June 13, 2019 – I will admit that I am one of those people who jumped onto the Toronto Raptors bandwagon when they landed in the playoffs. If I were being totally honest, I would say that I kind of fell into the bandwagon because there was nothing on TV one night. I looked at Mom and said, “There’s nothing on. Do you want to watch basketball?” Mom and I are not sports fans. In fact, I had to google when she started asking questions about fouls and how many free throws the players were being given. “Why does he get two throws and the other player only gets one?” “I don’t know. Let’s google.” I still don’t know.
But there we were, glued to the TV, like a lot of other Canadians – cheering the team on. My Mom started saying “Nice!” whenever the Raptors made a basket. She said it with a bit of an accent and it sounded like she was saying “Noise!” She also started doing fist pumps and throwing her arms up in the air too. “Good for them!” She laughed at Drake on the sidelines – showing his passion for the team and the city that he loved. “Oh look at Drake. He’s really into the game!”
She started looking forward to the games. “Are the Raptors playing tonight?” “Do you think they’ll be able to do it?” It was definitely entertaining for both of us. It was fun trying to answer her questions because most of them were questions that I had myself.
She loved seeing (and hearing) the different people sing the national anthem. We missed the opening in Game 5 because I was flipping channels. So I had to find it online and showed it to her during the first commercial. She beamed with Canadian pride as the audience took over and sang Oh Canada!
And Game 6! She was sitting on the edge of her seat from the second quarter onward. She didn’t want to miss a second. She didn’t want me to pause action so she could go to the washroom. She wanted to watch it live. Finally, I had to pause it to take the dog out. She jumped up and said, “Good. I’ll go to the washroom too!” I think she was relieved (literally and figuratively). It was intense to watch; especially when the close was down to 0.9 seconds.
And then it was over. They were the champions. They had succeeded. The accolades started flowing. And, true to our Canadian spirit, not a negative thing was said about the Warriors. They were worthy opponents. It was a battle between two really great teams. And life is back to the way it was – until October.
Diary of a DOW 