Nav Bhatia proves basketball dreams don’t always play out on the court

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Not everybody’s hoop dream happens on the basketball court.

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But they can happen courtside.

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“I love every time I am at a Raptors game and never forgot how it all started,” said “Superfan” Nav Bhatia.

Other than missing a game during the pandemic thanks to testing positive for COVID-19, the GTA car dealer has been to every other home game since the Raptors came into the NBA in 1995.

When I first met him, he was in the upper deck at the SkyDome, now the Rogers Centre.

There he was Wednesday night sitting in his courtside seats next to the basket with his friends while laughing and smiling. But something was different.

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I knew he had the 2019 Raptors championship ring and he was wearing that. But there was something under his arm that I hadn’t seen before.

“It’s my book,” he said. “It just came out Tuesday.”

I couldn’t help but smile. When I first wrote about Bhatia, he was a huge basketball fan who loved the team, but never dreamt that one day he would have a ring, have a movie made about him, end up in the Basketball Hall of Fame and now be the author of a book.

Dreams come true.

The Heart of a Superfan tells the story of that dream and how this man achieved it.

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Bhatia is a lesson for everybody because he aimed high and jumped even higher. When he first applied for a car salesman job, he was laughed at.

He ended up hooking on with Hyundai as they were starting and today he owns dealerships and is one of the biggest sellers of cars in Canada.

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“I always tell kids, keep on working,” he said.

I was glad to see Bhatia and learn of his book because what I was really looking for at this game was for somebody to be wearing a “Return our Hostages” T-shirt and see if they were asked to cover it up or leave, which a pair of Toronto lawyers said happened to them at the last game.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment has a policy for things to not get political.

I didn’t see any fans defying the rules this time. I saw a man in a Russia T-shirt, but even though Canada is supporting Ukraine in that war no one was bothering him about the shirt. The players on both the Raptors and the visiting Dallas Mavericks were warmed up in Nike T-shirts that said, “Built by Black history, elevated by Black voices,” but this was part of the league’s acknowledgement of Black History month.

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The night before was Pride Night at the Maple Leafs game and there was plenty of rainbow attire and rainbow tape on the sticks.

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On this night, there were no obvious signs of people wearing clothing related to the Israel-Gaza war.

That’s because Page Magen, who was at the game with his son Caleb, 8, keeps his support low key. Magen said he’s proud of his Jewish heritage, but chose to wear a more subtle Tel Aviv shirt with a special dog tag around his neck to honour the hostages taken by Hamas during the Oct. 7 on Israel.

“No one bothered me at all,” he said.

That’s because the focus was more on basketball.

Bhatia said he “pinches” himself every time he comes to a game because who would have thought he would be wearing a championship ring and holding a book about his own basketball journey.

Anything, he said, is possible when you dream big. And you don’t have to dribble a basketball or make a three-point shot to make an impact.

Bhatia is living proof.

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