Raptors Respond To Home Fan Boos
Posted December 18, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Hard to imagine an NBA team being stoked about a seven-game road swing, but after Wednesday’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks – a defeat that brought out the boo birds inside the ACC – Chris Bosh and the Toronto Raptors are probably looking forward to a slight change of scenery.
“I was very surprised,” Bosh said Thursday morning in reference to the collective voicing of displeasure the Raptor faithful unleashed in the third quarter. An initial chorus followed a missed dunk and two failed attempts at the charity stripe reignited the fury.
“I miss free throws … and nobody in the world takes that harder than I do.”
Bosh also suggested that being unaccustomed to hearing the harshness from fans makes it hurt that much more.
“It’s disheartening,” he admitted. “It’s not going to make us be like, ‘Let’s keep going, let’s go.’ It doesn’t do that, it brings us down.”
But some of Bosh’s teammates simply suggested the fans have a right to express their emotion for better or worse.
“They pay their hard-earned money to come out and watch us win basketball games,” said forward Jamario Moon. “They didn’t feel like we were giving it our all and so they have a right to do what they want to do.”
Head coach Jay Triano also weighed in, saying nobody felt worse than Bosh about the way things have unfolded on the court of late.
“He feels worse than the fans that came here to watch him play,” the interim bench boss insisted.
“And that’s a great thing because that means he cares about this team and he cares about the city.”
The Raptors kick off seven games on the road starting Friday night in Oklahoma City.
Raps Slip Again, Fall To Mavs In Homestand Finale
