Five takeaways from Toronto Raptors opening day victory over Pelicans

The ring ceremony

If you didn’t turn in until the game actually started, boy did you miss a lot. In case you didn’t notice, the Toronto Raptors won the NBA Championship last season, and game one included a glorious ring ceremony prior to tip-off.

By nature, ring ceremonies are a little bit awkward, and the ceremony left me questioning a couple of things:

Do you think Patrick McCaw just now assumes this is how you start every NBA season? Does he think you get a ring just for a year of service? I hope McCaw asks Vince Carter what it’s like to have 21 rings this season, and VC just has to awkwardly explain that isn’t how this works. Well… how it works for anyone other than McCaw.

Also, can we discuss how the players are essentially ordered from worst to best? Yeah, he should feel lucky to win a ring at all, but it must sting a little bit for Eric Moreland to hear his name heard first. You know deep down he’s thinking to himself, “C’mon I was better than Jodie Meeks!” Sorry, Eric, you weren’t.

Lastly, whoever designed the black banner should not only receive a raise, they should design every banner until the end of time. Scratch that. Only design the Raptors. I’m admittedly biased, but Toronto’s championship banner is one of the best looking designs in the entire NBA.

Also, nice step combining the division titles to one banner. Now, just take them off altogether. Let them hang in the practice facility.  You have a title.