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- CCYAA 

Hello guys…

It appears that our beloved Toronto Raptors Basketball Club has qualified for a playoff spot in the 2007 NBA playoffs. In fact, we won the friggin Atlantic Division, so that makes us more than qualified. Seeing how our older, better-loved brother, the Maple Leafs, didn’t make the playoffs this year we have more time to concentrate on basketball. The Raps probably feel like Tupac right now…all eyez on them. Does that make Sam Mitchell Dr. Dre and Brian Colangelo Suge Knight?

Moving on, when I found out that we were playoff bound, I realized that I had to get playoff tickets. Playoff tickets meant a lot to me – it was the equivalent of going to the cool people party in highschool where girls shared that one beer among 6 of them to say that they got drunk and guys experimented with smoking to get back at mom and dad. Yes, I had to be there.
I was having trouble scoring some tickets since they got taken quicker than toilet paper on sale at Shopper’s Drug Mart. I was getting concerned and I was prepared to do anything for tickets (“anything” a la Menace 2 Society style). Thankfully, I found out that my friend had tickets and I managed to score 4 of them from him.

I took the subway down on Tuesday because I didn’t want to get caught in traffic – the subway trek was quicker than I expected (???) so I got down about an hour and 15 mins early. I would like to let you know that I was wearing a green shirt. Why did I wear a green shirt? Because I think its stupid that we’re wearing red. Red is the color the Nets are wearing. Why are we wearing red? Because they already bought like a million red shirts, that’s why. At least being Chinese, red represents good luck. Green is…the Boston Celtics and the color of money. I also want to be that guy who stands out like that time Homer Simpson wore a pink shirt at work. Rebel without a cause baby.

So I got there early and witnessed the intensity of playoff basketball – it was safe to say that we had an overabundance of Raptor enthusiasts ready to shout “VC sucks” anytime and anywhere. There was a lot of yelling and a lot of chants. At one point, I started wondering whether professional agitators started these chants. Personally, I don’t have the guts to start chanting…what if no one followed your chants? How stupid would you look? It’s the equivalent of clapping while no one else does. These are the types of things that go through my head. Anyway, I was lucky enough to catch commissioner David Stern talking on Raptor Basketball – he was in town to present Sam Mitchell with the coach of the year award. This was something I thought would never happen seeing how the Raptors were unbelievably horrible last year. Now, we’re the best of the crappy Atlantic.

Well, Sam got his due and the whole place went nuts when Stern presented him with the Auerbach award. Anyway, one thing you don’t realize about watching a live Raptor game is that you have to worry about things like…the superfans in front of you. Did I tell you about the superfans? Then let me…

The problem with the superfan is that they’re so enthusiastic that they stand up for every Raptor basket. This is nice and all but quite a problem when they’re sitting in front of you and they’re pretty big dudes. So in front of us, there was a row of big guys with tattoos. They were standing for the introductions, which was fine but when the tip off started, they were still standing while everyone else was sitting. My entire row was filled with Asian people so I was wondering whether we were too polite to say something. Then I started thinking: I didn’t pay all that money to watch this guy’s back, so I started yelling: “Hey, sit down!” This Asian guy beside me starts yelling as well “Hey! Down and front!”

So the guys sit down and I was relieved…momentarily. These guys were at it again – standing up for every Raptor basket. I was getting really annoyed and at one point, I was contemplating telling the usher then I started thinking retaliation. What if the usher goes “Excuse me, you very large scary men, that Asian guy in the green shirt wants you to sit down and thinks your momma is a punk.” It would have been better if I was in a red shirt, that way, they might not be able to find me. Nope, I was in green. No mistaking the assault victim.

So halftime came and there was a dog show thing happening. We got to watch dogs run up and down the court and race each other. I found it quite amusing and felt that I really got my money’s worth after that. Dogs running…how preposterous! Well, the second half resumed and those guys came back to their seats. I was thinking “here we go again” but thankfully, I think they got tired from standing up and sitting throughout the first half so they were more restrained. Near the end of the game, everyone was standing anyway so it didn’t matter anymore. When the Raps won the game, I gave them a high-five.

Sports builds bridges man.

Lets hug it out.