Just in case you’ve been living under a rock these past few weeks, the Toronto Raptors made history last night by winning their first ever NBA championship in franchise history. The entire country has been electrified, with each day leading up to the next game in the series feeling like one long, collective intake of breath. It’s an incredible achievement in its own right, and we can all exhale a sigh of relief now that it’s over; that said, focusing purely on the basketball passes up on an opportunity to have a different kind of conversation.
See, something amazing happened over the course of the Raptors’ playoff run. Their success brought people together, uniting them over a common interest and sparking conversations that wouldn’t have otherwise happened. Where normally 10% of Canadians follow basketball, all of a sudden nearly half the country was watching the game at the same time. We normally only see that when Team Canada is playing hockey for gold at the winter Olympics.
The question is this: now that the series is over, what happens next? Will we go back into our individual fishbowls and isolate ourselves from our compatriots? Or can we find ways to keep the conversations going and put them to more productive use?
Imagine the possibilities if we choose the latter. There’s no doubt that there are conversations that need having right now. How about we talk about our culture of overworking, or reducing our environmental footprint so our grandkids’ grandkids have a planet to grow up on? Why don’t we talk about the xenophobia that seems to be spreading more openly in recent years? And maybe we can talk about the fact that, now that the series is over, most of us will go back to being best friends with our phones, instead of the real human beings around us?
For the past several weeks, we all talked about basketball, and it was amazing. Now let’s keep the conversation going and talk about some real stuff. The Raptors had a golden opportunity at their fingertips, and they capitalized. Can we as a country do the same?
