TORONTO — The young men were shooting baskets near their home in a Toronto suburb on Sunday, but were happy to pause to offer a carefully considered, if partisan, analysis on the Toronto Raptors’ chances of becoming the first non-American team to win the N.B.A. championship.

“It’s Canada versus everybody,” said Nasir Tahir, 13, as he held a basketball with the Raptors’ black-and-red colors, the team logo long ago erased by the asphalt. “They’ve got it.”

“Hopefully,” he added, in a note of caution.

“Basketball has always been a big part of our lives,” said Nasir, whose parents immigrated from Pakistan.

The sport, said 13-year-old Shayan Rajput, Nasir’s cousin, is “multicultural, it includes everybody.”