My love-hate relationship with the Raptors

So here I am writing my first Toronto Raptors post. I thought I would thus begin by writing about what it is to be a sports fan. In times like ours where our modern cushy lifestyles does not afford us the luxury of hurling our bodies into bloodthirsty battles for life and death, how do men satiate that unquenchable urge to prove their manhood through war and conquest? I believe this was why sports was created. Sports has provided us a welcome outlet to fuel this genetic bloodlust. We have traded in our swords for jerseys, but we still stand strong under flags and banners that unite us. Men obviously suffer more from this primal desire to fight for a cause. A higher calling, so to speak, so above and beyond us that we don't question what we do in the name for it, ever.

Thus it goes that the Raptors is the team that I support - it is my higher calling. Perhaps in modern times with the rise of, say, logic, we tend not to do things like kill or pillage in the name of the banner under which we parade, but you can't say you're a true fan unless you've done some entirely illogical things while invoking your team as the reason. Such as screaming your innards out and crying like a baby after, surviving on cheap frozen food whilst saving up for a playoff ticket, or even invoking the wrath of the missus. I'm not saying that you have to act like a raving lunatic just to be a hardcore fan - supporting a team itself is a logical fallacy all by itself. Why would anyone possibly want to support a team that loses more often than not? Assuming you derive pleasure from wins and suffer emotional distress when the game culminates in a loss, why would you ever subject yourself to such voluntary torture? So call me a screwloose romantic, a hopeless madman or plain idiot, but I fell in love with the Raptors during the season in which they struggled to get 27 wins.

But this is it - this madness is what sports and being a fan is all about. You live for the wins, and endure through the losing streaks. Every loss makes that next win that much sweeter, and thus things find their balance in nature. A team that wins all the time derives less marginal utility from each win (some people would like to differ, I'm sure), so by deduction a team that scarcely wins grants intense pleasure to its fans when it does. And this is why I will support the Raptors through stormy weather, even as sunlight rises on the horizon in the form of Colangelo, Bosh and an improving Bargnani. You can never have, or at least fully appreciate ups without the occasional downs. Some fans, I fully understand, feel more down about the downs, and perhaps Raptors fans rank up there with the grumpiest of them after a bad turnover day. Perhaps it is due to Canadian fans, perhaps is partly due to the team, and maybe it is just my own delusions, but being a Raptors fan has not been an easy ride and Raptors fans aren't afraid of making that known. As I write, Bargnani sinks a 3-pointer and completes the and-one play to score the first 6 for the Raps, the same Bargnani  I will mourn on alternate nights when he follows an offensive foul with a travelling violation on that awkward looking drive of his. But as I hope I have explained - thats why we watch it and gulp it all down - we live for the sweet shots and the terrible turnovers equally.

Since this is my very first post, here's a shoutout to all the Raptors fans out there - I'd like to hear from any or all of you if you are reading this - I know there are plenty of you floating on the interweb but I'm not sure how many land up here. Send me any rants and/or diatribes about being a Raptors fan, and I'll gladly post them in my next blogpost. Or just drop a short comment to let me know you're alive and kicking and I'll write in more often.