When you're a smallish ethnic group in a town full of bigger ones, it can be tough to stand out.
Such was the quiet plight of Toronto's 15,000-plus Turkish community until this week, when pro basketballer Hedo Turkoglu signed a $53-million contract with the Toronto Raptors. It was as though he'd hoisted them all onto his towering shoulders.
"Sometimes life here can be pretty monotonous; Turkish people work at hard jobs," and have little chance to celebrate, Yusuf Caglayan said Thursday during an afternoon lull at Champion Kokorech, the popular Turkish eatery he co-owns on Danforth Avenue. "Hedo is going to be a big change for them."
A scant two hours after Mr. Caglayan made his prediction, it materialized in a raucous way when Mr. Turkoglu, 30, strolled into the Raptors' practice court for a news conference. Greeting him were two dozen kids from the Nil Academy, a Turkish private school in Scarborough. Their teachers had herded them onto a school bus and headed for the Air Canada Centre when they caught wind of the event.
"This is a huge deal for the Turkish community," homeroom teacher Imran Coksurer shouted over bursts of gleeful bellowing as the children mobbed the smiling, six-foot-ten hardwood hero, who loomed, minaret-like, above them.
"That's what we're hoping; we really want our voice to be heard and we want other communities to realize there is a Turkish community."
Obscure as it might be to the rest of Toronto, the community's presence has been made boisterously known to Mr. Turkoglu every time he's visited here as an opposing player through nine National Basketball Association seasons with Sacramento, San Antonio and, most recently, Orlando.
At each game, 50 to 100 Turks could be counted on to show up waving flags and shouting chants, a number sure to grow exponentially once the hard-working forward takes to the ACC court in October.
"Now we will be able to cheer for him as well as for the Raptors at the same time," said Erdem Denizkusu, a Mississauga financial analyst and a director of the Turkish Society of Canada.
As one of only two Turkish players in the NBA, Mr. Turkoglu gets a similar reception from local Turks wherever he plays, though many here are confident the player and his wife, Banu, will find Toronto the most culturally comfortable home-away-from-home they've seen yet.
Indeed, the city's multiethnic flavour has been widely touted as a deciding factor in Mr. Turkoglu's choice of the Raptors over the Portland Trail Blazers, and according to news reports, held particular sway with his wife, who gave birth to a daughter, Ela, in March.
"I think she'll enjoy the city more than me, because we travel a lot throughout the season and we don't really stay much here," he said. And besides, while they'll have a house in Toronto, "Turkey is home," specifically Istanbul, where Mr. and Ms. Turkoglu met as teenagers.
On that score, Toronto was a shrewd choice: Starting today, Turkish Airlines will offer direct flights to Istanbul, making Toronto one of just three North American cities with such a connection.
Long seen as the poor cousin to their all-American competitors, the Raptors can't help but revel in the Turkoglu deal, their first-ever signing of a major free agent from another NBA team, one day after Andrea Bargnani, the Italian-born centre, eagerly renewed with the Raptors for five more years.
With point guard Jose Calderon of Spain also on the roster, the Raptors are the NBA's most international team, a status that extends to the club's front office.
"It's being appreciated more and more, particularly by pro athletes who somehow discover that there's another beautiful city that is different from the other cities," said Maurizio Gherardini, the team's Italian-born assistant general manager, who described Toronto as "something in between" a U.S. metropolis and a European one.
While European players are far more common in the National Hockey League than in the NBA, the Toronto Maple Leafs similarly tout the city's worldly ways when recruiting, Leafs GM Brian Burke said.
"One of the first and strongest pitches we make is Toronto, the city, the diversity, the safety, the cleanliness, the transportation system," Mr. Burke said in an interview. "We can say with some confidence, 'We can give you the best place to live of any NHL city.' "
Last week at a restaurant in Karlstad, Sweden, he said that same thing to Jonas Gustavsson, before the 24-year-old goaltender signed with the Leafs on Tuesday. Mr. Gustavsson chose Toronto over Dallas, Denver and San Jose, all of which he toured before deciding.
"I said, 'Toronto's the closest thing you're going to find to Stockholm, where there is cultural diversity, where public transportation is a priority, where safety is a priority, where the school system is a priority,' " Mr. Burke said. "I spent as much time talking about that as I did about the hockey team."
Busy as Mr. Turkoglu will be draining baskets, his Toronto countrymen hope he'll soon settle in to enjoy the same cosmopolitan virtues that lured the young Swede.
Back at the Champion on Danforth, co-owner Fatih Kilic has just the ticket: a steaming platter of Iskender kebab and a bowl of lentil soup. "Turkish people love soup," he said, "even in the morning. They have it for breakfast."
If Mr. Turkoglu shows up, Mr. Kilic, who attended the same Istanbul high school as the hoops star, pledged to make it worth his while.
"We are very excited and we hope he will come here," he said. "And I won't charge him any money."