A historic day for my city with what was likely the largest single gathering of people in Canadian history celebrating Toronto's first NBA championship. Estimates put the number at well over a million people, I know this for a fact: most of the offices in the core were empty as people would rather watch a parade than work, schools were devoid of students and hundreds of thousands of people from the suburbs all joined in on the party. WE THE CHAMPS!
sourceWould it have been as busy if it were a lovely Saturday afternoon? Probably not, because without the rush hour services getting so many people downtown they wouldn't have all been able to make-besides what's a better excuse to dip out of the office for a few hours than to watch two of the coolest (and richest) people in the city party it up on a double-decker bus? Two-time NBA championship winner Kawhi Leonard partying it up with Toronto's own Drake.
sourceWork was unbelievably dead today, I should have gone to the parade. 🐱 It's okay though I was in Jurassic Park moments after Toronto won the NBA championship. It was crazy, hundreds of thousands of riled up fans poured out onto the streets, many of whom congregated around the downtown sports arena. We haven't won a World Series for about 26 years and Toronto hasn't won a Stanley Cup in 52 years so many sports fans were completely overwhelmed; Sorry, Canadian football, Soccer, and Lacrosse don't count!
Home of the 2019 NBA Champions, the Toronto Raptors!
Fans were celebrating with colourful smoke bombs and blow up dinosaurs. These last scenes weren't from the parade, they were from the unofficial party after the win. I couldn't help but take a walk after the game, there were people climbing street poles, running around screaming, shouting, celebrating and going insane well into the early hours of the morning.
During today's parade, I went for lunch with a friend of mine who owns a local bar. He was literally raking it in this month and probably made an extra $150,000.00 with the Raptor's playoff run going all the way. Sports is BIG business and I am glad it was Toronto's turn to win it all. Hopefully, it will happen again in TO before another 26 years pass.
Go Raps Go!