For a day and a half, the centre of the NBA universe is in the self-proclaimed centre of the universe. ESPN landed in Toronto Tuesday with its full weight and swarmed everywhere — there’s Rachel Nichols, there’s Doris Burke, and they say Steven A. Smith is around somewhere. Just listen to the wind, and you might hear him approach.
And at the centre of it was a Toronto Raptors team with so much happening. Team president Masai Ujiri held his fifth annual gala dinner honouring the legacy of Nelson Mandela on Tuesday night; he talked about how the NBA’s investment in the continent will only grow.