Sadly, July 2020 was only the third month in the history of this blog when I didn't post an entry. (The other two were November 2014 and May 2017.) Happily, July's book entry will be coming soon, as will August's (I've already read both books), plus an awesome summer reading list featuring fiction and non-fiction entries ranging from classic to bestseller.
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With that out of the way, Happy Birthday to me once again! (As well as to Tom Brady and James Hetfield, as I noted in the inaugural year of this blog.)
Today at 1:30PM Eastern, something happens that has never happened before and might not ever happen again: a Toronto Raptors regular season game on my birthday.
I've been a Raptors fan since the team started making inaugural season preparations in 1994. I had a Raptors T-shirt before they played a game. I even owned Raptors-branded pencils at one point. (More on NBA corporate sponsors in my Quora post today.) I've been to dozens of games, through the horrible 1997-1998 season when they went 16-66, to the first playoff appearances with Vince Carter, to the lows of the 2010 rebuild, to last year's championship. Never, ever, has any of this happened on my birthday - until now.
It's a good game too: the Raptors are the East's #2 seed, and their opponent, the Miami Heat, are fighting for home court in the East's first round. With six fierce competitors in the Eastern Conference this season, a top-4 seed means a key Game 7 at home in the first round if it comes to that.
Toronto is second in the NBA in steals and second in fewest points allowed in the paint.
Miami is second in the NBA in fewest points allowed on fast breaks and tied for second in defensive rebound percentage.
Expect lots of defence today from these teams. After the Raptors' suffocating 107-92 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers and the Heat's 125-105 blowout of the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, both teams are ferocious (like Raptors) and scorching (like Heat).
Best of all: in a league that has an October to June schedule, with August often being a season of doldrums, the Raptors are playing on my birthday.
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