{"id":1375,"date":"2021-06-02T22:02:04","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T22:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-583903-1890774.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=1375"},"modified":"2021-06-16T16:02:23","modified_gmt":"2021-06-16T16:02:23","slug":"toronto-raptors-superfan-becomes-first-fan-ever-to-be-inducted-into-the-basketball-hall-of-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/2021\/06\/02\/toronto-raptors-superfan-becomes-first-fan-ever-to-be-inducted-into-the-basketball-hall-of-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Raptors &#8220;Superfan&#8221; Becomes First Fan Inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Toronto Raptors&#8217; very own superfan, Nav Bhatia, has become the first ever fan to be honoured at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p>Bhatia is one of the team&#8217;s biggest cheerleaders, attending every Raptors home game in his courtside seats. He\u2019s been going to games since 1995, when the Raps played their inaugural season. He went to the first ever home game &#8212; then played at the city&#8217;s baseball stadium, SkyDome &#8212; and hasn&#8217;t missed a game since.<\/p>\n<p>In honor of his dedication to the team, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, a place typically reserved for players and for team executives.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Today was a dream.<br \/>In the greatest building basketball has, the name Superfan Nav Bhatia will be immortalized.There is now a turban and the first fan honoured within Naismith Basketball Hall Of Fame. I am overcome with emotions today.<br \/>???? <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ADBPhotoInc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@ADBPhotoInc<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TFe7cpwDAK\">pic.twitter.com\/TFe7cpwDAK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Nav Bhatia Superfan (@superfan_nav) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/superfan_nav\/status\/1394090782823522306?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 17, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a huge honor, but it isn\u2019t the first time that his support has been rewarded; in 2019, Bhatia received a championship ring from the Raptors. His display in the Hall includes a replica of that ring, his courtside seat, and the original Raptors jersey he was presented in 1998 when he was declared a \u201csuperfan.\u201d It also features one of his turbans, the first turban ever in the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I have absolutely no issues in making this a regular occurrence lol.<\/p>\n<p>Honoured and humbled to receive this ring from @baronchampionshiprings  and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Hoophall?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@hoophall<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>I wear this with immense pride and responsibility to carry on spreading the game I love. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FmisroHpII\">pic.twitter.com\/FmisroHpII<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Nav Bhatia Superfan (@superfan_nav) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/superfan_nav\/status\/1394258102631993346?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 17, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Bhatia <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctvnews.ca\/video?clipId=2203566\">told CTV News<\/a><\/strong>, \u201cI\u2019m still pinching myself,\u201d and has joked that his devotion to the Raptors is an addiction. Every year Bhatia buys about 3,000 tickets and gives them to children in the Sikh community, as well as other groups across the GTA, and in 2018, he founded the Superfan Foundation as a way to unite people through sport.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A true icon.<\/p>\n<p>Congratulations on being inducted to the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Hoophall?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Hoophall<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/superfan_nav?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@superfan_nav<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WeTheNorth?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WeTheNorth<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Fw8TAFL8NN\">pic.twitter.com\/Fw8TAFL8NN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Raptors\/status\/1394123757908856832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 17, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The Toronto Raptors&#8217; very own superfan, Nav Bhatia, has become the first ever fan to be honoured at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Bhatia is one of the team&#8217;s biggest cheerleaders, attending every Raptors home game in his courtside seats. He\u2019s been going to games since 1995, when the Raps played their inaugural [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1375"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2044,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions\/2044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inspirationpost.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}