Raptors Win First NBA Finals Game Ever Played Outside the United States

Toronto Raptors

Last night, history was made in the NBA Finals.              

For the first time ever, the NBA had games in it’s Finals that were held outside of the United States. To be sure, it was not exactly far, as it came in Toronto, which is within an hour and a half drive or so of the American border. Niagara Falls and Buffalo are both within a couple of hours driving in good conditions.              

Yet, even though it was not far from the American border, it still means that this was a historical game, in that it was the first ever NBA Finals game to be played outside of the United States. That means that the NBA joins the NHL and the MLB among the four biggest North American sports leagues to now have held at least one of their finals series at least partially outside of the United States. The NHL has long had Canadian teams participate in the Stanley Cup Finals, and hockey is traditionally the major sport of Canada. However, the popularity of baseball took a jump in Canada in the early nineties, when the Toronto Blue Jays reached two consecutive World Series, and won both of them. In fact, in 1993, Canadian teams won the Stanley Cup Finals (the Montreal Canadians) and the World Series (the Toronto Blue Jays), making that the first ever year that Canadian teams had won multiple championships in two of the four major sports.              

Since that year, however, there has been a relative drought. Not that Canadian teams did not participate in the Finals in any sport, because they did. But only one sport, and that was hockey, in the NHL. The Vancouver Canucks made it twice to the Stanley Cup Finals, in 1994 and again in 2011. But they lost each in heartbreaking, extended series that went the distance. Otherwise, the Calgary Flames made it in 2004, and were actually leading, 3 games to 2, and had just scored what appeared to be the winning goal at home very late in the final minutes of Game 6. Yet, that goal was taken away from them, which meant that the game went back to a tie, and it went into overtime. The Tampa Bay Lightning managed to score the goal to take Game 6, and the Flames lost in Tampa days later in Game 7. In 2006, the Edmonton Oilers also made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, but also lost a heartbreaker in seven games. And the next year, the Ottawa Senators finally broke through after years of knocking on the door, and made it to the Stanley Cup Finals. But they were quickly swept aside in five games by the Anaheim Ducks, and lost their one chance to finally hoist the Stanley Cup.              

That was it. Five times until this year, Canadian teams have made it to the Finals of a major North American sports league since 1993, and only in one sport: hockey. That is Canada’s traditional sport, but no team has won the whole thing since that Montreal Canadians team did it in 1993.              

Finally, though, the Toronto Raptors have made it to the NBA Finals, for the first time in franchise history. They broke through enough to finally win the Eastern Conference Championship, and Game 1 of the NBA Finals, against the defending champion Golden State Warriors, was going to be hosted by the Raptors in Toronto.              

Yes, this is history, at least in sports. It would be even bigger history if the Toronto Raptors could win, but the Warriors are tough, and heavily favored. Home court advantage surely could help the Raptors, and we began to see what the series might shape up to look like when Game 1 happened last night.     
      

So, how did the Raptors do last night?              

Well, they won! Yes, the Raptors took Game 1, beating Golden State, 118-109. That means that they made history not only as the first franchise located outside of the United States to qualify for the NBA Finals, but also won the first NBA Finals game played outside of the United States.

In so doing, they take the early lead in the series, up 1 game to 0.

Obviously, there is still quite a bit of basketball yet to be played. But this was as good a start as Toronto could have hoped for!