Not a lot of people realize the dinosaur behind the Toronto Raptors name and mascot comes from the popular “Jurassic Park” film, but Boston Celtics Hall of Fame big man Robert Parish was in the league when the Raptors were founded in 1995.
Asked what his initial response to such an unusual mascot was the first time he crossed paths with the then-new Canadian expansion team’s distinctive purple mascot on the Canadian “Player’s Own Voice” podcast, Parish replied it “made you look twice.” Taken a bit aback by the idea of a dinosaur for a mascot, the Celtics legend said he did a double-take.
“Oh, like, really? OK,” he laughed. “(The) Phoenix Suns mascot used to be a rooster and I used to think, Oh, that’s odd. So it made me do a double take”.
From DeFremery Park to the Garden: The Oakland roots of Boston Celtics greatness https://t.co/VoLMVpsjnt via @thecelticswire
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) December 25, 2022
“Whenever I saw that dinosaur, that’s the first thing I thought about was the Phoenix Suns mascot was the rooster,” related Parish. As to which of the two avian mascots separated by millions of years of evolution was tougher, it wasn’t much of a contest for the Louisiana native.
“If it were the real dinosaur and rooster?” asked Parish rhetorically. “Wouldn’t be a contest.”
Fair enough.
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