Toronto mayor John Tory didn’t like the Raptors being called ‘Other’
So here’s a silly one
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Websites, dating back to the late 1990s, love to put up polls. It’s a good way to engage with readers, to gauge their interests and/or opinions, and yeah also a swell way to ramp up pageviews. They’re usually a harmless afterthought, but to the readers they often tend to mean quite a bit.
Our pals at CBSSports.com decided to publish a poll over the weekend asking potential participants to lend their picks for the eventual NBA champion: Golden State, Oklahoma City, Cleveland, or “Other.” Raptor fans and eventually Toronto mayor John Tory (who, shockingly, is a member of the Tory Party) did not enjoy the website’s perceived slight of their hometown Raptors, who have made their first Eastern finals.
Half-mockingly (we’re totally, totally sure), here is the letter Tory sent to CBSSports:
Here, via J.E. Skeets, is a screenshot of the original poll:
Well, see, here, um … we gots a problem.
The website pushed the poll on Sunday, prior to the Game 7 that would eventually decide the second participant in the Eastern Conference finals. A contest that, let’s be honest, a goodly number of self-loathing Raptor fans probably expected their team to lose. CBSSports.com (in a since-deleted tweet) told Raptor fans that Raptors/Heat wouldn’t fit within the character limit allotted, which makes sense.
Skeets and (to a lesser extent) the mayor are taking the perceived slight in stride, though other Raptor fans most certainly are not – a #WeTheOther hastag trended on Tuesday afternoon.
Raptors fans are lovely and also not a monolith, but this is a little typical. Since a bit of tone deaf bash-work from national (mostly dumb American) media during the fin de siècle, Raptor fans have developed an (unfortunately deserved) stereotype of being a bit, erm, sensitive when even the hint of a dig is being thrown their way. And, while we’re readying ourselves for mean emails, the same goes for fans of their Eastern Conference finals opponent.
This is perhaps the best reason to tune into the first game of the Nobody Likes Us and Everyone’s Mean Series on Tuesday night.
(Hat-tip: Deadspin.)
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
