Depriving Fans of Fantasizing: The NBA and NFL Lockouts

Last season, after Chris Bosh took his talents to South Beach, the Raptors sold the fans the following:

• The Raptors would play an up-tempo game premised on fast break points.
• Finally, Andrea Bargnani would step out of the shadow of Bosh and lead the team to glorious victory.
• There will be learning curves for the various players, but the Raptors would challenge for a playoff spot.

Oh, dear friends, I drank the kool-aid.  Specifically, I believed all this crap in the lead up to the season.  During the summer and well into training camp, I believed the Raptors would be fine without Bosh.  That Bosh is overrated.  Our beloved home team would be fine.

Well, maybe Bosh is/was overrated, but the man's still an all-star.  And after the first game or two, it became painfully obvious that the Raptors wouldn't play an up-tempo game and get fast break points (because you need to defend to play that style... and, well... yeah).  Bargnani put up 20 points per game but was his usual self on defense and the boards, which wouldn't have been all that bad had Reggie Evans not gotten hurt (again) so early in the season and could have made up for Bargs' shortcomings (or so I'm still telling myself).

I'd like to think I'm a somewhat rational person.  And really, I didn't buy what the Raptors were selling pre-season on the basis of rationality.  I bought it because I wanted it to be true.  I bought it on emotion.  I wanted it to be true that the Raptors wouldn't suck.  This is what's known in Toronto as "the Leafs Syndrome" or "being a Leafs fan".

And this is why the lockouts in the NFL and the NBA blow.  

The summertime (or off-season, more precisely) is when fans dream.  When even the crappiest teams have hope for a brighter future.  When Bills and Browns fans tell themselves that probability dictates that they can't lose forever.  When Leafs fans convince themselves that having 10 defense men and only one legitimate top six forward will lead to the Stanley Cup (well, I guess if Brian Burkes starts flipping some of these blueliners for forwards, it might work).  When Blue Jays fans tell themselves that Bautista is the key to the post-season.  It's when Raptors fans dream of some team looking at Bargnani and his 20 ppg and thinking, "yeah, we can get him to play defense".

But you can't do that when there's a work stoppage.  There are no trade rumors.  There are no trades or free agent signings.  There's no fantasy.

Man, Raptors fans (me included, by the way) are getting excited this summer about Jonas Valanciunas because he dominated an international under-20 basketball tournament.  And that's great, it really is, but projecting what he will be in three or four years time in the NBA is pretty low on the fantasizing totem pole.

So dear ridiculously rich athletes and even more ridiculously rich owners: get back to throwing footballs (highly likely) and back to shooting baskets (less likely).  We, your loyal fans, need to dream.

Particularly fans in Toronto.  It's all we got.