Raptors fans get to try on team's championship ring in Amherstburg

An Amherstburg bookshop offered people a Jurassic opportunity Sunday when the owner gave people the chance to try on the championship ring awarded to the 2019 NBA champions, the Toronto Raptors.

"I think everyone's struck by just how big it is, how thick it is, how heavy it is and all of the bling," said Richard Peddie, owner of River Bookshop and former CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment.

Thering was given to Peddie by the team and has his name set into the side of it.Peddie isfrom Windsor and in the early 1990shelped the PalestraGroup in its bid to bring anNBA expansion team to Canada.

That group's bid failed, but Toronto still got a franchise the Raptors and Peddie spent several years as the team's CEO.He said the ring was recognition from the current owners for his contribution to the team.

"It's kind of cool and it's great to bring it in here," he said.

Peddie says the ring was created by a Windsor-area companyand isallegedly the largest championship ring ever made.

It has 74 diamonds just on the face of it. It also featuresthe numbers of the players, Toronto symbolslike the CN tower, an emblem of the team and the word "North" scrawled across the front.

'It takes me back'

Fans flocked to the store on Sunday for a chance to see and touch the ring in person.

"I wanted the kids to experience it because it happened when they were so young, it would be cool to have some pictures for it stuff like that," fan Kyle Tootillsaid. "It was really cool just feeling the weight, just feeling that piece of history."

"It felt really, really heavy," said Tootill's son Ben.

Daniel Morujo, from Amherstburgconsiders himself abig Raptors fan and said getting to see a piece of Canadian history like that was "pretty cool."

"[It] took me back to when Kawhihit that buzzer-beater against the 76ers," Morujo said. "It brings a lot of memories back from last year."

On Saturday the Raptors ended their season with a lossagainst the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the second round of playoffs for the 2020 season. The score was92-87.