‘Up North’, Canadians set rivalries aside to rally behind Toronto Raptors

A few hundred metres from Nick Nurse’s city centre apartment in downtown Toronto stands Fort York, one of Canada’s most significant historical landmarks, the symbol of the still nascent country’s war of 1812 with the US.

This week, in far more benign circumstances, the 51-year-old former British Basketball League coach is once more waging war with Canada’s “noisy neighbour” to the south and, in the process, helping to redefine Canada’s sporting landscape. For the country known primarily for ice hockey, curling, and their own bastardised version of American football has fallen head over heels in love with basketball.