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Chris Bosh Says Toronto Smells Different

By Walter Dubowec on | From raptortalk.com

   By RaptorTalk

I’ve got something for Raptor fans to read every time they wonder why Bryan Colangelo acquires a European player instead of a player born in the USA.

Read it before you suggest that Colangelo is a fool for signing free agent Linas Kleiza - a Euro, instead of American free agents like Anthony Morrow or Ronnie Brewer.

Read it before you wonder why Colangelo quickly re-signed Amir Johnson (an American who ‘wanted’ to be in Toronto), instead of dragging out negotiations to save a few bucks.

Fact of the matter is that Toronto is not the preferred destination of most US players and the Raptors organization needs to factor that into virtually every personnel move they make.

How do we know? The recently departed Chris Bosh spilled the beans to a Miami newspaper about what he really felt about Toronto as a 'different' and unfamilar destination.

Here are Chris Bosh’s honest opinions regarding the mindset of an American considering a move to Toronto. Read Bosh’s words next time you think that American born NBA players view Toronto the same as the other 29 NBA franchises.

"I didn't want to go there," Bosh said.

"It was different. All I knew was Vince Carter was there and I never saw him play on TV. It was a whole different country, and it was just different. I'm 19 years old, I didn't know anything about culture and being away from home. All I know is the States.

"Toronto's a great place, a fantastic city. It's a metropolitan area, but you could tell you're somewhere different. You could feel it, you could look at it, you can smell it. Everything. All your senses tell you you're somewhere different."

Not sure that's what we expected to hear.

"You can smell it"

Bosh flat out says that Toronto is different. It even smells different!

Antonio Davis hated the metric system. Doug Christie said his mother-in-law’s cooking in Toronto tasted different than back home. But who knew the whole damn city smells different!?!

Going through customs, not buying beer at 7-11, living without ESPN, Celsius degrees, curling on TSN and not packing heat are things we Canadians are used to. For many Americans, not so much.

And while T.O. is a world-class, dynamic, cosmopolitan city which this week was called North America’s “coolest city” by the Huffington Post – it will never feel like home for a US-born basketball player.

That said, once players get here they generally love it. No one on the Bucks, Jazz, Kings, Spurs, Bobcats, Blazers, Thunder or T-Wolves can rub shoulders with celebrities, pop stars and Hollywood actors as often as do the players of the Toronto Raptors. Living in Toronto is great for your ego if you're an NBA superstar. It's not LA or New York, but it's the next best thing.

Virtually every list of favourite NBA road cities of visiting players has Toronto ranked in the top five. It’s great night life and international flavour is the reason why many teams arrive a day early or stay a day longer in T. Dot. Still, in many player’s eyes it’s “a great place to visit, but they wouldn’t want to live here”.

The losing doesn't help either

The problem is further compounded by the Raptors’ dismal record as a franchise.

Bryan Colangelo is not running the Raptors like a Fantasy League team where the issue of location doesn’t matter. In the real world, Bryan deals with agents, American players and their families who don’t want to live in Canada. Like it or not, that has to be factored into many personnel decisions.

Will this doom the Raptors franchise?

No. But it’s an issue that Raptors management will continue to deal with for the foreseeable future.

The game-changer is called winning. If the Raptors ever become an elite NBA team, then attracting American players will be a lot easier. We saw it with the Toronto Blue Jays in the early 90’s. Winning is the magnet that pulls in top talent from everywhere.

In the mean time, Colangelo will continue to build a team in Toronto where a player’s willingness to be here is a factor.

So next time you wonder why Bryan doesn’t acquire or sign (insert player name here), remember that Player X simply may not want to be here.

That’s a fact that all Toronto Raptors fans need to accept, because it's not going to change any time soon - if ever.