It was about 45 minutes before the Raptors took to a basketball court in Canada for the first time in almost a year and a half. A line snaked up the street one way, around the corner and back down the other way outside Budweiser Gardens in London, Ont., on a gorgeous autumn afternoon.
There were Fred VanVleet jerseys and Pascal Siakam jerseys and a couple of old white-and-purple pinstriped throwback jerseys thrown in for good measure. There were a wide assortment of team-oriented T-shirts and hats, and a couple of the camouflage jerseys that have otherwise been mercifully banished to the dustbin in of history.