In the unforgiving age of social media, where sports fans have a direct line of communication to the athletes they love or love to hate, things often get taken too far.
That was the case earlier in the NBA playoffs for Los Angeles Clippers star Paul George, who became a virtual punching bag due to his early post-season struggles. He later revealed that his slip in play was because his mental health was suffering in the lonely confines of the Disney bubble where all the games are being played.
Over the last few days, that ugly side of social media has found Pascal Siakam.
The Toronto Raptors star, who won the NBA Most Improved Player award just last year and was an all-star starter this season, has quickly fallen from the graces of many fans after his playoff struggles, particularly in the Game 7 loss to the Boston Celtics.
The line was crossed when the conversation went beyond criticism of his play, with attacks on his character, personal insults and even a blatantly racist petition created and signed by a small group of people online. But for every negative remark, there are Raptors fans coming to the defence of their guy.
“It’s horrible. Absolutely horrible. I’m really, really appalled and disgusted. With everything that’s happening in the world right now, and this movement to try and bring some equality and to have these values of decency and brotherhood in the world,” said Nick Zaman, a diehard fan from Milton.
“It’s really, really horrible that people feel like they can say whatever they want in the nastiest possible way, and not realize that these athletes are human beings.”
Zaman, who is originally from Pakistan, and his wife Dimitrina Stancheva, from Bulgaria, became Raptors fans by default when they moved to Canada from Dubai in 2015. They say they chose to make Canada their home over anywhere else in the world because of the welcoming people and diverse culture.
So when they saw the hurtful remarks and a racist petition circulating online, they knew it did not represent the greater Raptor fan base. That’s when they decided to start a project to counter the negativity with kindness.
“We wanted to do something completely contrary to that, really positive and really kind. I feel like kindness isn’t something that has enough momentum right now,” Zaman said.
The #PascalLoveProject, which was Stancheva’s idea and has already received dozens of submissions, hopes to flip the conversation.
“What we’re trying to do is get people to send in their words of encouragement, their cards, pictures, any drawings they do or their kids do, send it to us to put together for this book that we want to send to Pascal,” Zaman said.
“We want this young man who’s going through a tough time and is such a beloved part of our Raptors, to see that there’s a lot of support for him and whatever struggles he’s had this season, that doesn’t define who he is.”
Over the last two years, Zaman and Stancheva have made sure to clear their schedule on game nights. The only times they’ve left the house during a game is when they were able to watch it live at Scotiabank Arena. Even then, they would watch a replay of the game on TV when they got home.
The couple, who became Canadian citizens in March, are still relatively new to the country and say they don’t have a lot of friends. It’s not easy to move across the world and pick up a social life, but the online Raptors community has provided a place of belonging.
“We connected (to the Raptors) even more once we found out it’s such an international team and has such a great following all over the world,” Zaman said. “On Twitter, we’re connected to people from the U.K., the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, all over the world.”
With some help from other devoted fans in getting the message out, the couple has received dozens of submissions so far.
Suzanne Tallevi, who has pinned the project to the top of her “Toronto Raptors” Facebook group that is home to 42,000 fans, says she’s received more than 50 messages, but there’s lots of room to grow.
“Whether it’s 10 messages or 4,000, we still want to do this. It’s really important. It just seems like there’s so much anger and it’s just really not right,” she said. And honestly, the hate is not helpful. It’s done, it’s not going to undo things.”
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Raptors fans banded together in a similar manner two years ago, putting together a book of messages supporting DeMar DeRozan after he first revealed on social media his personal battle with depression.
When the book is completed next week, Zaman and Stancheva hope to get it in the hands of Siakam. The 26-year-old from Cameroon turned off his comments on Instagram, likely because of the barrage of negativity. The #PascalLoveProject is meant to show him that those comments don’t represent the majority of Raptors fans.
“We wanted to do something to reach him personally as a young man who is obviously down on himself right now,” Zaman said. “We wanted to do something for this young man to show him that there’s people who see him and love him and recognize what he’s done for us.”
If you would like to submit something to the #PascalLoveProject, you can email Zaman and Stancheva at raptafan27@gmail.com