Recently, I had a conversation with a Maple Leafs fan about the state of the Raptors. He quickly dismissed them as a typical second-rate Toronto sports team. He said they reminded him of the mid 2000s Blue Jays or Maple Leafs, teams happy to toil in second place with no shot at a title as long as they were able to sell a few tickets.
I could hardly believe my ears. Those Jays teams were, at best, long-shots to make the playoffs. Before this current iteration, the Leafs hadn’t even been playoff-worthy since the Pat Quinn era. The Raptors recently made the conference finals!