Look, I get it.
The Raptors had plateaued. When the Cavaliers swept them in the playoffs earlier this year we all knew there were going to be significant changes in the off-season. Many people who know more about basketball than I do also seem to believe that sending our franchise player DeMar DeRozan to San Antonio in exchange for Kawhi Leonard is a win for us. The betting odds also seem to reflect this win.
But, like many people here in Toronto, the first emotion I felt this morning when I heard the news was sadness. Here is a guy who has played his entire professional career in Toronto (9 years) and has openly and continually expressed his loyalty to this city. He wanted to retire a Toronto Raptor. He declared himself to be Toronto.
Of course in the end this is a business. And the primary goal of this business to win championships. If you don’t think you’re in a position to win championships – or lose to the Golden State Warriors in the finals, which is probably the most that teams can hope for right now – then it behooves you to make the necessary changes, however painful they may be.
I have no idea how this all went down, but the Instagram story that DeRozan posted this morning makes it abundantly clear that he feels betrayed. He feels he was told one thing, and that one thing isn’t what ended up happening. That’s the truly sad part for me. But I’m not going to speculate. Instead, I would like to thank DeMar DeRozan for his dedication and loyalty to this city. He was one of Toronto’s finest city builders.
On Sunday afternoon I went to see the Blue Jays. It was the last home game of the season before the postseason and the only game I’ve gone to see this season. (Thank you Chris for the ticket.)
And what a last game it was.
We won 5-4, but we hustled for the win. We squeaked it out at the end with a pinch runner that stole 2nd base (and then tied the game in the bottom of the 8th) and with Josh Donaldon’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs. I’m pretty sure the Jays were hungover from celebrating their first playoff berth in 22 years – that’s why it was so close. It certainly made for a gripping finish though.
After the game everybody was jazzed up and spilling out onto Bremner Blvd in front of the Rogers Centre. I’m not sure if it was premeditated or not, but the entire street was closed to cars. And it reminded me of something that I’ve thought for years: that Bremner Blvd should be made into a kinds of sports and entertainment corridor connecting the Rogers Centre in the west with the Air Canada Centre and Maple Leaf Square in the east.
Bremner is not a long street. But it connects the place where Canada’s only (MLB) baseball team plays and where Canada’s only (NBA) basketball team plays. Right now it’s a fairly nondescript street. But it doesn’t have to be that way. It could be something really special.