All his life, Jay Triano waited for a night like this, with all this noise, with all this excitement.
There is only one opening night, one first game of the first season of a coaching career he never saw coming.
His passport doesn't matter anymore. This was no token appointment as the only Canadian head coach -- ever -- in the National Basketball Association. The job, Bryan Colangelo insisted from the beginning, went to the best man.
THE BEST MAN
Only it was hard to believe Jay Triano was the best man to coach the Toronto Raptors.
So opening night began with Chris Bosh talking on a microphone to the fans, with former Raptor Anthony Parker getting a standing ovation, with LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal in town, with the wonder of what the new-look Raptors would unveil.
"You can't know," Colangelo was saying before the game. "You can hope but you can't know."
Triano didn't know and wouldn't admit it was about him. He won't allow himself to look at this game, any game, that way.
But inside, deep inside, this gym rat from Niagara Falls, this kid from Simon Fraser University and University of Jack Donohue, the Olympic player and the Olympic coach, the guy Steve Nash trusts the most, he is here, in a pinstripe suit, standing on the same sidelines as Phil Jackson and Jerry Sloan and Doc Rivers. This is his job, his team, his time.
And hard as Triano tried to push the attention elsewhere, somewhere deep down, he had to be pumping his fist. He had to know how long a fight this has been.
Last summer, when the interim was taken away from Triano's title, when the job inexplicably was his in spite of his awful record of last season, he was frank and stern about what he wanted from the Raptors. He wanted more toughness. He wanted more depth. He wanted more defence. He wanted more rebounding.
The wish list was long and hopeful and seemingly unrealistic for a head coach no other NBA team would consider hiring.
MANY PIECES
But the pieces began to be revealed last night, even with Reggie Evans in street clothes, with two Raptor assistant coaches arguing on the bench, with Brian Burke there to witness his first Toronto win of the season, seeing the kind of truculence he is hoping for from his hockey team.
Triano wanted a tougher Raptor team, a deeper team, a team playing more defence, and last night everything Triano asked for against one of the true contenders in the NBA seemed to come true.
This season may not get better than this: But with the Raptors in Season 15, we have learned not to expect much. We'll take this season one win at a time.
An undefeated start for coach Triano, who changed Andrea Bargnani when he replaced Sam Mitchell last season, turning him from draft bust to weapon, and that change was so evident on opening night, as were so many of the new parts that Triano asked.
The new players -- Marco Belinelli, draft pick DeMar DeRozan, Jarrett Jack, Hedo Turkoglu, the feisty Antoine Wright, -- all made an impression. All made a difference. All showed how new and different this Raptors team can be.
Triano was asked last night what all this meant to him and he chose to answer the question by talking about his players.
"This is a great reward for the players, a chance to start the season and find out who we are and where we're going," he said.
And a night -- even if he won't admit it -- that Jay Triano will never ever forget
STEVE.SIMMONS@SUNMEDIA.CA
