devin booker raptor

A Toronto sports feud for the ages just got squashed in hilarious fashion

The Raptors walked away from a narrow loss against the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, but it's what happened on the sidelines of a largely empty Scotiabank Arena that set off what could be the most ridiculous sports feud in Toronto history.

Drama was unleashed with just seconds to go in the fourth quarter when Suns star Devin Booker complained to a ref about a distraction while shooting free throws.

But the unexpected source of this distraction had fans laughing even through a tough loss that broke a six-game winning streak for the Raps.

The NBA's loneliest mascot has been staying busy despite the lack of fans, but his latest antics seemed to have ruffled the feathers of Booker, so much so that a referee would relocate the Raptor away from the opposing bucket for the game's final seconds.

It's a reminder of another famous incident where a Canadian mascot's antics trying to get in the heads of an opposing team got them into trouble. This vintage Expos Youppi! ejection is still hilarious over three decades later. The Raptor also has a bit of history trolling opposing players.

But it must be near impossible to stay angry at an acrobatic plush dinosaur, and by Wednesday morning, the pair had apparently patched up their differences.

That wasn't the end of the story, though. With the drama sorted out, Booker showed his sense of humour by changing his Twitter profile picture to the Raptor.

Twitter proceeded to explode, the accompanying tweet garnering tens of thousands of responses and retweets, and over 150K likes as of Thursday morning.

A few fans saw the pic change as an admission of defeat though, with others calling the on-court complaint a "diva moment" for Booker. One counterargument is that distractions from fans are to be expected, but this was a team employee trying to foil free throws.

It didn't take long for the Raptor to get in on the joke, the mascot following suit with a profile picture change of its own.

Capacity at the Scotiabank Arena slashed to 1,000 or fewer, the Raptor has taken the latest restrictions as an opportunity to shine, and if there's one takeaway from Tuesday's game, it's that more people will be paying attention to this mischievous velociraptor at future home games.

Lead photo by

TSN


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