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THE RAPTORS WERENT even playing in Toronto -- they were on the road, in Brooklyn, preparing for Game 6 of the opening round of the 2014 playoffs. But that didnt stop great mobs of fans, like pilgrims, from trekking to Maple Leaf Square outside the Air Canada Centre. Leading up to Game 1, the mood had been so fevered that the teams normally staid general manager, Masai Ujiri, had made an appearance and dropped a few F-bombs, for which he would later be fined.With the Raptors leading the series 3-2, and Game 6 presenting an opportunity to advance to the second round for the first time since 2001, the tension built. An all-out proxy war broke out between newspapers in Toronto and New York. During Game 5, the Nets Twitter account implored their fans to meet Torontos intensity. Maple Leaf Square, Jurassic Park to the Raptors faithful, was total pandemonium.This was an opportunity -- to that point, the opportunity -- for Canada to fall in love with basketball, for the Raptors to become the NBAs first team to effectively represent a nation. Think New York and L.A. have an unfair market advantage? The Raptors play in a top-six NBA market before you count the 29 million Canadians outside the Greater Toronto Area. Across the country, basketballs popularity had been consistently ballooning, thanks in equal parts to the coming of age of the Vince Carter generation and the emerging Lowry-DeRozan generation, as well as the NBAs initiatives in India, China and the Philippines, with droves of immigrants touching down in Canada already dreaming of mimicking Kobe Bryants fadeaway. Was this the moment?Across the country, the lounge in a Boston Pizza in Edmonton, Alberta, was a Canadian caricature: a hockey scouts paradise, the walls plastered with TVs featuring NHL playoff action. A couple of friends and I asked the server if the TV near our booth could be switched to the Raptors. Whats the harm, we figured? Game 6 featured epic stakes. The Oilers hadnt even made the postseason -- the Canadiens were the only Canadian team in the playoffs, and they werent even playing.Confused groans filled the air. What the f---! exclaimed a woman behind us, sitting next to a guy in an L.A. Kings jersey. A male voice in the crowd, in a moment of pure poeticism, yelled, This is Canada! The revolution, it turned out, couldnt span 3,000 kilometers in a matter of months. The birthplace of James Naismith would remain a rich, but largely uncultivated field.IT WAS IN the 2016 playoffs that the forces materialized to rouse the sleeping giant. No Canadian teams qualified for the NHL playoffs, and the remaining story lines were abnormally uncompelling, all the while the Raptors overcame their jilted history, taking Game 7 against the Indiana Pacers and proceeding to the second round. The game drew 1.53 million Canadian viewers, setting a record. Their Game 7 victory over the Miami Heat in the second round sent the Raptors to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in franchise history and won the weekend, defeating two hockey games and a Blue Jays game. In lockstep with a franchise that has become used to beating its own records, 1.8 million Canadians tuned in for Game 4 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, winning the weekend again and setting another record.It is fair to say that multicultural Toronto, with the emergence of the Raptors and the Blue Jays, is today a mecca of the modern intersection between culture and sports. The NBAs All-Star weekend in Toronto was a massive success. Drake is an unparalleled hypeman. It is, for all intents and purposes, happenin.Even the players are swept up in it. I am Toronto, proclaimed DeMar DeRozan, capping an impromptu love letter to the city that drafted him, at a news conference following the five-year, $140 million extension he received this summer.Despite being an unrestricted free agent, DeRozan didnt meet with any other teams. He didnt want anybody else. It was an almost dreamlike moment for a fanbase that became accustomed to watching young stars blossom and leave for greener pastures, a healing turn for both city and player.If it was a dream, it was something like déjà vu, a repeat of when Kyle Lowry re-upped two years earlier, and fans let out a collective sigh of relief. He stayed, phew! But this time, nobody was holding their breath. A high scorer in his prime, DeRozan had options to leave. But hes also a throwback ballhog, no darling of advanced stats. Some were left wondering, Arent we past this? DeRozans monologue felt like a revenue-motivated sequel to a classic, with a lesser actor at the mantle.These fans are no longer the insecure teenager, shocked that anyone would even consider going to the prom with them. They read Bossypants over the summer, found themselves in an altered state of consciousness and came to an epiphany: an emotional speech in July is not worth the spate of ill-fated jumpers theyll endure in late April. It was, after all, during the playoff run that the flaws in DeRozans game, which thrives on inefficient ball-stopping, were laid bare, the offense often flowing better when he sat.DeRozans on-court value is polarizing, the flashpoint of a debate between new and old philosophies. The cult of the individual remains widespread. But that this divide has even punctured The Six, that they would question their star at all, marks a sea change in the fan bases self-conception.ITS OCT. 2, 2016, and the Toronto Raptors are facing the Denver Nuggets in a preseason game in Calgary, Alberta, as part of the NBA Canada