It is a road well travelled by the Toronto Raptors, a long pockmarked journey through Indianapolis and Miami that started years and years ago in Brooklyn and if they are not aware of the speed traps and potholes and dangerous twists and turns, well, shame on them.
Each time they have failed to negotiate the trip without metal-bending and glass-shattering accidents and given another opportunity in another city and another year, they vow to be more aware.
To use an old DeMar DeRozan metaphor, they figure they can travel in the comfort of a 2016 Lexus because they know what it’s like to start up an old, beaten-up Buick Regal.