Our friend Tommy Wong is lining up for outside of Scotia Bank Arena, waiting to get into Jurassic Park to watch tonight’s NBA finals Game Five as the Toronto Raptors look to take the championship, becoming the first Canadian team to ever do so, and the first Canadian team to win a major championship since the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series in 1993.

 

 

Matt in the Morning spoke to Tommy during the show.

 

Excitement is building across Canada for a game that could win the Toronto Raptors their first NBA Championship tonight.
Toronto leads the NBA Finals 3-games-to-1 over the Golden State Warriors and there’s plenty of interest locally in the Raptors run and with basketball in general.
Former Spartans player and guard with the Sudbury 5 Joey Puddister tells BayToday he compares it to what happens in Europe or other countries when they have a big name player in the game.
“They have some kind of attachment to the game. It’s the same thing with Yao Ming and Chinese players, I think it’s really great when it gives young kids an actual tie to the game,” he says.
Spartans past president and program founder Larry Tougas tells BayToday they’ve seen this before, with big gains in baseball after the Toronto Blue Jays World Series wins, and even after the famous bat-flip homerun a couple years ago from Jose Bautista.
“Enrollment in baseball went through the roof, well the same things going to happen, we have ten club teams already and we’re growing. The interest around here is that basketball is becoming a realistic goal, people want to play basketball” he says.
The Raptors can win their first NBA title tonight on Sportsnet and Sportsnet ONE at 9.
(With files from the Canadian Press)

(photo from Tommy Wong)

Filed under: Jurassic Park, NBA Finals, toronto-raptors