TORONTO, ON - JUNE 17: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is announced on stage to the crowd. Toronto Raptors celebration after capturing the NBA Championship. Rick Madonik/Toronto Star

Sorry, Ottawa — but a visit to Parliament Hill from the defending NBA champion Toronto Raptors is unlikely to happen.

Shortly after the team’s magical playoff run ended in the NBA Finals victory over the Golden State Warriors last June, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse told a Toronto sports radio show that the team had received an invite to visit the nation’s capital to celebrate their victory.

But a Raptors spokesperson told iPolitics on Monday that despite “considerable efforts” to make the visit happen, scheduling made such a thing difficult.

“We were indeed invited to — and were excited to — celebrate our championship on Parliament Hill. But between training camp and preseason and the federal election, finding a mutually suitable date was impossible, despite considerable effort. And once the regular season begins, our team’s NBA schedule makes finding a date for a full team visit very challenging,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

A government source had told iPolitics last week that a busy schedule, and the departure of some of the winning team’s players, prevented plans from ever really getting off the ground.

Historically, winning professional championship sports teams in North America will visit the White House or Parliament Hill to celebrate their victories.

When the Toronto Blue Jays won the 1992 Major League Baseball World Series, the team visited both the White House and Parliament Hill. When the team won again a year later, the Blue Jays returned to Ottawa for another toast.

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It was not until the Raptors won the NBA’s Larry O’Brien trophy last year that a major Canadian professional sports team was again at the top of their respective league.

That championship, the Raptors’ first in its 25-year history, triggered massive celebrations across Canada and saw a victory parade through downtown Toronto in which hundreds of thousands of fans attended. It was a fitting moment for Canada, particularly given how much the game of basketball has grown in the country since the Raptors played its first NBA game in 1995. Canadian players are now drafted into the NBA each year.

Last spring’s playoff run even spurred increased economic activity, with Statistics Canada recording a surge in purchases in the arts and entertainment and accommodation and food services sectors in the month of May.

Luckily for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he had lots of fun meeting and greeting Raptors players at the June victory parade, which was also attended by Conservative leader Andrew Scheer and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.

Trudeau told a Montreal radio show in December that bringing his children to the celebration was his happiest moment of 2019. His son, Xavier, is a big basketball fan, and Trudeau said he had got him into watching the Raptors “in a way that I discovered basketball as an incredible game.”

But the federal election made a visit in early fall impossible, according to the government source, who was not authorized to speak on the record. It then took until December before MPs and Senators returned to Ottawa for the start of the 43rd Parliament, which sat for only seven days before a six-week break for the holidays. The House of Commons reconvened on Monday for the winter sitting.

The source also noted that two core players of the championship team, Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, departed the Raptors in free agency last summer.

But is it too late? The source said despite no set plans for a visit, a celebration is still possible and the Raptors would be welcomed in Ottawa.

In the past, NBA championship-winning teams have visited the White House in the winter, usually when they play a road game in Washington D.C. against the hometown Wizards. No team has visited to the White House since 2016, when LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers visited former president Barack Obama. Green said in June it would be a “hard no” if the Raptors were asked to go to the White House by President Donald Trump.

Looking forward, the House sits during seven of 12 weeks between now and when the NBA playoffs begin in mid-April.

And despite Leonard and Green’s departures — as well as of other players including Jeremy Lin and Jordan Loyd — the majority of the Raptors roster from last year remains the same.

It includes Pascal Siakam, who was announced as an Eastern Conference All-Star starter last Thursday, and guard Kyle Lowry, who is expected to be selected as an All-Star reserve this week. So too are Marc Gasol, Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell, Serge Ibaka, Chris Boucher, Patrick McCaw, OG Anunoby and much of the Raptors coaching staff.

It should also not be lost that Trudeau and Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri are quite fond of each other. Trudeau, his son, and then-Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen attended a basketball clinic hosted by Ujiri in Toronto in April.

During a campaign stop in October in Toronto, Ujiri also offered a political endorsement to Trudeau.

“I continue to support Prime Minister Trudeau now, and when he’s prime minister again,” he said.

Perhaps on a visit, they can get a deal done.

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