Raptors a lock for Canadian sports story of the year?

gp2015 · Post #41 » by **gp2015** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 3:12 am

duppyy wrote:Remember when Mike Weir won Masters and how it pushed the "sport" of golf in Canada and caused a new generation of Canadians becoming pro golfers? Yeah that didn't happen. Won't happen with Bianca and Tennis and won't happen with that other girl and golf.

It's already happening in tennis. We basically have 3 men's players in the top 30, and one women who will be at the very top pretty soon. That's unheard of for Canada who have historically struggled badly (to put it mildly) to have success in tennis.

Plus, Weir might have won a major but was never actually considered the very best of his sport. If Bianca wins multiple majors and gets the number 1 ranking, she will be the very best in her sport so it's different from those other cases. Canada having the top player in a major international sport is not something that occurs very often.

smallgains · Post #42 » by **smallgains** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 6:34 pm

Hopefully but I don't really care. I'd rather all media, American and Canadian hate the Raps. It's nice to see them squirm.

idonk · Post #43 » by **idonk** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 9:47 pm

if marner signs a deal before season starts it will win story of the year - green font

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rapluva · Post #44 » by **rapluva** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 3:51 am

GED Education wrote:At first I think it's a no brainer as there really hasn't been anything to rival the championship.

However....

If Bianca Andreescu wins the US Open, I think that's the story of the year. This was debated today on sports radio. What are your thoughts on that?

If Bianca wins...will she shut down ... DownTown Toronto.... I don't think so... :banghead:

Psubs · Post #45 » by **Psubs** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 5:21 am

YogiStewart wrote:
Mattd97 wrote:I get global game vs more regional, but unless you've got de grasse winning Olympic medals, Steve nash winning MVPs, gagne winning the cy young, it's just not likely to happen. You need to be fighting to be the best in the world, cause that's what the Crosby's and McDavids are doing

at the age of 19, Bianca is (as of today) the 10th ranked tennis player in the world. not sure how you can deny this kind of accomplishment.

At age 20, Genie Bouchard was ranked #5. So it's been done before.

Psubs · Post #46 » by **Psubs** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 5:27 am

Aren't the Raptors the greatest Canadian sports story of the last 25 years? Since the Jays went back to back?

Moon Walk · Post #47 » by **Moon Walk** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 11:39 am

White people would look for anything other than some tall black boys playing bball.

gp2015 · Post #48 » by **gp2015** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 3:11 pm

Psubs wrote:
YogiStewart wrote:
Mattd97 wrote:I get global game vs more regional, but unless you've got de grasse winning Olympic medals, Steve nash winning MVPs, gagne winning the cy young, it's just not likely to happen. You need to be fighting to be the best in the world, cause that's what the Crosby's and McDavids are doing

at the age of 19, Bianca is (as of today) the 10th ranked tennis player in the world. not sure how you can deny this kind of accomplishment.

At age 20, Genie Bouchard was ranked #5. So it's been done before.

Good thing that Bianca is a much better tennis player than Bouchard and isn't easily distracted by off-court stuff. 5th ranking would be the worst case scenario right now for her career.

idonk · Post #49 » by **idonk** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 3:35 pm

a canadian winning a tennis grandslam would be up there. only tennis fans know

Psubs wrote:Aren't the Raptors the greatest Canadian sports story of the last 25 years? Since the Jays went back to back?

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duppyy · Post #50 » by **duppyy** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 4:18 pm

idonk wrote:a canadian winning a tennis grandslam would be up there. only tennis fans know
Psubs wrote:Aren't the Raptors the greatest Canadian sports story of the last 25 years? Since the Jays went back to back?

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Not many tennis fans out there.

dagger · Post #51 » by **dagger** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 4:20 pm

duppyy wrote:
idonk wrote:a canadian winning a tennis grandslam would be up there. only tennis fans know
Psubs wrote:Aren't the Raptors the greatest Canadian sports story of the last 25 years? Since the Jays went back to back?

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Not many tennis fans out there.

There are a lot of sports achievement fans, i.e. people who celebrate the success of athletes whose sport they don't usually follow. But as I noted, there is no such thing as sports story of the year in terms of the official awards. The Raptors will be Team of the Year, and as things stand, Bianca will likely be Athlete of the Year.

EH15 · Post #52 » by **EH15** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 4:21 pm

duppyy wrote:
idonk wrote:a canadian winning a tennis grandslam would be up there. only tennis fans know
Psubs wrote:Aren't the Raptors the greatest Canadian sports story of the last 25 years? Since the Jays went back to back?

