Two years ago yesterday, the Toronto Raptors lost to the Brooklyn Nets on a blocked buzzer-beater, a heartbreaking and dramatic conclusion to a series that didn’t signal a disappointment, but the end of the first chapter in an exciting new story. As the Air Canada Centre crowd showered the team with a raucous chant of “Let’s Go Raptors,” Christian Stoinev stood amazed, not just at the crowd’s support but at what he had been a part of. Stoinev and his dog Scooby had just capped their rookie season on the NBA circuit by performing at halftime of a Game 7 featuring his favorite team.
The “Christian and Scooby” halftime act – now featuring Percy, the youngest of Stoinev’s three chihuahuas – has been a long time in the making. So, too, has Stoinev’s Raptor fandom.
A fifth-generation circus performer, Stoinev was always destined to be in front of crowds in one way or another, and he was doing so by age five. His parents met when his father’s Bulgarian circus troop visited Mexico, where his mother worked as a trapeze artist. Two months later, they were a newly-wed trapeze duo. Not too long after, Stoinev was born in Sarasota, Florida, with the family making the largely unplanned but ultimately fitting stop in the Circus City on their way back to Mexico. Stoinev spent the first seven years of his life in Mexico before hitting the road and living out of a trailer for most of his childhood, working a balancing act with his father.
Life on the road was difficult and at times lonely for Stoinev, and so the family got him a dog, Scooby. Around the time Stoinev was 12, a newspaper crew caught him and Scooby goofing around as tents were being set up, with Scooby able to walk and balance on Stoinev’s body as he goofed around, stood, sat, performed front rolls, and so on. The act picked up steam from there, and when Stoinev finished a broadcasting program at Illinois State, he started reaching out to NBA teams about performing at games.
The 2013-14 season saw Stoinev perform at roughly 15 halftimes between college and the NBA and culminated with Raptors-Nets Game 7, his first visit to Toronto.
“It was the greatest worst day of my life,” Stoinev recalls.
The season over, Stoinev’s profile continued to grow thanks to a run to the finals of America’s Got Talent. He estimated he made 20 NBA appearances the following season and topped that number this year, including performances at Game 3 of Miami-Charlotte and Game 1 of Golden State-Portland.
After the Warriors’ game ended, Stoinev hustled back to his hotel and fired up League Pass, settling in just in time to watch his Raptors beat the Indiana Pacers in Game 7. This has become his routine, making time for the Raptors no matter what city or country he might find himself in, for nearly as long as he’s had Scooby.
It was around the same time that he got Scooby that Stoinev was introduced to the impetus for his fandom.
“Two words: Vince Carter,” Stoinev explains of how a Sarasota-born, Mexico-raised, traveling performer settled on the Raptors as a team. “I was maybe 10, 12. It was when he was in his prime, right after T-Mac left. I was looking at videos, and I was like, ‘Oh, my god, this guy’s the coolest.’ I became a big Vince Carter fan, then Bosh came in Carter’s last (full) season, and I just became a Raptors fan.
“And those were the bad years, so I don’t know how I stuck with it.”
It’s perhaps strange that the Raptors stood out to an American fan looking for a team to latch on to, but despite owning a U.S. passport, Stoinev fits in well with the Raptors’ entire ethos. He may not Be the North, but he’s a Mexican-Bulgarian-American who’s spent the better part of his life untethered from any city or team allegiances. The Raptors have positioned themselves nationally as the other, as the outsider against the other 29 NBA teams, and that’s a mentality and a spirit that resonates with a nomad.
“My family is kind of worldwide,” Stoinev says. “When I was in Indiana (for Games 3 and 6) and the fans were chanting U.S.A., I felt for the Canadians…I’m a big fan. I travel around to watch them. That’s just the toughest part, I guess, is not being able to be near them.”
@raptors takeover!! What an experience!! #WeTheNorth #2MoreToGo #RTZ #NBAPlayoffs
A photo posted by Christian Stoinev (@castoinev) on
Stoinev’s relationship with the Raptors isn’t a casual one. Casual fans don’t supplement their Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan jerseys with those of T.J. Ford and Terrence Ross. They also don’t hide their Amir Johnson jersey in a backpack when performing in New Orleans in hopes of getting it signed (Landry Fields provided the stealth hookup).
He’ll drive to Raptors’ road games within a few hours of the Chicago area, where he’s based out of right now, though he’s rarely in one place for long. Stoinev spends enough time on the road that League Pass is a life essential, basketball podcasts (including the Raptors Republic podcast, obviously) are consumed in high volumes, and any chance to talk Raptors is a welcome one.
“It is tough,” Stoinev said. “But at the same time, I feel like the Raptors are a fun team where most of my friends, now that the Bulls are gone, they’re like ‘Yeah, let’s go Raptors.’ It’s tough, but it’s also rewarding when they do well, because it’s so cool. Like, ‘Wow, we’re the underdogs, we made it.’ It’s a great feeling. All of my friends texted me after Game 7. One of my friends called me after the Lowry shot to ask, ‘Are you still alive?’
“I like that underdog mentality, it’s fun. I embrace it.”
His love for the Raptors has bled into other parts of his life, too, to the point that Stoinev sounds like an honorary member of The 6ix. He lists Drake as a favorite artist – Take Care is his best album (correct), Views is in heavy spin right now, and, like all real Drake fans, he feels a nostalgia, real or imagined, with the experiences Drake raps about. He was originally a Yankees fan thanks to his time in New York during the Subway Series, but with the retirement of favorite player Derek Jeter and his love for the Raptors, he was all-in on the 2015 Blue Jays and remembers exactly where he was for The Bat Flip. He’s keenly aware the Leafs just won the NHL Draft Lottery, too.
As these things tend to do, his fandom has trickled down to his 16-year-old brother Christopher, a budding juggler who called during our lunch for advice on which Raptors jersey to get (he wants a DeRozan but the uncertainty of free agency looms, and he was leaning toward the OVO colors but still undecided).
Christopher has tagged along for this performance, as has Stoinev’s mother, somewhat of a rarity. Stoinev spends the bulk of his time on the road alone, and his parents get far more excited for this circus-related performances than his basketball ones. The opportunity to share such a big professional moment with family, and such a big Raptors moment with his brother, is as important as performing for his favorite team (although he did tease he may debut a new trick he and Percy have been working on).
“It means a lot to me that I got to drive here, and I’m bringing my brother,” Stoinev says. “I never forced him to be a fan. He saw me being a Raptors fan, and this year especially, he’s become one. He called me after Game 7. So I knew if I got a Raptors game, I had to take him. And I’m really excited that my mom will be here. Knowing how our fans are, We the North, and all that, just for her to be like, ‘I get it.’
“It’ll be awesome. I’m so excited. For the game, for the performance. It’s hard to put it in words.”
Already a part of one of the most memorable games in Raptors’ history, a win Thursday could lock Stoinev in as a Raptors fixture over the next few years. That would be just fine with him.
