There are fans, and then there is 57-year-old Nav Bhatia.
Ever since he stepped on to a basketball court to watch the 2019 NBA champions Toronto Raptors play a game in 1995 in Toronto, he has never missed a single match of his beloved team. A total of 1,100 ties and 24 years later, Bhatia is counted among NBA's superfans.
Currently in India to shoot for NBA commercials for the next season, Bhatia's passion for the sport can be seen as he talks about it.
"I am on the verge of divorce. My wife is going to end our 36-year marriage because of basketball," Bhatia gets jovial as he talks about his love — basketball.
"I am an NBA addict. I take loan over loan over loan to support my addiction. My tickets are court-side tickets, the best tickets. I have spent a lot on these tickets in the last 24 years. And it's in millions," adds Bhatia. He states the amount which he may have spent but doesn't want to put it on record.
Bhatia, a mechanical engineer, migrated to USA from India after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
(Nav Bhatia)
As he was unable to get jobs as an engineer, he became a car salesman in Toronto. Bhatia worked hard to become the general manager and then he purchased a car dealership company himself.
"I worked all day long for 90 to 100 hours (a week), so you get stressed out. For me, those two-and-a-half hours (basketball) were medicine, which I looked forward to.
"Twenty-four years ago I brought two tickets and I fell in love with the game. Jaise ladki ko dekh ke pyar ho gaya (Like how a boy falls in love with a girl). It was love at first sight because it was entertaining," he says.
"Following that match I went to every single game and I mean every single game. Twenty-four years is a long time, I don't know how I did it. Travelling is separate. I don't count travel and the play-off games.
"I love basketball, period. I love every team. But when it comes to Toronto, I'm a loyalist," he adds.
The multimillionaire businessman, who is also one of the biggest car dealers in Canada, would purchase 3,000 tickets to gift them to Asian kids as a kind gesture.
"I would purchase tickets for underprivileged kids for them to enjoy the game and also let people know that the South Asian brown people – whether it's Sikhs, Muslims or Hindus – are all the same deep inside. Now, the game has become really popular and tickets has become expensive. So, now I can manage just 400 or 500 tickets."
As he sits near the court, where a ticket can burn a deep hole in the pocket, people mistake him for the owner or a member of the squad.
"I get into arguments with the referees and coaches. I am friends with several players and coaches and there are serious banter with the opposition. I am friends with lots of big stars but I don't use them except when kids want autographs or photographs of them. People think I am an owner," he says.
But does he intend to buy a stake in his favourite team? "I am not that rich and not interested too," he says.
With his superfan status, Bhatia also does some philanthropy where he has provided washrooms to schools in Punjab.
In the end, he wants Indians to enjoy the October 4-5 games between Indiana Pacers and Sacramento Kings to be played in Mumbai. "My countrymen, I believe everybody should support it. It's the game of the future. People are going to fall in love with it," he says.
Bhatia doesn't have plans to retire from his fandom and will continue to be a superfan as long as he can. "I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't womanise, I Rapotorise," is Bhatia's motto as he gets ready for a new NBA season to support his favourite team and defending champions Toronto Raptors.
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