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Not many tennis fans out there.

Tennis has more fans than basketball overall though

LLJ · Post #53 » by **LLJ** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 4:29 pm

GED Education wrote:At first I think it's a no brainer as there really hasn't been anything to rival the championship.

However....

If Bianca Andreescu wins the US Open, I think that's the story of the year. This was debated today on sports radio. What are your thoughts on that?

We had a frigging 2 million people parade for the Raptors win. The Raps is the story of the year.

Bianca should win Canadian athlete of the year though, even if she DOESN'T win the US Open

AreBe · Post #54 » by **AreBe** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 4:40 pm

Moon Walk wrote:White people would look for anything other than some tall black boys playing bball.

St. Louis Blues, with all those Canadians on the team, wining the Stanley Cup is going to get a lot of votes.

life_saver · Post #55 » by **life_saver** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 5:05 pm

I am a huge tennis fan and I am not even exaggerating when I say Bianca is the best teenage talent I've seen in women's tennis in last 20 years (since the era of Williams sisters and Belgian players)....she is an amazing talent. She has a complete game. It's very rare to see someone being this good at various aspects of the game at only 19. The one area in which Bianca stands out the most is that she is also extremely smart tactically..she adapts her game style in between the matches based on the opponent. If she manages to stay fit, she is gonna dominate for quite some time.

Also, all the comparisons with Bouchard are nonsense if you watch them play. Genie Bouchard got slightly lucky with her draws in 2014 and she is a very basic player, she never really had any strong weapons...so it was obvious that she was gonna have a dip once opponents figured her game. She didn't adapt after that and she has been on free fall. Bianca though is a much different player and has **** load of many weapons in her arsenal.

If Bianca didn't get injured for almost 4 months this year (she also had to miss 2 grandslams), she probably could have ended this year as Top2 in the world....she really had an absolutely incredible season...there hasn't been a breakout season like this in tennis in a long long time. Canadian tennis is in a great shape atm....2 of the most promising youngsters in men's tennis are Canadians and then you have Bianca in Women's section.

I think Raps deserve to win the story of the year award for sure...Bianca might win the athlete of the year. Btw, Bianca is also a huge Raps fan.

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PhilBlackson · Post #56 » by **PhilBlackson** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 5:55 pm

No I'm sure there's some fairly insignificant hockey story that will be put on a pedestal.

Raps were playing (and winning) their historical first ever NBA Finals yet an all American teamed hockey finals took precedent as the lead story. Canadian media is trash.

almatic · Post #57 » by **almatic** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 6:39 pm

AreBe wrote:
Moon Walk wrote:White people would look for anything other than some tall black boys playing bball.

St. Louis Blues, with all those Canadians on the team, wining the Stanley Cup is going to get a lot of votes.

As if a hockey team at least half-full of Canadians doesn't win the Cup every year or a Canadian doesn't win the Conn Smythe at least every other year.

gp2015 · Post #58 » by **gp2015** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 7:18 pm

duppyy wrote:
idonk wrote:a canadian winning a tennis grandslam would be up there. only tennis fans know
Psubs wrote:Aren't the Raptors the greatest Canadian sports story of the last 25 years? Since the Jays went back to back?

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Not many tennis fans out there.

Get out of your cave, there are tons of tennis fans worldwide. It's one of the most popular sports in the world.

Canada didn't care much about tennis in the past because we've historically sucked at it but that's all changing now.

duppyy · Post #59 » by **duppyy** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 7:22 pm

gp2015 wrote:
duppyy wrote:
idonk wrote:a canadian winning a tennis grandslam would be up there. only tennis fans know

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Not many tennis fans out there.

Get out of your cave, there are tons of tennis fans worldwide. It's one of the most popular sports in the world.

Canada didn't care much about tennis in the past because we've historically sucked at it but that's all changing now.

I was talking about Toronto.

gp2015 · Post #60 » by **gp2015** » Thu Sep 5, 2019 7:26 pm

duppyy wrote:
gp2015 wrote:
duppyy wrote:
Not many tennis fans out there.

Get out of your cave, there are tons of tennis fans worldwide. It's one of the most popular sports in the world.

Canada didn't care much about tennis in the past because we've historically sucked at it but that's all changing now.

I was talking about Toronto.

That is fair but that will probably change very soon.