For a minute yesterday, fans at the Air Canada Centre might have figured they were the beneficiaries of some glorious mistake.
They'd come to see the boring old Raptors against the blas? Pacers, and yet -- wonder of wonders! -- there, running pre-game layups on the Bay Street hardwood, were the Boston Celtics, the tradition-soaked defending champions in their shamrock-emblazoned warm-up jerseys! Talk about the luck of the Irish! Actually, the Celtics were not in the building. It was the Raptors wearing shamrock-emblazoned warm-up jerseys as part of an NBA merchandising gimmick. Seems the league got tired of watching beer companies and folks who make green food colouring make all the profit on St. Patrick's Day. So it's been a few years now that a handful of teams have been wearing special-edition green gear in the games leading up to Mar. 17. Nobody in Raptorland registered a word of public complaint until yesterday, when the shamrock, an image undeniably synonymous with the Celtics, was unveiled.
After the Raptors won their first game in eight tries, 110-87, you would have been excused for checking that three-leaved clover for an extra appendage. But Toronto hoopsters who care about little things such as team identity and taking pride in the uniform --trivial stuff in this everything-for-a-dollar era -- were not exactly amused.
"I've already registered my complaint," said Anthony Parker.
Said Shawn Marion, in his mock PA announcer's voice: "The Toronto Celtics!"
Chris Bosh shook his head at the shamrock, which will be worn again tonight in Charlotte.
"Wackness," said Bosh, coining a new word that seemed highly appropriate.
A few Raptor players weren't the only ones ticked off. The Boston Globe reported the L.A. Lakers were "quietly not in favour" of the league selling green Laker T-shirts with a small shamrock on the sleeve. One assumes the Lakers would have been loudly not in favour if they'd been roped into wearing warm-up tops bearing the logo of their historic rivals. A self-respecting team, one that considers the Celtics a hated competitor and not a corporate partner, might have even refused to wear them.
Give Parker credit: He wore his regular red warm-up jersey to get loose for the second half. And, though he wouldn't cop to corporate disobedience, he said: "It was a little odd wearing somebody else's logo on my shirt."
GM Bryan Colangelo said it was "awkward" to see his team decked in a Celtics identifier.
And, though he pointed out the St. Patrick's Day merchandising was an initiative of the league office, he also acknowledged the team "bought in" to the plan.
Just when fans of the team thought they were out from under the laughingstock that was the team's original uniforms -- those chock-with-purple, cartoon-dinosaur monstrosities -- Toronto's NBA punching bags made themselves the butt of another sartorial punchline.
