Raptors Get Coal In Their Stockings

The National Basketball Association released the schedule for the upcoming season this past Wednesday. This is commissioner  Adam Silver's first full season in charge and he has already put his imprint on how and where he thinks the association should go in the future. His biggest change was the make the all-star break longer hopefully enabling everyone to get some rest and stopping the rash of late season injuries which have put stars in street clothes and not on the court.

Every executive, stat guru and basketball nerd first looked up and down the schedule to see when the marquee matches were to occur.

When would LeBron James go back to Miami? When would Andrew Wiggins go back, well sort of back, to Cleveland. When would Kobe Bryant play against Kevin Durant or Carmelo Anthony or Derrick Rose?

Then, some of us looked at the schedule on Christmas day.

Christmas day is the unofficial start of the season. Back in the day, before huge television deals, only local stations and little watched cable networks televised the first two months worth of games. Then right after the kids opened their gifts the National Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, took over. Those games on that day where the biggest of the season. Those where the first nationally televised games and only the best and biggest stars suited up.

Toronto Raptors fans (full disclosure: I am one!) looked at the schedule Wednesday night and realized once again their team wouldn't be playing on December 25^th.

Fans and local media exploded with anger on Twitter and other outlets wondering why the Raptors weren't being shown to a national, in America of course, audience. Why where the Raptors once again being shut out? Didn't the team win the Atlantic division last season? Didn't 'We The North' sweep the nation? Isn't there a 'Northern Uprising' underway. Weren't there thousands of people jamming Red Square for each playoff game, home or away?

Yes all that did happen last season but there still isn't a Christmas day game on this year's schedule. Then the apologists came out. The 'my city against the world' citizens of Toronto started to rant once again. Cathal Kelly egged everyone on with his take on the Drake fine situation discussing past decisions which the association made against the Raptors. He and everyone else talked about bad officiating, the idea that the NBA is holding 'us' back and that the big bad Americans don't want anyone else to succeed at a game they call their own.

Those statements and views are far from the truth. I won't discuss the arguments Kelly made about the Drake fine because honestly he has no proof. Fans and media need to wake up in the city and understand how the association actually works. It is solely run by money. The NBA will go anywhere, do anything and show anything when and where they can make the most financially. That is how the greatest commissioner in all of sports, David Stern, built his dream and that is how it will continue.

Stern realized this fact in the early eighties: for the league to survive, to get past the drug and fighting era, to thrive and make lots of money for everyone – he needed stars. He didn't have to look far. The association had Earvin Johnson and Larry Bird. Then Michael Jordan showed up and Stern's plan was working. He, the cable networks and more importantly NBC didn't promote the teams:  they promoted the stars. 

It wasn't the Chicago Bulls against the Detroit Pistons. It was Michael Jordan and the Bulls against Isiah Thomas and the big bad Pistons. They didn't care about the city nor the team but the players were the key. It was those players who were recognized nationally and then internationally and it was those players that the association was built on.

There is nothing different today. Kobe has given way to LeBron, Carmelo, Durant and DRose. Yes only single names are used. Bird, Magic and Michael was all anyone needed to understand what was coming next. Those are the players that sell jerseys not their teams. Those are the players that sell shoes, ball and underwear. Those are the players that sell adverts on television, radio and now the web. The local audience doesn't matter. It's about getting more eyes and ears from a national audience so ratings go up and advertising costs more. Of course nationally means the United States of America not Canada.

The Raptors don't have anything that would entice the association to put them on the Christmas schedule. Do they have a true star? 

DeMar DeRozan is the closest thing to one but most, even in Toronto, don't even know he is on the US World Cup FIBA team. He is too quiet and understated to be a big star. Could Kyle Lowry be that guy? Not when every other team, player and executive in the league hates his attitude.

Lowry is a guy you want on your team but a guy you hate when he isn't. Jonas Valuncuinas doesn't have the game to be at that level and I am sure the association doesn't really care to have a Lithuanian running the charge. Terrence Ross hasn't done anything to capitalize on his dunk contest antics.

So who cares if the Raptors are a top team in the Eastern conference. Toronto fans and media types alike should stop blaming everyone else for their ill will. The city itself is the fourth largest in the NBA. There is enough money on Bay street and in Canada to make the team rich, well the team and organization actually are already rich. So stop griping about how everyone hates the team and the city. The decisions the association makes are solely about money not about the team, the city or the country. Money talks and stars bring in the money. Toronto will never be that team.

Do I care? Of course not as long as the team wins and a future is shown. Do I need to watch a Raptors game on Christmas day? Of course not, I would rather be with the wife and kids opening gifts feasting on plates of food while visiting with family. 

That way I never have hear it from my wife that I would rather watch basketball then do everything we should be doing. That is called points in the bank. Only married men would understand that. Do you think the Raptors organization or it's players care? Of course they don't. I bet all of them are smiling ear to ear seeing the schedule. They realize that while others are playing they will have five days off to rest and visit their own families.

So enough with the brouhaha about the Raptors not playing on Christmas. No one in the NBA or even in the Raptors brass cares. Think about it:  it's actually a blessing in disguise.

Shahab Khan

@SchoolboyShebe