The mercenary nature of professional sports these days can be overwhelming, players come and players go, the loyalty is to career, the glory, the abundant money, the next contract and if it comes in this city or that city, it really doesn’t matter.

The transient nature of the athletes we cheer for and support can be shocking, we worry about them leaving almost from the day they arrive, we wonder if they’ll like us or if they will want to stay or if they will bolt at the very first opportunity.

Jerry Seinfeld said fans cheer for clothes more than athletes and that can be true, it is rare these days that there is any solid connection between athletes who represent a city and the citizens of it.

That’s why this group of Raptors is unique, they are out there, meeting the people and enjoying life, they do not cloister themselves in a life that is condo-to-arena-to-airport-to-off-season.

They do things. They meet people. They live.

Amir Johnson is the poster boy for the new age group, he is everywhere. He buys newly-released music from local icon Drake and gives it away to whoever he runs into — and not because the rap star would be later named the team’s global ambassador. He does the Zombie Walk, is part of Caribana, throws a party for 100 fans after gifting them with free tickets to a game last season, finds open runs with strangers in obscure gyms — he just relishes the interaction.

Rudy Gay decides on his own to tweet out that he’d be taking a bike ride in the downtown area and invites anyone and everyone to join him.

DeMar DeRozan shows up at gyms just to play ball, to meet people, to be among them, to enjoy a life that isn’t all Raptors and pressure and the NBA.

“We’re still kids at heart,” said DeRozan. “We just want to have fun.”

Johnson is the undisputed leader of the pack. He is among the most approachable and adventurous Raptors of all time. If there’s something on and he can be part of it, he is.

“It is important,” he said. “When you’re comfortable, if you go to work and people love you and greet you, saying hi no matter where you go, it’s common courtesy to say hello, how are you doing. I get that feeling every time I go out in Toronto and it’s awesome.

“It’s the person I am, the vibe I get, the humble feeling I have.”

Gay’s impromptu Saturday bike ride two weeks ago was truly a personal event. It was done outside the auspices of the team, it was just his way of finding out more about the city where he works.

“It gave me a chance to go and touch the city,” he said. “Last year, for one, it was too cold to do it (he was traded here from Memphis in the winter) and it gave me a chance to see what Toronto has to offer other than the routes back and forth to the gym.

“We had about 80 kids show up, we had a bike route and did it. We talked to the kids, got them ice cream, just reached out and talk to them and let them know we’re real.”

It has not forever been thus.

Over the 19-year history of the franchise there have been moments when Toronto was seen, even by players on the local team, as some outpost.

Chris Bosh whined about the choices of TV channels, Antonio Davis and his family had issues with the educational system, Doug Christie and his wife complained about something benign as Toronto’s grocery stores, Vince Carter was so overwhelmed by his fame that he was standoffish at best and sheltered by over-exuberant security personnel at worst.

There were others, exceptions that proved the rule, if you will.

Matt Bonner was a TTC-riding, Subway-eating Everyman who basked in what the city had to offer, what its people were; Morris Peterson opened a business and was a man-about-town. They grew into icons and are to this day because they took the time and made the effort; it may seem a logical thing to do but so many don’t do it.

“Maybe some people, the star ones, it probably gets on their nerves, sometimes it can be too much but not for me,” said Johnson. “I’m used to it, the job comes with a little fame and you just deal with it.”

This group seems somehow more adventurous, more willing to embrace what the city has culturally, more interested in exploring than shying away from any contact with the core of the city and its people.

Maybe it’s their age, maybe it’s their upbringing, maybe the NBA and the perception of Toronto from the outside has evolved.

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“For me, personally, and Amir, with us growing up in L.A., growing up in that type of environment, you’re used to be around a lot of people, being around a lot of things like going to open runs, just playing against everybody,” said DeRozan.

“Stuff like that just frees your mind, takes your mind off all the negative stuff, whatever’s going on. It lets you be free.”

And, in some way, one of us.