I wasn't sporty, nor even really a sports fan, but then Toronto got a team with a silly name from a dinosaur movie, so I joined the Usenet group alt.sports.basketball.nba.tor-raptors
It was there that I got into basketball, learned about stats and for a over decade I felt part of a wacky community of fans, trolls and nerds, some of them, like Scott (was AltRaps here, a name inspired by the old group) and ebrian ended up here, I was against it, trying to keep Usenet alive, I resented the move to a private, centralized web, but as Usenet faded away, I reluctantly followed them here, where I've been following now for over another decade.
Now, the Raptors are the NBA champions. Holy shit. Unbelievable, and I'm thinking back to those early days and hope every fan, nerd and troll from back in our newsgroup is enjoying this moment.
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