I can’t resist the opportunity to rant and to write about two of my favourite things. In no particular order:
- The Toronto Raptors
- Personal Injury Law in Ontario
First, let’s examine the Toronto Raptors.
Even someone who doesn’t follow sports will remember back in 2019, the Toronto Raptors won their first ever NBA title.
It was hard even for a non sports fan to ignore their championship run given that it was covered by national and international media. The Toronto Raptors Championship Parade remains a modern day benchmark for North American public sport celebrations; trailing Argentina’s World Cup parade in Buenos Aires which saw an unprecedented turnout. That one was hard to beat.
From 2020-2023, the Toront0 Raptors implemented a new vision to modern basketball. It was dubbed as “Vision 6’9“, referring to the height and length of the players. Basically, the Raptors were trying to design a roster of players built entirely of identical frames, statures and heights. Their roster was composed namely of players who were around 6’6 to 6’10 or so; with supporting lengthy wingspans. The idea what that these players could rotate seamlessly and play multiple positions of the court, and defend different players on the court without need for any help. You were basically cloning one specific body type, and putting all 5 of those players out of the Court and having them play at the same time. It was positionless basketball.
The term I hear a lot more around the NBA is the term “measurables“. Does the player have the requisite measurables (height and wing span), to play?
If a player has the “measurables“, they are instantly more valued. If the player lacks those “measurables“, they are less valued or cast off altogether. If you don’t tick the physical boxes, you won’t get looked at, or won’t play.
You can see how this thinking is flawed.
It ignores lots of tangibles (like can you play basketball well) , and the intangibles (like are you smart enough or seasoned enough to play the game at this level).
Simply because a player is a certain height doesn’t mean that the player will succeed. And the reverse is true. Simply because a player doesn’t have those measurables doesn’t mean that they will automatically fail. A good player is a good player, regardless of their height or wing span. NBA Hall of Famer and 2 time NBA MVP Steve Nash was only 6’3 and nobody ever talked about his wing span, because it was irrelevant. Steve Nash would not have fit into Vision 6’9; and would have been overlooked by this sort of thinking about “measurables“.
This is not to suggest that “measurables” aren’t important. They are at the NBA level. Size, speed, strength, height, wing span are all important indicators which may suggest that a player can compete at the NBA level. But, it’s important to understand that for a certain period of time, it appeared that Toronto Raptors Management put too much emphasis on those “measurables” resulting in ignoring or refusing to invest in players who didn’t hit those physical benchmarks.
The result of Vision 6’9 spoke for itself. No playoff success. The team was woeful. They were hard to watch. The team invested in a specific height/length, irrespective of their low level of talent or poor basketball IQ or game awareness.
The roster was not diversified (by design). Too many players did the exact same thing (again by design). Because all of the players occupied the same space on the Court, the spacing was very poor. The Raptors were easy to defend because there was no diversity in the roster; and thus; no diversity or differentiation in the players respective games/abilities on the Court. They were all clones of one another physically, and from a skill standpoint.
On defence; which was supposed to be their strength; the product was even worse. The players were “Jacks of All Trades, But Masters of None“.
While everyone could guard multiple positions; they could not do so very well. They had no big issues guarding the opponent’s wing players who were their size. But, they had a really hard time defending at the edges of the spectrum; really small or really large. They had a hard time doing this because it was asking a lot of a 6’7 forward to guard a 6’1 speedy guard; or guarding a lumbering 7 foot centre. They were either giving up too much pace, or too much size and strength. It was a tough players over the course of a 82 game season to defend continuously outside of their position; let alone the course of a game.
The emphasis on measurables failed the Toronto Raptors. It failed them because sport is imperfect. There are so many other variables which go into composing a winning roster which were overlooked, under emphasized, or simply ignored.
But, that cold hard analysis would have served them well as personal injury lawyers. In personal injury law, we are constantly looking at “measurables”. These are tools which help lawyers analyze and better understand the case at hand. In personal injury law, the measurables don’t lie.
What is the age of the accident victim?
Does the Plaintiff have their entire working life ahead of them, or are they retired?
What are their pre-accident earnings; if any?
Was the Plaintiff on disability or social assistance prior to his/her accident?
How many dependants does the accident victim have?
What are the Plaintiff’s objective injuries?
What are the Plaintiff’s subjective injuries?
Has the Plaintiff healed from those accident related injuries, or not?
Has the Plaintiff earned any form of income replacement or disability benefit following the accident? If so, at what rate and over what duration have those benefits been paid out?
If a personal injury lawyer understands these measurables, or metrics, they will better understand the value of the case moving forward. The personal injury lawyer will be better able to manage their client’s expectations, and be in a better position to negotiate with the insurer in order to achieve the best result possible on behalf of their client. Had the Toronto Raptors Management used their analytical thinking in the world of personal injury law, they would have had great success. But, in the world of professional basketball? Not so much.
Let’s hope the 2025/26 season is much better for the Toronto Raptors than the past 6 seasons of bad thinking.