As a Bay Area native, I've grown to love my local teams: the San Francisco Giants, the San Francisco 49ers, the Oakland Raiders, and Oakland's very own Golden State Warriors.

I first developed a love for the Bay Area's sports teams when I attended the 2010 World Series. After patriotically opening the game with my school choir, I took my place in the bleachers with the rest of the crowd. Unaware of what was going on down on the field, I spent most of the game chatting with friends and unconsciously cheering. A couple hours after the first pitch, and a few hours after orange underwear was being fringed through the crowd, the Giants won. The city went crazy! It was a first in San Francisco history and you could feel the joy through the streets. As some supporters turned red from crying, some Bay Area landmarks turned orange. At that moment, I felt that I was part of something bigger. See, I had only been back in the U.S. for 2 years, and San Francisco was the second city in which I had been. After this major victory for the city, I came to see it as my second family. From that point on, I would rep it for the Bay for days.

Meanwhile, East of the Bay, Stephen Curry had been drafted to the Golden State Warriors the previous season and it was the beginning of what would come to be an era of history-making. However, they would not be the only ones.

Flash forward 3 years: my migration from Dub Nation to Jurassic Park began. Prior to the 2013-14 season, I had not heard of the Raptors; nor did I ever imagine that Canada was part of the NBA. During this time, the Raptors were re-branding, changing their logo, and adopting the motto "We The North".

Here's why the Raptors attracted me during that season and thereafter. When the team launched its "We The North" campaign, I was in my sophomore year of high school and I had just moved to study abroad in Paris. There, I felt sort of out of place. I continued to struggle to fit in and was essentially searching for my true myself (deep, I know). I was semi-interested in basketball, only paying attention to the playoffs which I often watched with my dad. So, I kept up with the teams a bit. I ended up projecting my feelings of not belonging onto the sport.

See, I was born in the city home to the Lakers; my beloved father is from Boston, which the Celtics call home; and I had made a second home of the Bay Area where the Golden State Warriors were coming up. Naturally, I was split on who to support. That's when I came upon the Toronto Raptors. I had never been to Canada, let alone Toronto. I had no connection whatsoever to the teams or the players, but their new sense of self deeply resonated with me. Their "We The North" campaign sought to promote and embrace the fact that they are somewhat the underdogs in the league, though not the worst team. In one of the commercials for the campaign, the Toronto-native and rapper Drake narrates the following words:

“We, the north.
In many ways we’re in a league of our own.
One step removed.
Just beyond the boundaries.
Some would say we’re on the outside lookin’ in.
But from our perspective? We’re on the outside lookin’ within in.
‘Cause that’s where the effort resides. Toughness is found. The aggression is tapped. On the inside. And far from the east side. Miles from the west side. Nowhere near the south side.
We are the north side. A territory all our own.
If that makes us outsiders? We’re in.”

I quickly connected with the Raptors' underdog label, withf the fact that they recognized they were the outsider in the NBA, in much the same way I was the outsider in my friend circles. I came to appreciate the franchise for embracing it's position in the bigger picture, but also striving to surpass expectations. With this, I made the bold transition from a Warrior to a Raptor. The next season, 2015-16, found me in the midst of college applications. I was receiving letters from the dozens of colleges I had applied to, and the responses were not favorable: a rejection here, a rejection there.

Though I was less informed about the Raptors' performance, I remained a supporter. I followed them all the way through the quarter-finals, all the way through the semifinals, all the way to the finals. I was a part of Jurassic Park as the Raptors made franchise history by advancing to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in their 21 years of being established.

This brought me a new kind of hope. If they could do it now, they could do it next year, and the year after that, and so could I, no matter what it is I was struggling with. As this was happening, I had received my acceptance letter from UC Berkeley and was overjoyed: it truly was a historical moment. The Raptors would be heading off to the finals (at the time I was hoping for a face off between GSW and the Raps) and I to college as the first of my family.

All in all, I began repping the Toronto Raptors instead of the Golden State Warriors because they brought me hope. They brought me the hope that I, or anyone for that matter, can indeed come out of a depressive state. You may argue that, they are a team, and accomplished these historical feats as a team. Well, to you I say, you are the DeMar DeRozan of your life, the captain of the team that constitutes your family, friends, and acquaintances. That is not to say that the Warriors do not exude greatness or have not accomplished great feats of their own, I mean don't get me started on that 73-9 record for which I am proud of being from the Bay. However, I believe that the Raptors are the poster child of the underdog coming to bite the top dog on the butt.

After the Warriors' and Raptors' first preseason game, I'm going to go on a limb and say that the playoffs will see the Warriors, yet again, as the Western Conference champions facing off none other than the Raptors with a historical Eastern Conference champion title. And so, it is my greatest honor to declare that this upcoming season my top teams (from last to first) will be: the L.A. Lakers, the Boston Celtics, the Golden State Warriors, and, undoubtedly, the Toronto Raptors. Because #WeTheNorth in Jurassic Park, are ride or die until the end!

IVIVI, the Dot, the 6ix, TO, Tuh-Raw-No!