I just finished watching the Raptors beat the Boston Celtics and tie up the series in double overtime, and now it's quite possible that I may not be able to sleep for the next three days.

My favorite inbound text of the evening was this one here: "I could run 30km right now. I won't. But you get it." I most certainly do.

There's something so special about seeing Lowry do things like this:

It is about refusing to lose and just making things happen. Skill certainly matters, but at the end of the day: how strong is your will to win?

The Raptors certainly had that tonight.

The frenetic run-up to Christmas has come to an end, and I'm looking forward to relaxing and taking it easy with family and friends. I hope that all of you are able to do the same, however you spend the holidays. This is the one time of the year when the email firehose completely shuts off and it's a lot easier to do exactly that. I think that's important for all of us.

This past year I found it particularly difficult to disconnect. And 2020 is on deck to be an even bigger year. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I am, however, going to take this time to slow down, read, write, travel, and likely drink a bunch of wine. As always, you'll find me here on the blog every morning. Merry Christmas, everyone.

P.S. The Toronto Raptors are hosting their first ever Christmas Day game.

This recent NY Times article about crowd estimates for Hong Kong's annual pro-democracy protest is a good follow-up to my post about the number of people who, allegedly, showed up to last month's NBA Championship parade here in Toronto.

For years, Hong Kong has been seeing divergent estimates for its annual protest. Organizers typically overstate. And the police typically understate. This year, organizers claimed 550,000 people in attendance, whereas the police claimed only 190,000.

The difference this year is that a local tech company has started using AI software (loaded up onto iPads) to help supplement the standard practice manual counts. This year they concluded -- perhaps more definitively -- that 265,000 people protested in the streets of Hong Kong.

Image: NY Times