Title: Fred VanVleet bobblehead night, a pair of call-ups and a request for assignment highlight a big night for Raptors 905
Date: January 7, 2020
Original Source: The Athletic
Synopsis: In my latest for The Athletic Toronto, I wrote about Fred VanVleet bobblehead night and what it – with some other notable roster moves the same day – means to Raptors 905.
MISSISSAUGA — The players’ entrance at Paramount Fine Foods Centre in Mississauga, home of Raptors 905 of the NBA’s G League, is not as secluded as the one at Scotiabank Arena.
The Mississauga arena’s entrance isn’t free from fans, or from people using an adjacent skating rink, or even from certain odors. The 905 share the facility with the Mississauga Steelheads of the OHL. And as Toronto Raptors on assignment enter the arena, they have no choice but to walk past the Steelheads’ equipment room.
The smell of hockey gear being aired out is an oddly nostalgic one here in Canada. It has gotten the better of basements, garages and trunks. It’s inseparable, at the right temperature in the right sedan, from the smell of a double-double and Brut aftershave. But while the smell becomes familiar after long enough exposure, it never becomes more agreeable. For basketball players who don’t have the benefit of that familiarity, it’s plain offensive. It’s 1,000 old shoes condensed into one.
And it was the first thing Fred VanVleet noticed upon his return Monday.
“Smells like home,” VanVleet remarked. “I don’t miss that shit.”
Check it out on The Athletic.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 