Canadians are embracing basketball

PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL got off to an inauspicious start in Canada. The first game in what would later become the National Basketball Association was played in 1946 at Maple Leaf Gardens between the New York Knickerbockers and the Toronto Huskies. The rules had to be explained to ticket-holders. The Knicks were stopped on their way to the game by a customs officer, who supposedly told them they would not “find many people up this way who’ll understand your game”. The Huskies folded the next season.

That has not been a problem this year for the Toronto Raptors, who became the city’s first NBA team in 1995. As The Economist went to press, the team was preparing for their penultimate game of the NBA championship. If they win, they would take the cup, which would be a first for a Canadian team. Fans have filled the 19,800-seat Scotiabank Arena; tens of thousands more have camped outside. Canada’s usual game is ice hockey, a sport so loved that it can provoke riots among a people famous for saying “sorry” when others tread on their toes. But could basketball edge it out?

The Raptors benefit from good marketing. They appointed Drake, a rapper who has tattoos of the Toronto area code 416 and the CN Tower, as their “global ambassador” in 2013. His courtside antics are now part of the spectacle. It also...

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