Toronto Raptors fans react to CBS Sports poll

Toronto Raptors fans were not tickled by a poll that completely forgot they existed. 

The discovery of a CBS Sports web poll earlier today has enraged Toronto Raptors fans after it failed to mention their team as an NBA Championship contender. The poll listed Golden State, Cleveland and Oklahoma and “Other” as the four options.

It looked like this:

This oversight lead to an avalanche of tweets from disgruntled Raptors fans, sparked opinions from Toronto media, drew comments from Raptors players and spawned #WeTheOther churning out more than 11,000 tweets. 

As it turned out CBS Sports said in a tweet they posted the poll before Game 7 of the Raptors-Heat series and also said “We love you, Canada!”

  “It’s never gonna stop with us. No matter what we do, how far we go, we just got to get all the way to the mountain top, and maybe even still then, they’ll come up with an excuse for us. The best part I get out of it is, we’re still here, still playing.” DeRozan on Sportsnet.

Even the bookies don’t rate the Raptors chances of winning the NBA Championship. According to Bet365, the Raptors are placed at $40-1 and the Warriors are considered almost a lock at $8-15; the Cavs are $21-10 and OKC are $7-1.

Dwane Casey was asked what he thought about the poll on Sportsnet and seemed relatively nonchalant about it.

“I love that people discount us, they’ve discounted us over the past couple of years,” he said. “And, again, I think that fuels us. I think that gets our guys going.”

But the best reaction to the CBS Sport poll was when Toronto’s Mayor John Tory posted an open letter to  CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus on Twitter explaining how Toronto is North America’s fourth largest city and that basketball was invented by a Canadian. He signed off on the letter as “Mayor of Toronto (aka “Other”).

"“We’re not the slightest bit offended. In fact, we’re accustomed to being underestimated. Just a few days ago LeBron James said he was looking forward to playing the Heat – a team that is now golfing. Dwayne Wade thought he could take practice shots during our national anthem. Well we showed him how we feel about that.”- Toronto Mayor John Tory."

No-one thought the Raptors would make it beyond the Pacers. And when that happened, LeBron said he couldn’t wait to play the Heat. And that didn’t happen. I guess we’ll find out what they’re made of against Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Final series.

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