It's a historic night for the Raptors franchise, the city of Toronto and the country of Canada.
With the Toronto Raptors finishing with a better regular-season record than the Golden State Warriors, they earned the right to open the 2019 NBA Finals at Scotiabank Arena. With Game 1 being played in Toronto, it marked the first time in NBA history that a Finals game was played outside of the United States.
On such a momentous occasion, all eyes in North America shifted north, and Canada was prepared for its moment of the spotlight.
Before the game even tipped off, vocal group The Tenors, who hail from the provences of Ontario and British Columbia, took centre court to perform their rendition of Canada's national anthem.
Oh Canada: #NBAFinals Edition 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/jdP9gHrPzI
— NBA Canada (@NBACanada) May 31, 2019
The three members: Fraser Walters, Victor Micallef and Clifton Murray sang in both English and French and were joined by the nearly 20,000 fans in attendance.
It was an electric atmosphere that set the tone for the night, as the Raptors would go on to take a 1-0 series lead after earning their first Finals win in franchise history.