15 Years Ago Was A Lot Different

Well I had planned to bring back the Round Ball Review today. It had been awhile but I thought it be fun to bring back J.B Superstar and Joey G. Unfortunately the site is down so the return of the Round Ball Review will have to wait for another day. I enjoy doing those cause they add (Hopefully) some humour to the mix. We all love basketball and are passionate about it. That being said at the end of the day it is just sports. No one lives or dies and if we can not have a laugh about things every now and than you might be taking things to seriously. The point is that was my plan for today and it unfortunately is not able to happen.

So what should I do instead? Here is one thing that comes to mind. This next season no matter how the off-season works out will mark the 15th season for the Raptors in the NBA. It really does not seem that long and it is just another reminder that I am getting old. However it really has been great to have NBA basketball in Canada. Prior to the Raptors coming I had never been to an NBA Game. It was something I always wanted to do but it makes for a long trip to go see a game as the closest team to me would have been the Pistons which is a 6 hour drive. I did make that trip to Detroit to see my Cowboys play back in 1992 which turned out to be a pretty good year for the Cowboys. So just the fact that I can go just less than an hour down the highway to catch an NBA game is something to be thankful for. I think we forget what it was like prior to the Raptors arrival to Toronto. I would imagine some of the younger readers are not even old enough to remember what that was like. I do complain about the lack of coverage the sport of basketball gets in this blog. However as much as I might complain in comparison to things prior to the Raptors it is not even a comparison. That reminds me does anyone else remember that Doc Rivers did T.V up here in Canada prior to the Raptors first season on CTV. I think that is why even though he coaches the hated Celtics that I still had a smile for Doc Rivers last year when the Celtics won. He did a great job on the T.V side of things up here back in those days.

If not for the Raptors coming who knows where the sport would be on the scale of things in this country. I actually may watch hockey if they had not. I mean could you imagine watching hockey in Canada. That would just be so awful. I seriously may be one of the few people in this country that have not watched one sec of the NHL Playoffs. I use to watch Hockey but I find that the coverage or over coverage of the sport has driven me away from it. There is more to life than Hockey. I know this will be a shock to some in this country. But look around and you will see that it is true. People are expressing love of lots of things. I mean would anyone have predicted the success of Toronto F.C? Not me and to be honest I still don't get the whole soccer craze and never will. But thanks to the world we live in people are not just tied to what the Sports Networks deem we want to hear. The rise of the UFC is another example of the public showing interest in a sport long before the main stream media did. I am not a UFC junkie at all as well. I will watch GSP and that is about it. However just the fact I know who that is proves that UFC is on the map in the main stream of sports. The days of some group of folks in a meeting room deciding what is important to you as a sports fan is slowly changing. Thanks to blogs like this one and the Internet in general you can find a ton of info and opinion on whatever you are passionate about. The world is changing and the media is having to change with it. That can be proven in the fact that everyone and their brother and cousin have got on to Twitter. I am there as well with the Dino Nation Blog. The days of people reading newspapers is slowly changing as well. That is why you see the evolution of what I like to call the professional blogs. These are done by folks in the already established media. I enjoy reading those as much as I do others in my shoes.

I guess the point to all of this is the world is changing at a fast rate. The fact that almost 15 years ago the NBA returned to Canada was a great moment for people that love basketball in this country. Would we still get the same amount of NBA coverage if not for that? It is hard to say in the world we live. I guess that was what is most frustrating about the entire TSN 2 issue. The NBA is not the UFC or some fringe sport. Yet scrambling around this year trying to be able to find games on some Internet feed just made me feel like the NBA had taken a giant step backwards. That being said it has taken some major steps forward since 1994/95. I may not agree with a lot of what I read and listen to on sports talk radio. However no matter if I do or do not, it makes me smile to hear people that are passionate about the Raptors and basketball. That is something to celebrate for sure. In this off-season we will see if the Raptors add to those reasons to celebrate this season. That gives me an idea of something to do over the summer and maybe take a few days to reflect back on the journey that has taken us to this point. Point is as upset as you may get with the Raptors ask people in Vancouver if they would not like to be complaining about the Grizzlies. Those who are basketball fans would say YES. So as bad or as good as it may be or get. The fact there is a team to get angry about is something in and of itself. People in Seattle would tell you that as well. So when your head is about to explode out of frustration from the Raptors for whatever reason, you might just want to remember that to calm you down.

It was not as funny as J.B and Joey G but hopefully it was something worth reading.