20 years after Canada got a NBA franchise, the NBA All-Star Game is finally coming north of the border.
The 2016 NBA All-Star Game will take place on Valentine's Day, Sunday night at 8 pm Eastern, from the Air Canada Centre. Coverage will be on TSN and Rogers Sportsnet One in Canada and TNT in the United States.
The All-Star Game is the culmination of All-Star Weekend that features The Rising Stars Challenge (Friday) and All-Star Saturday Night (Saturday).
The Toronto Raptors' Kyle Lowry will start at guard in the All-Star Game for the second year in a row. Lowry got 646,441 votes to finish second among East guards behind Miami's Dwyane Wade.
Toronto guard DeMar DeRozan was named to the East squad as a backup. DeRozan finished 5th in the voting with 444,868 votes. The Raptors backcourt is the first from a home team in an All-Star Game since Jerry West and Gail Goodrich of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972.
This is the first time in the 20 years of the Raptors that 2 players were voted to the team. Vince Carter and Antonio Davis played in the 2001 All-Star Game, but Davis was a replacement for an injured player.
This will be the second All-Star Game each for both Lowry and DeRozan.
Chris Bosh, who spent his first seven seasons in Toronto, earned his 11th consecutive All-Star selection. The reception for the Miami Heat star at the Air Canada Centre will be worth watching.
Lowry will also represent the Raptors in the 3-point shootout. Jason Kapono represented Toronto in this competition in 2008 and 2009, and Walt Williams participated in 1997.
The brand new Cleveland head coach Tyronn Lue will be the person to coach the Eastern Conference squad while Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs will run the Western Conference squad.
Sting, who is definitely not Canadian, will be the halftime entertainment. Cirque du Soleil, definitely Canadian, will be the pregame entertainment illustrating the story of a basketball dream.
2015 Toronto Raptors NBA preview
Record-setting night for Canadians at 2014 NBA draft
Can Drake help the Toronto Raptors mojo?
Anthony Bennett becomes first Canadian to be #1 in NBA draft
CanadianCrossing.com NBA coverage
Drake will coach Team Canada in the All-Star Celebrity Game Friday night at Ricoh Coliseum, the home of the Toronto Marlies. The squad will be filled with actual Canadians, such as former two-time NBA Most Valuable Player and Victoria, BC native Steve Nash; Toronto-born Rick Fox, a three-time NBA champ with the Los Angeles Lakers; WNBA star and Guelph, Ontario native Natalie Anchowa; tennis star Milos Raonic; Arcade Fire lead singer Win Butler; and Hometown rapper Drizzy.
Jose Bautista, who is an honorary Canadian these days, will represent the hometown Toronto Blue Jays. The Canada squad also has 7-time All-Star Tracy McGrady, Drew and Jonathan Scott of Property Brothers, Chinese entertainer Kris Wu, and actor Stephan James.
Kevin Hart will coach the U.S. squad with former Raptors players Chauncey Billups and Muggsy Bogues. Other players include actors Michael B. Jordan, Anthony Anderson, Jason Sudeikis, Bryshere “Yazz” Gray along with America’s Got Talent host Nick Cannon, Marc Lasry, co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, and WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne.
---
Drake and #WeTheNorth have helped bring a passion to the Toronto Raptors beyond southern Ontario. The squad, like the MLB Blue Jays, benefits and suffers from being the only Canadian team in the league. The praise in Canada is huge, while the teams normally suffer south of the border.
The Raptors presence in the States has definitely improved with additional U.S. national telecasts. But the Canadian presence would be helped with a playoff series win, something the Raptors have only done once in its 20-year history.
The team’s recent 11-game winning streak definitely plays its part. But this All-Star weekend gives casual NBA fans a chance to see how much Toronto and Canada loves basketball.
---
The NBA, like MLB, is down to a single team in Canada. The Vancouver Grizzlies entered the NBA at the same time as the Raptors in 1995.
The NBA welcomed the Canadian-based franchises by putting together a set of restrictions that hadn't applied to expansion teams before or since the entry of the Raptors and Grizzlies.
The Canadian teams were not allowed to draft in the first 5 slots in their first drafts in 1995. They were not allowed to draft first overall in 1996. They also couldn’t use their full salary cap during their first two seasons. The first time a Canadian team got to select the first overall pick was 2006.
The franchise fee for the Canadian teams was $125 million, significantly higher than the $32.5 million from the previous 4 expansion teams only 6 and 7 years previously.
The Grizzlies didn’t have much of a chance for survival and left Vancouver after 6 seasons in the NBA. The league had teams in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver but now only the TrailBlazers remain. The only sport that got this correct is MLS to have teams in all 3 cities.
The Vancouver Grizzles aren’t as cute and heartwarming as the Montréal Expos. But the Grizzlies should be remembered on the weekend the NBA All-Star Game finally comes to Canada.
---
Basketball was invented by a Canadian: Dr. James Naismith, who was born in 1861 near Almonte, Ontario.
---
logo and photo credit: NBA
Comments