Our Lady Peace: We The North

A friend of mine’s family had Leafs season tickets. When the Raptors first started, Leafs season ticket holders also received Raptors tickets so we would go to the Raptors games.

Have the Raptors influenced your music or writing at all?

The metaphorical journey has some similarities, but nothing directly. If I was a hip hop artist I would defitely be dropping Raptors nuggets in verses!

How often do you attend games?

Being L.A. based now, I only get to a couple a year these days.

Do you have any favorite Raptors memories or stories aside from this year’s championships?

Vince Carter’s time with the team was a turning point for the OG fans. Him winning the dunk contest and playing the way he did put the NBA eyes on Toronto in a real way.

What was your experience like this year watching the playoffs and championship?

Stressful. I think we’ve all been shell shocked by those playoff sweeps the last couple of years. We all held our emotions and expectations tight until we evened up that Milwaukee series. Then it finally felt like we had a chance. There were so many great moments though overall. It’s a trip. Two months of excitement and nail-biting.

What do you feel this season meant to the cit of Toronto and greater community?

It’s bigger than basketball. Straight up. It’s a testament to Toronto as a truly diverse compassionate community which was paralleled by the team and Masai (Ujiri).

They were underdogs which Toronto is great at being because there’s so much internal belief in this city. The world gets that now and it was on full display all year long. We had 16 nationally televised games in the USA this year. I think we had four the year before. Raps have arrived!