Raptors

[Godin]

Well that took forever. Great celebration though. Great for the city of Toronto. Long overdue.

...and some coward had to bring a gun to the festivities. 2 people shot. Too bad.

[havanablast21]

Well that took forever. Great celebration though. Great for the city of Toronto. Long overdue.

...and some coward had to bring a gun to the festivities. 2 people shot. Too bad.

That many people in a concentrated area... sad to say but it was bound to happen. Quite literally 1 in a million? or so?

Coward.

[blayze]

Shooting and stabbings ruined what should have been a historic day for the city. Now that's all the headlines are talking about.

[havanablast21]

Shooting and stabbings ruined what should have been a historic day for the city. Now that's all the headlines are talking about.

Well...atleast they had the 5 hour snails pace parade to enjoy before the shit went down.

[Call of Doughty]

When they win the championship next year, they should consider hosting the parade along the 401 corridor, during rush hour, moving East to West. It would move quicker.

That was a bit of a yawn fest.

[2014olympicgold]

I went to Nathan Phillips Square, if you thought the live TV feed of the parade was boring, let me tell you I'd kill for that. Here's my day yesterday.

-Took the 8:50-ish train at Appleby go station. By Clarkson, no one could fit on the train. AKA, 3 stops.
-Got into Toronto and at NPS at roughly 10am. Posted up in the (when facing the stage) back left watching a TV
-Data was terrible, so finding stuff on Twitter was impossible.
-TV screens weren't showing the parade, we figured it hadn't started yet
-11am, just showing interviews of players but we saw it was right at the beginning of the parade route, we thought they were late
-11:30, still showing the beginning of the parade, we get some signal on our phones and realize they had trouble going under the gates, but are on Lakeshore.
-11:31 we now realize they aren't showing the parade live on the tv screens.
-12:00 people have been drinking and smoking weed and you can now tell it's hit them.
-12:30 starting to tell the organizers at NPS are filling time. See they aren't even at Union yet
-1:30 people start passing out from dehydration or because of drinking
-2:00 we hear there was a stabbing. We also hear the parade is "just around the corner" over and over by the DJ at NPS
-3:30 finally shows up
-4:00 finally on stage
-4:15-ish shooting happened
-4:20 we find our friends after the stampede
-4:55 on the train leaving because EFF this.

It was honestly so effing terrible being at NPS as we were there for like 6+hrs, and saw 20min of presentations. Didn't see the parade. Couldn't even buy water. No food. I was lucky enough to bring a bag of chips and 2 water bottles in a backpack, but it was just so poorly organized. I honestly can't believe they didn't even show the parade live on the TVs while we waited for them to get to the square.

[2014olympicgold]

BTW it's 4 people shot, 3 now arrested. There's a video of the one guy being tackled and taken down on twitter

[bondon]

I went to Nathan Phillips Square, if you thought the live TV feed of the parade was boring, let me tell you I'd kill for that. Here's my day yesterday.

-Took the 8:50-ish train at Appleby go station. By Clarkson, no one could fit on the train. AKA, 3 stops.
-Got into Toronto and at NPS at roughly 10am. Posted up in the (when facing the stage) back left watching a TV
-Data was terrible, so finding stuff on Twitter was impossible.
-TV screens weren't showing the parade, we figured it hadn't started yet
-11am, just showing interviews of players but we saw it was right at the beginning of the parade route, we thought they were late
-11:30, still showing the beginning of the parade, we get some signal on our phones and realize they had trouble going under the gates, but are on Lakeshore.
-11:31 we now realize they aren't showing the parade live on the tv screens.
-12:00 people have been drinking and smoking weed and you can now tell it's hit them.
-12:30 starting to tell the organizers at NPS are filling time. See they aren't even at Union yet
-1:30 people start passing out from dehydration or because of drinking
-2:00 we hear there was a stabbing. We also hear the parade is "just around the corner" over and over by the DJ at NPS
-3:30 finally shows up
-4:00 finally on stage
-4:15-ish shooting happened
-4:20 we find our friends after the stampede
-4:55 on the train leaving because EFF this.

It was honestly so effing terrible being at NPS as we were there for like 6+hrs, and saw 20min of presentations. Didn't see the parade. Couldn't even buy water. No food. I was lucky enough to bring a bag of chips and 2 water bottles in a backpack, but it was just so poorly organized. I honestly can't believe they didn't even show the parade live on the TVs while we waited for them to get to the square.

Yeah I actually left town for a work trip on Monday morning and I was dealing with major feelings of FOMO but after hearing so many countless stories like this I'm kind of glad I didn't get caught in it. Just not worth it. Sucks that you had that experience, it's really a shame.

[hockeyrobot]

Definitely a shame when this country has poured in so much time and money to this team and they can't support or fund a well organized parade.

[2014olympicgold]

So couple of things have come out about the plan that didn't work out.

-There was supposed to be 2 empty buses leading the way and at times supposed to drive side-by-side to clear a way through the crowd. But that was ditched really early because it wasn't work and causing more of a backlog.
-The buses were supposed to turn right on University onto Queen, but Queen was so blocked up that they switched the plan to enter NPS at the back. Players didn't even know the plan was changed.
-Apparently buses had run out of food and beverages (water, beer, champagne and so on) halfway through the trip. Players were apparently ridiculously thirsty and would have sore throats from yelling.

Clearly they didn't plan on the amount of people that attended.

Also people were going into roped off areas and going onto the streets and people were expecting police/security to tell them to backoff, but no one did so more people just moved onto the streets.

There was 100,000 people at NPS, they were expecting 50,000. They lost the feed to the parade due to "Technically difficulties" and too many people having a cellphone in the area they couldn't get a strong signal into the square. There was also people on the tech equipment trying to get a better view of the parade.

AKA, it was all a Sh!t show.

[havanablast21]

Definitely a shame when this country has poured in so much time and money to this team and they can't support or fund a well organized parade.

I think we know who's to blame here... clearly the Leafs for dragging their feet on a championship for so long. City had a knee jerk reaction and ended up just plain jerking off.

[Dennis]

I think we know who's to blame here... clearly the Leafs for dragging their feet on a championship for so long. City had a knee jerk reaction and ended up just plain jerking off.

It took way to long for someone to make that joke here.

[havanablast21]

It took way to long for someone to make that joke here.

hurts that it had to be me.

[hockeyrobot]

I think we know who's to blame here... clearly the Leafs for dragging their feet on a championship for so long. City had a knee jerk reaction and ended up just plain jerking off.

Haha well done. BLAME THE LEAFS

[bondon]

People have to stop harping on the Kawhi decision. I think Fred VV put it best. The guy has been given every possible pitch that he's been given. Load management, NBA champion, Finals MVP, supermax deal, country embracing him, people literally offering to let him eat for free, live for free here.

If he decides that it's not for him then so be it. I'll respect the decision. He delivered us what we wanted - a title. Provided us with memories that will last a lifetime. If he decides to stay he'll go down as the most revered player for this franchise. If he decides to walk we'll move on.