You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Pascal Siakam described riding the TTC for the first time, Fred VanVleet said he didn’t realize how much he enjoyed living in Toronto until he was away in Tampa, and Nick Nurse was already excited by the prospect of the electricity in the building for the first preseason game.
It was a bit surreal seeing live faces of members of the Toronto Raptors again. Whether it was executive, coach, or player, to think the last time they were within the friendly confines of Scotiabank Arena was 18 months ago -- a time when they were still the NBA’s defending champions -- was to realize just how much has changed.