TAMPA, Fla. — It’s been more than 10 months since Nav Bhatia has been able to sit in his courtside seats at ScotiaBank Arena to cheer on his beloved Toronto Raptors.
With the Raptors calling Tampa home through at least March 4, and possibly the whole season, Bhatia will have to keep waiting. Even if they do return to Canada in March, there’s no guarantee fans will be admitted.
It’s been a sudden change during the pandemic for the 69-year-old Bhatia, who is simply known as the Raptors Superfan. Bhatia has attended every Raptors game in Toronto dating to the team’s inaugural season in 1995. He’s never arrived late, and he’s never left early.
“It’s very tough because our players also want to be here,” Bhatia said. “They want to be in front of their fans because fans love them. But I think, under the circumstances, we have to follow the (medical guidance). … Yes, this is bad for us, but it’s a win for the Tampa Bay people. You will get more entertainment in the Raptors game than any other sport you ever have experienced. That’s my guarantee.”
No sports team may have a better ambassador. In Canada and throughout the NBA, Bhatia is nearly as big a celebrity as the players he roots for. As honorary marshal of the Raptors’ NBA championship parade in 2019, fans chanted “Super-fan” as he walked through the streets. A few months later, the Raptors held a news conference where team president Masai Ujiri presented Bhatia with a championship ring.
He is friends with Drake, another well-known Raptors fan. He has even hosted his own TED talk.
Earlier this year, he was honored as part of a Basketball Hall of Fame exhibit on the game’s top fans. The players and coaches not only know him, but expect to see him at home and on the road. He draws a crowd at every NBA city he visits.
“He travels a lot,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “He’s always in the front row. He’s always showing tons of energy. And he’s gracious. I think any fans from around the league that ever bumped into him (would agree). I think he takes more selfies than anybody in the organization.”
How Bhatia carved out such a profile, becoming one of the NBA’s most recognizable fans, is remarkable in itself. Bhatia and his family left India in 1984 during the anti-Sikh riots. He settled in the suburban Toronto neighborhood of Malton, renting out a basement apartment for $300 a month. He searched for work as a mechanical engineer with no luck, saying that at that time, people were turned off by his turban and beard.
After months without a job, he began selling cars at a local Hyundai dealership and immediately heard coworkers using slurs behind his back. From that point, Bhatia told himself he had to be better than good to be successful. He sold 127 cars in his first three months, worked his way up to general manager. He now owns two Hyundai dealerships and a Genesis dealership.
Bhatia also created the Nav Bhatia Superfan Foundation, which aims to bring people of all ages and backgrounds together through basketball. To promote inclusion, he has bought thousands of tickets for kids of different races, ethnicities and religions. He is building four basketball courts in his old neighborhood of Molton, and he is raising $200,000 to build washrooms for girls in northern India so they can continue their education.
“He does a heck of a lot of charitable work in the community,” Nurse said. “He gives back a lot. So this platform that he’s grown, the icon he’s become, all those kinds of things, he’s using it the right way.”
While he was working his way up, Bhatia was in search of a hobby. He bought two tickets to the first Raptors game, and the rest was history. Now he has 13 tickets to each home game, including six along the baseline.
“I got addicted to it,” he said. “I fell in love. This basketball game is the most entertaining game on this planet. It’s fast, it’s entertaining and the way the NBA has designed it, you feel for three hours you’re in a different world. I’m a car dealer by profession, so I used to have a lot of stress, but you know when you go to the game, you forget about everything.
“I’ve worked all my life,” Bhatia added. “I work very hard, and I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t womanize. I only Raptorize.”
Bhatia said he doesn’t have any immediate plans to attend Raptors games in Tampa, though he hasn’t completely ruled it out. He would have to quarantine for 14 days upon his return to Canada.
“My streak is still alive,” Bhatia said. “When they play back in ScotiaBank Arena, I’m going to be there. I’m going to be there from the very first moment. I could have gone to the bubble for a playoff game. But you know what? It’s too risky, not just for me, but for the players and their families. And I don’t want to have my entertainment and my satisfaction on the cost of the health and the safety of the others.”
