The Whiteboard: The Toronto Raptors should’ve gotten a Christmas game
By Ti Windisch
The Toronto Raptors are being slept on again by the NBA, as one of the East’s top teams will not get a chance to play on Christmas Day.
Sometimes Toronto Raptors fans can get a little tiresome with their conspiracy theories about the rest of the NBA at large having it out for Canada. When it comes to the Raptors not getting a Christmas Day game, they might be onto something.
Toronto brought 59 regular season wins and the first seed in the Eastern Conference home to Canada last season, and added an All-NBA caliber player in Kawhi Leonard to the mix as well. Even if Kawhi isn’t right right away, Christmas is several weeks into the year.
Even more important than Toronto being good is the great storyline they could’ve had going. Imagine a matchup between the San Antonio Spurs and Toronto Raptors on Christmas–Kawhi’s return to San Antonio and DeMar DeRozan’s return to Toronto would’ve both been compelling games.
Instead we get games involving the Portland Trail Blazers and New York Knicks. Portland was the third season last year but got swept hard by the Pelicans in the playoffs, and the Knicks are the Knicks. Of course they’re bad.
Instead of those two teams getting a game, the NBA world should’ve gotten the Spurs/Raptors matchup that players from both teams will doubtlessly have circled on their calendars. The NBA touts its international focus often, but leaving Canada high and dry on Christmas Day seems to contradict that message.
The Raptors are going to be good, and this season they’re more interesting than they’ve really ever been. If that’s not deserving of a Christmas Day game, I don’t know what is. The excuse for New York getting a game will be to satisfy that big market, which just feels weak. Canada is a pretty damn big market too.
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