In minor baseball, there was the Blue Jays Bump. In boys basketball, it may become known as the Raptors Ride or perhaps even the Raptors Rise.

Each high point in the 24-season history of the NBA's Toronto Raptors has had an impact on boys basketball in Alberta, believes longtime club and high school coach Kris Nielson. On the girls' side, not so much, suspects Randy Peron, a long-time coach of girls basketball teams.

"When Vince Carter came on to the scene for the Raptors (1998), we started to see a huge jump in basketball interest in Alberta," says Neilson. "Before that, club basketball in Calgary was really only three or four teams. By 2005, after Vince made basketball popular, there were a couple of dozen teams and now I’m not even sure anyone really knows for sure how many there are."

"The result is that the quality of basketball has risen dramatically and suddenly Alberta teams are competing with their American counterparts."

Currently, there are 14 Canadian players in the NBA. One of them, Chris Boucher, plays for the Raptors.

Unlike the United States, basketball has slowly grown in popularity here, despite its creation being credited to Canadian James Naismith in 1891. It is rated by some as the eighth most popular sport in the country. Hockey, of course, rules. On the Stateside, basketball ranks number three behind football and baseball and is ahead of fourth place hockey.

There's plenty of hype over the potential of the Raptors becoming the National Basketball Association champions. The Raptors could unseat the defending champion Golden State Warriors as early as tonight.

"Now that they’ve made the finals and everyone is suddenly a Raptor fan, the results will be significant. I do think we’ll see another spike in participation levels at the lower age groups. It will take a few years to see the results in high school but the more kids who starting playing U11 basketball, the more likely we’ll see the best athletes still playing basketball at the high school level."

Uncertain of the NBA's impact on girls' basketball, Peron asked a few of his players. None of them watched the NBA and its impact may be negligible, he says.

Based strictly upon his experience with the Red Jackets, Peron notes more girls are joining his program. He's the long-time Cochrane Cobras seniors girls basketball coach, has been heading up the Calgary Red Jackets Club for 12 seasons and has helped coach several Team Alberta teams over the years.