{"id":306115,"date":"2025-11-25T14:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T14:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/306115\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T14:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T14:49:08","slug":"the-raptors-are-good-fun-and-seem-to-be-enjoying-every-minute-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/306115\/","title":{"rendered":"The Raptors are good, fun and seem to be enjoying every minute of it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Brandon Ingram (3) is playing like a superstar for his team and as the wins pile up, so does the joy that the team displays.John E. Sokolowski\/Reuters<\/p>\n

For some time now, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment\u2019s teams have operated on the treat-\u2018em-mean-to-keep-\u2018em-keen model.<\/p>\n

The clubs don\u2019t win, but they also aren\u2019t much fun to be around. The players can\u2019t hide how much they resent having to explain themselves to their customers. Once a season ends, they are visibly delighted to leave the place where they are so loved. <\/p>\n

It was a resilient business practice until the Toronto Blue Jays ruined it. Now all of a sudden, people want joyful and good. <\/p>\n

The Leafs\u2019 reaction to their new job description was to stop showing up for work, but the Toronto Raptors have adapted their habits. Not so long ago \u2013 like, two weeks \u2013 this was a blandly likeable outfit that sort of just existed on the edges of the sports conversation. Not good, not bad, not anything. <\/p>\n

Then they tried something new \u2013 winning. Winning solves every single thing. If you\u2019re ugly and you win, you aren\u2019t ugly any more. You\u2019re interesting looking. <\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: The mythology of the NHL’s Atlantic Division is collapsing<\/a><\/p>\n

The Raptors came into Monday night\u2019s game against Cleveland having won seven in a row. Over the weekend, the streak tipped from an interesting anomaly to the new expectation. The Raptors are good again. <\/p>\n

They also won again, 110-99. Their secret? They hired a superstar (Brandon Ingram) and he is playing like a superstar. However much they want to convince you otherwise, sports is not complicated. <\/p>\n

This team is one Ingram sprained ankle from being mediocre again, but they are also fun. They like each other, and the crowd, and playing here. That stuff can be faked, but not this well. <\/p>\n

Now that the Raptors are good, the obvious next question is \u2018How good?\u2019<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes (4) celebrates his team’s 110-99 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday. The Raptors have won eight in a row and are second in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.Chris Young\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Well, they\u2019re about this good. You can\u2019t see my hands because I don\u2019t know, and nobody else does either. They\u2019re good enough to qualify straight up for the playoffs. They might be good enough to win a round or two. <\/p>\n

But that\u2019s getting way ahead of ourselves. Right now is a good moment to reflect on how little this town expects of its sports clubs, and how easily teams agreed to fulfill that expectation. <\/p>\n

The worse they were, the more frustrated the fans grew. The more frustrated the support became, the less interested they were in showing any sort of contrition. <\/p>\n

Think of last year\u2019s Leafs\u2019 locker clear-out. Nobody bothered with any apologies or displays of angst. Why bother? You hate us, we hate you and we\u2019ll be in touch soon with the annual jacking of ticket prices. <\/p>\n

Think of the Leafs right now \u2013 blank looks, empty quotes, zero ideas. There is a world in which this tailspin could be turned into great theatre. But no. The Leafs can\u2019t even collapse in an interesting way. <\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: Blue Jays are sitting pretty as they prepare to swing big in off-season once again<\/a><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t need your team to be good, they won\u2019t be. If you put up with it, they\u2019ll end up blaming you for their failures.<\/p>\n

Until this year, that was the Jays and the Raptors. It\u2019s been the Leafs for ages, and they\u2019re getting worse. <\/p>\n

Sports teams love talking about expectations, but never from the perspective of their patrons. They want to win for themselves, and not for you \u2013 except that that is their job. It\u2019d be like the clowns at the circus coming out after the show and saying, \u2018Sure, you didn\u2019t laugh. But we thought it was funny. That\u2019s what really matters.\u2019<\/p>\n

Who wants to watch a bunch of rich narcissists having the same on-the-job meltdown year after year? Toronto, apparently. This city doesn\u2019t love its teams. It\u2019s in a weird S&M relationship with them. It\u2019s not always clear who\u2019s who. <\/p>\n

You can\u2019t always win, but you can always be fun to be around. That is as much a professional athlete\u2019s job as putting the puck in the net. <\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s occurring to a few pros that you can do this work one of two ways. You can think of it as a cross you haul around, pestered by reporters, leered at by strangers, getting dunked on online. If you want this to be awful, it will be. You can decide that your only joy in it will be success \u2013 whether that\u2019s your own or the team\u2019s. <\/p>\n

Or you can approach this work like it\u2019s a lottery you hit daily, every day, until one day your personal lottery is cancelled. Regardless of what it says in the standings, you are winning. <\/p>\n

You don\u2019t need to be happy to win, but it\u2019s probably more fun. For you, as well as everyone who pays you so much to play make believe. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Brandon Ingram (3) is playing like a superstar for his team and as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,2922,82,8023],"class_list":{"0":"post-306115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-noastack","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-topstory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}