to a five a.m. fire alarm.
  2. David had started law school and Andrew his MA Economics at the University of Toronto. Aleks and Jagmeet were working in Toronto now.
  3. Where I got to see nine home runs and Luke Maile (the back-up catcher) pitch.
  4. He had recently completed his PhD in Statistics from Waterloo and was working as a researcher at a bank.
  5. Where he’d meet his future wife, Mai (#104).
  6. Except for one of the security guys, who for the entire waiting time is dancing around singing a song about how the Bucks are going home tonight.
  7. While I loved being excessively early for everything, Faroz loved being exactly on time for everything. Part of why he was my best friend was because he shared much of the same awkward sincerity (and general awkwardness) that I had. Though at times even I found his level of awkwardness amusing. Whenever we’d be dining in a group or about to leave the office together, his trademark Faroz-being-Faroz move would be to make a “quick” trip to the washroom that would take upwards of twenty minutes (guaranteed), then come back asking us “Are you guys ready to eat/head out?” as if no time had just passed.