The funny thing about sports is that the playoffs will either turn fans into rabid megafans, or completely turn them off. But the truth is, you’ll probably never see any game played at a higher level than when the entire season is at stake.
That’s how you get some dramatic, surprising results. You just can’t predict 100% of the time who will win all the time.
Still, seeing most of America rooting for a team that isn’t even based in America is an odd phenomenon.
For Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors, a trip to the NBA Finals has become an annual ritual.
After knocking off the Portland Trailblazers in the Western Conference Finals, Golden State is off to the big dance for the fifth year in a row.
Meanwhile, in the east, the Toronto Raptors earned their franchise’s first ever berth in the finals, overcoming the Milwaukee Bucks.
A suitably polite, orderly mass celebration followed, in which no vandalism, fires, overturned cars, or injuries were reported, making clear just how unused to this situation the good folks of Toronto are.
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Now that we’re down to two teams, there’s only one question to answer: who ya got?
And although a border, with customs inspectors and everything, separates the two teams, it turns out that a vast majority are backing the Canadian squad. That’s according to BetOnline, which found that all but three states, California, Nevada, and Hawaii, are rooting for the Raptors.
It’s not based on the most scientific data.
BetOnline just analyzed geotagged data on Twitter, looking at things like how often #WeTheNorth was used compared to #DubNation in each state.
The question is, are people actually rooting for those plucky underdogs, or do they just want Golden State to lose?
I mean, I think we can all agree that, for once, this has nothing to do with Drake.
Fun fact: Steph Curry’s dad, Dell, played for the Toronto Raptors from 1999-2002. Pretty sure we know who he’ll be rooting for, however.
What do you think? Who ya got?
