Your Connection to the Raptors?

[Smitch]

I'm the guy behind Nav Bhatias turban.

[DonMega]

i met bargs at a strip club while he was getting a lap dance, bargs was high as hell and acting (Please Use More Appropriate Word). Then he jumped on the table and started dancing with a one legged hooker

[darth_federer]

One of my best friends is a very devout Christian. He goes to the same church as Herbie Kuhn (the PA announcer) and he gets tickets all the time. Herbie is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet.

[EFF3KT]

My girlfriend ran into Bargnani, Jose, and Demar at a clinic around Dundas and Bay maybe 3 weeks ago. She works right across the clinic they went to (possibly for physicals/blood work). She was sitting on a bench beside some dude wearing a hoodie and they were right beside the elevator doors as they opened and she told me "All I saw were legs when those doors opened". She is around 5'4 so that made entire sense. She realized it was Bargs and Demar after they had to bend down just to get out of the elevator. Bargnani and Demar then went over to the bench she was previously sitting at then started speaking to that dude on the bench. He takes off his hoodie and revealed that he was Jose Calderon. Sometimes I wish I worked downtown still.

[Nivrad]

Another one: I had finished classes at Rye for the day, and went to the Bay for a Jose Calderon autograph session a few years back. The event was put on by Perry Ellis, and I was two hours early, and first in line. Long story short, started talking to the Perry Ellis people, went upstairs to a room where Jose was chillin (before the event), talked to him for a few minutes, got an autograph, and talked to the Raptors security guy (the guy that always escorts the players after half-time/post-game interviews, etc.) for the rest of the time before the autograph session started. Good times...

[MinnyMo]

Me and my buddy went to the Cleveland game last year, the one that went into OT on Friday February 26. It was our first live raptors game ever, we're from Nova Scotia, and we were able to get center court seats, 10 rows from the floor, on the non bench side, sitting right below us was Elisha Cuthbert and Dion Phaneuf. Anyways, as soon as we get in the doors, to the ACC, TSN pulls us over, and tells us in a couple moments to cheer, yell , pop our jerseys and get right up in the camera. So we did that and we were shown in the first moments of the broadcast. Not to mention the game was unreal, no Bosh or Shaq though, but we there was lots of big shots down the stretch. Needless to say we had no voices left by the end of the night, the atmosphere was unreal. One of the best experiences of my life.

[ontnut]

I saw Jose Calderon at the Queen/John Starbucks buying a vanilla latte He was in full red track suit and was with a shorter lady (wasn't sure who she was, wasn't the wife). He also was carrying some sort of baked goods.

[RaptorSingh]

In grade 8 I remember attending the Raptors Clinic and meeting Donyell Marshall and man can this guy shoot. I also had a chat with Jack Armstrong and Sherm Hamilton at the ACC which basically everyone gets a chance to do. And of course I couldn't forget my main man Nav Bhatia, met him couple years back at the Mississauga Sikh Temple asked for Raptor tickets got rejected but it was worth the try

[onions17]

i got on "vector viewpoint" a couple of times that was cool. Also i touched darius miles' hand when he was player of the game in a winnipeg preseason game. also went to a point guard camp where one guest coach said he trained some of the raptors with power and plyometrics stuff, Joey graham i remember he mentioned specifically.

[RickyRubio]

I used to go to the same middle school as Dustin Triano, Jay Triano's son back when Jay was just an assistant coach. Dustin always had raptors clothing on and was actually a pretty decent basketball player for his size at the time.

[execoftheyear]

me and derozan's nuts...but i had to cut that part out because I'd get flagged on youtube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc-AZ05lO7U[/youtube]

[kidcanada15@hotmail.com]

I said hello to Glen Grunwald in St. John's, NL when the Raptors did not play there.

[Raptorballz]

I was in the same elevator with Richard Peddie at the ACC once when I was on a school field trip.

[theSkinny]

I have way too many stories to list...but here's a couple

MG used to live two doors down from me, chatted with him plenty (his first season)

Someone posted a video of me heckling Darrick Murray on youtube.

My old seats were 2nd row behind the backboard and I took my girl to the Lakers game and Shaq came flying down the lane and landed on the guys in front of me and my lady. He slimed her in a non groping kind of way. She had to throw the shirt she was wearing because the hand stain on her shoulder wouldnt come out.

Met so many players, even had beers with a couple different guys. (Pape, JYD, Jack, Devlin).

It pays to live close to the ACC and have season seats. I no longer have them, but feel watching the games at Real Sports Bar will be more entertaining.

[hoop_head]

No connection at all. I suck.

[Shaazzam]

Played a HS game at the Dome before a game against the Sixers. Almost fouled out.

Couldn't stick around and watch the game because we had to get to the OFSAA banquet in Hamilton.

[Reignman]

ok, since we're talking about meeting players I got a couple:

- Partied with TMac and Dee Brown at Fluid night club back in the day. We bought out one of their bars for a birthday party which happened to be next to the pool table they used to have and both of them wanted to play. TMac didn't really drink but Dee got **** faced on our tab, fun times. BTW, both guys have arms so long that they could probably touch their own knees from an upright position.

- Jalen Rose tried to mack on my wifey at Sky Bar and when I showed up he was shocked that she / we were married. Anyway, Joey Graham was there as well. Jalen started buying us shots, guess he thought he could get me crunk and scoop my lady, guess he doesn't know about East Indian guys and drinking. Either way, I can't hate, he was pretty down to earth and it was cool for him to cover our tab for the night.

- Saw VC, Oak, Dee, TMac all at Phoenix night club. They were all up on the stage and forced Oak to get on the stage and dance. Man, he took off his suit and shirt and the guy is an absolute monster. Either way, one of the girls with us had the hots for him so when he went to the bar we told her to go work her magic. Turns out Oak isn't down for club girls but was more than happy to chat with us. He didn't really talk much but he bought us a round and invited us up to the VIP with him and the rest of the boys. Chilled upstairs where there were girls galore but obviously they weren't focused on us. Free drinks were good though.

[architect_ed]

I travelled with the Raptors on their charter flight in 2008 to a road game in Philadelphia and met all the players except Bosh he was too busy on his blackberry to give anyone the time of day. I chatted with most players as I stayed in the same hotel as them. During the game Matt Devlin who I had dinner with the night before invited me to sit in on the broadcast at courtside for the second half. Ever since I've been communicating with Devlin either on BBM or when we see it each during games.

[Smitch]

my wife is a teacher.

[MEDIC]

My guy to chat with via twitter is Eric Smith. Funny guy, because you can message him that "Bargs isn't getting better in his 5th year" and he'll reply, "I agree". No discussion. He knows what's up. He just can't get into it on the air or on the record. If any of you have met up with these guys in person (Jack, Eric, Leo, Sherm, Jones, etc.) you can confirm if these guys trash the Raps off the record.

Yeah, I run into one of the announcers from time to time & we chat a little about what's going on with the Raps.

These guys pretty much have the same opinions as we do about various players & the team in general.

They just can't say it on record.