series. It appears to be working: On StubHub, nosebleeds are $110. Scotiabank Saddledome is a packed house. In the media room, a scout with the Nuggets quips, How do you sell out a game in 10 minutes? Most conspicuous is the attire, a melting pot of basketball and Canada-related sports memorabilia: speckled into the Raptors gear was an Aaron Sanchez Blue Jays jersey, Maple Leafs gear, a knock-off Yao Ming jersey, Luis Scolas Argentina uniform, even an L.A. Clippers warm-up jersey.Hours before the game, leaning on a pole outside the Saddledome is a wiry 15-year-old kid in a Raptors jersey named Braden. A swingman for his high school team an hour or two north in Red Deer, he is killing time before doors open because he overestimated the trek down to Calgary. Who can fault his eagerness? Itll be his first NBA game.The groundswell that began two years ago is, right here tonight, being realized across the country. A basketball love bomb was detonated in Toronto, and the fallout reached the outskirts: Google trends show the word Raptors being searched in Alberta four times as much in the 2016 playoff run as in 2014.Outside the arena, you can bear witness to the argument for staying the course, a crowd of beady-eyed Bradens, all the way from Banff and Red Deer to Edmonton, champing at the bit to catch DeRozan, Lowry and the crew that vaulted Torontos playoff run. DeRozan, nit-picked as he might be, is paramount to the nights success. He is, after all, the name on the back of Bradens jersey.Inside, coach Dwane Casey reflects wistfully on the first pro team he watched live, the ABAs Kentucky Colonels, and remarks, You will touch a young life, just by him coming to the game.Progress is always double-edged. Moving forward requires letting go of the past, being unsentimental about big moments and memories. Watching sports, paradoxically, and especially cheering for a particular team, is built on relishing collective nostalgia. Acting like youve been there, on some level, defeats the purpose.In the third year of this experiment, nobody would be acting anymore. If Toronto stagnates, will the crowd still be as satisfied? Would they flock in from all over the province? Its unlikely. But the ability to feel dissatisfied, too, is progress. And when the Raptors fortunes eventually flip, fans will be able to reflect back on a highlight reel of players who actually wanted to perform in front of them.An inferiority complex is eroding, little by little, as a national identity emerges. You can catch it, uninterrupted by any hecklers, at your local Boston Pizza. Tanzel Smart Jersey . Laudrup revealed Thursday he was notified of his dismissal in "the briefest of letters which gave no reasons why such hasty and final action was deemed necessary. Torry Holt Jersey . Clarke was injured while practicing on the Doha Golf Club range after the pro-am on Tuesday. The Northern Irishman arrived at the course on Wednesday hoping to start, but after hitting a few balls on the practice putting green Clarke advised officials he was not fit to play. http://www.cheapramsjerseyschina.com/alex-bachman-jersey/ . -- About a third of the way through the regular season, the Washington Wizards are at . Justin Davis Jersey . Artturi Lehkonen, Joni Nikko and Ville Leskinen had the other goals for Finland (1-0) while Juuse Saros stopped 28 shots. Tim Robin Johnsgard had the lone goal for Norway (0-2). Johnny Hekker Jersey .com) - The Montreal Canadiens will try to halt their longest losing streak of the season when they host the struggling New York Islanders in tonights clash at the Bell Centre.Gareth Southgate is yet to open talks with the FA over the England managers job, Sky sources understand. Southgate will take his fourth game in interim charge of England on Tuesday night when Spain visit Wembley Stadium for a friendly.The former England U21 boss has been in the job since Sam Allardyce stepped down 67 days, and only one game, into his reign after undercover newspaper reporters allegedly caught him discussing how to circumvent rules on player transfers. 6 months half price Upgrade to Sky Sports to watch Man Utd v Arsenal on Saturday and get the first six months half price Southgate has since overseen a 2-0 win over Malta and a goalless draw in Slovenia, with his most recent game seeing England beat Scotland 3-0 at Wembley in a World Cup European Qualifier.According to reports which emerged on Monday night, Southgate has been offered a deal to take over until the end of Euro 2020, but Sky Sports News HQ understands talks over such a deal have not begun, with both parties comfortable waiting until after Englands game against Spain before any decision is made. Southgate confirms Jordan Henderson will captain England against Spain tomorrow England are not in action again until an away friendly with World Cup winners Germany in March next year but Southgate said previously he hoped a decision would be made fairly quickly.It will be important for me to know what Im doing after the middle of November, he said. Weve got a European U21 Championship to prepare for and the seniors have got their next round of qualifiers (in March). Southgate praises Daniel Sturridges excellent mentality, insisting he has a lot to offer Of course everybody is going to want to know, I guess, by the end of November, middle of December, where everything is heading so we can decide who is responsible for which parts of the organisations work.ddddddddddddThats not my decision in the end. Ive enjoyed what Ive done so far. 17 year old Dylan Duncan trains with the England senior squad to make up the n