There’s no point in fighting the underdog label. The Raptors just have to embrace it

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Though the NBA Finals begin Thursday in Toronto, the circus started getting under way Monday.

Raptors president Masai Ujiri was standing outside the team practice facility – which is in a dead zone at the far edge of the Exhibition Grounds – shooting the breeze.

In perfect Ujiri fashion, he was worrying about the coming draft. The Raptors have the 59th pick, which means they will be taking some high-schooler from Estonia. That’s all that will be left.

But Ujiri likes to focus on what he can change, rather than on games they don’t allow him to attend in uniform.

What’s the news on that other thing? You know. The world championship.

“No news,” Ujiri said. “Just play.”

This is not what journalists want to hear while the whole country goes bonkers for basketball. When that was put to him, Ujiri said, “Why don’t you guys take the next three days off?”

He wasn’t joking. It was a test. Ujiri hasn’t taken a day off in his adult life, and would have a hard time talking to anyone who admitted to the practice.

As he said it, a jumbo golf cart drifted by in the distance, a half-dozen people on board. Why were they driving through a random parking lot en route to another random parking lot? No idea.

But having spotted Ujiri, the driver took evasive measures. The golf cart got all Steve McQueen as it began wildly manoeuvring toward its new goal. It pulled up alongside. Everyone in it stuck out their phones and began snapping off pictures.

Under Finals heat, Canada’s reputation for decorum as regards gawking at the famous had burned away. That’s why no one can take the next three days off.

Toronto has never seen anything like what comes next. The last big sports deal – the Blue Jays’ 1993 World Series appearance – occurred in a very different media environment. Everything is grander now, and especially as it applies to the NBA. The Americans are coming and they roll heavy.

ESPN is sending 76 video cameras to the city for Game 1. Seventy-six. What they could all possibly film is anyone’s guess. Maybe they’ll film each other filming and turn it into a documentary about filming.

The NBA has booked 500 media seats in the Scotiabank Arena. A typical regular-season game might attract a tenth of that.

The NBA Finals is a bit like the Super Bowl, but it goes on forever and it moves.

By Wednesday, when the Golden State Warriors make their first appearance at the media day launch, it will be completely bananas. Having been to five consecutive Finals, the Warriors are presumably used to this; the Raptors less so.

So day one of hostilities involved a lot of deflections on that score. A team with varied personalities had reverted to just one – strong and silent.

Someone tried to draw Marc Gasol on his feelings. Wrong tack. No one’s allowed to have feelings just now.

Normally, Gasol is generous with his thoughts. On Monday, he was a man determined not to fold under questioning.

“You don’t like talking about yourself a lot,” someone finally said.

“No,” Gasol said. “I don’t.”

Call this the Kawhi Effect.

You’re never sure exactly which Kyle Lowry you’re going to get, but for the leadup to the big occasion he’s decided on Vulcan Kyle – hood pulled up and drawn tight, flat stare, emotions non-existent.

You were hoping he’d say something like, “Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration,” but no joy. Just a lot of good-team-over-there and play-our-game boilerplate.

Even the coach had entered a period of prefrantic torpor. Nick Nurse had taken Sunday off.

“I can’t remember what I did,” Nurse said. “Fell asleep about 8:30.”

You know things are getting weird when an NBA coach confesses to sleeping.

Unlike most of the others, Danny Green has been through this a couple of times before in San Antonio. Though he hasn’t played particularly well this postseason, he had the lightest spirit about what comes next.

He was shrugging amiably through questions about it when someone’s phone began ringing.

“You should probably get that,” Green said.

Try turning off a phone while 50 people stare at you. It’s more difficult than organic chemistry. Green waited.

"Tell them I said ‘Hello,' " he said, then resumed his answer.

It’s hard to say how the Raptors react to the occasion, never mind the Warriors. Pro athletes may have an unusual facility for focusing on small tasks, but they get jitters like everyone else. For some – Lowry and Gasol, in particular – this is a career-defining moment coming toward the end of a couple of long, impressive careers. Try getting that idea out of your head once it’s dug its way in there.

Should any of them make the mistake of leaving their informational bubble, you can imagine the resultant disorientation. You aren’t just big news anymore. You’re the whole news. Also, you’re global. Any silly thing you do or say will be picked over like Scripture.

Some people enjoy that feeling. Most don’t. For an NBA team, the Raptors roster is unusually heavy with non-attention seekers. The Warriors trend the other way.

Because people like their storylines simple, that’s how this matchup will be portrayed in the U.S. media – Hollywood vs. Anywheresville, Ontario, Canada; Showtime vs. The Criterion Collection; Guys You All Know vs. Kawhi Leonard and Seven Other Chumps.

The Vegas line is so skewed, it’s bordering on insulting. The Warriors opened at nearly 3-to-1 favourites. Those odds lengthened over the weekend as money started to come in. No one believes Toronto can do this.

Maybe they’re right. The Warriors have more individual talent (though it’s not clear how much of it will be fit to play). They have the momentum of the mob behind them. They have the history – both in having done it before and in believing they are on a mission to continue doing so. How many more titles before Golden State is the consensus best team of all time? Not many.

What do the Raptors have? Leonard and a puncher’s chance. They aren’t just the underdogs. They’re nobodies.

No point in fighting it. As long as the Raptors embrace that role, perhaps the noise will dim and the sense of an opportunity to sneak one in is what will remain.