OK. Maybe you've seen this.
As Mayor of "Other" I felt the need to talk to @CBSSports about their poll. #WetheOther pic.twitter.com/CYRqOljXHc
— John Tory (@JohnTory) May 17, 2016
Maybe you've just seen the hashtag #WeTheOther floating around Twitter. This is really stupid. I think I can explain. The above is an open letter from the mayor of Toronto to CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus complaining that a poll they posted asking who would win the NBA championship listed the Warriors, Thunder, Cavaliers, and "other" as options. Never mind that the chairman of CBS Sports definitely doesn't have any influence on the company's online poll selections. Here is what the poll in question looked like:
Cool poll, @CBSSports. (via @WheelerTSN) pic.twitter.com/dxwGdtQ6EO
— J.E. Skeets (@jeskeets) May 17, 2016
Yeah! What's the deal with that? Why is it "other" when the fourth conference final participant is the Toronto Raptors? Very simple answer:
We posted it before Game 7! Raptors/Heat wouldn’t fit! We love you, Canada! https://t.co/FStrHVn0pU
— CBS Sports NBA (@CBSSportsNBA) May 17, 2016
The Raptors were not conference finalists yet! That's why. Done. Now, if you search for replies to the above explanation, you'll see a lot of people responding with stuff like "WELL IF IT DIDN'T FIT THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST SAY 'TOR/MIA' OR HEAT/RAPS' OR SOMETHING" to which the answer is most assuredly "because we didn't know y'all would care so much about an absolute nothing."
To be fair, I think most Canadians chattering about this on Twitter or using that #WeTheOther hashtag are just having fun and stirring up team spirit, which is cool. The mayor, though ... man, I think that's a little much. Especially the extremely "I'm not mad. This is funny to me" vibe of that third paragraph. And you had to expect that people were gonna come back at you with municipal gripes:
@JohnTory @CBSSports @Raptors Awfully quick to act on this but not on the unprecedented rash of cyclists and pedestrians being hit in 2 wks
— Joe LaFortune (@Poker_Joe) May 17, 2016
@JohnTory duddddeeee love the passion. But come on build some subways
— Mike Gomes (@mgomes5) May 17, 2016
Anyway, to recap: If you're having fun with this, cool. If you're genuinely mad, please understand that CBS Sports did not just call the city of Toronto or its citizens or its basketball team "other." They were talking about what was at the time a hypothetical, and they chose that word for simplicity's sake.
Also the Raptors are not going to win the championship.
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