The Toronto Raptors attempted a creative, modern social media approach to unveil their schedule for the 2026-27 NBA season, but the experiment clanked off the iron and missed the mark entirely.
In today’s digital landscape, professional sports franchises are constantly pushing to drive viral fan engagement across platforms.
However, success is not guaranteed, and the Raptors are learning this the hard way as their attempt to connect with a wider audience is turning into an unforeseen marketing disaster.
Toronto Raptors’ 2026-27 Season Schedule Release Sparks Outrage
The Raptors partnered with content creators Jaclyn Forbes and Jasmine Alisha for a parody “girly gossip” podcast titled Hard Launch to announce their upcoming season schedule.
They framed the franchise’s key moments as dating drama while releasing the game dates. For example, they compared the back-to-back games against the New York Knicks on November 15 and 17 to an awkward post-breakup situation with former Raptor OG Anunoby, who recently won the 2025-26 NBA championship.
They also called LeBron James the season’s “Golden Bachelor” while breaking down games against the Philadelphia 76ers scheduled on January 10th and April 6th.
The social media team might have expected praise for creative storytelling, but the reaction on X was the exact opposite. Fans, analysts, and internet personalities united to criticize the PR campaign.
“Respectfully, this is really bad. Might be the worst schedule announcement I’ve ever seen,” tweeted Paige Otto, marketing manager for Snapback Sports and co-host of the Deep Dives Podcast.
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“I know it wasn’t your intention, but this is blatantly sexist. There’s a lot of woman fans in the NBA, you don’t have to reduce their intelligence down to this,” wrote one user.
Another user posted, “Your actual legit hardcore fan base that actually cares about things like this is probably like 95% male. I understand females are fans as well but they don’t give a [expletive] about stuff like the ‘schedule release’ video. Absolutely horrible marketing.”
“I think this is the worst piece of content from a pro sports team I’ve ever seen,” wrote one fan.
“Can’t believe this was approved,” commented Barstool Sports’ Jack Mac.
“This feels insulting to women everywhere actually lol,” wrote a second user.
Earlier this season, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers were under fire after the WNBA shared a moment in which both players made a $400 wager on an upcoming game between the Atlanta Dream and the Dallas Wings.
Although the league quickly took down the video, it raised many questions about healthy social media practices and the lengths organizations go to in order to hype up online engagement.
While creativity and viral moments remain crucial, this backlash serves as a prime lesson in audience awareness. The Toronto Raptors aimed for lighthearted humor, but the attempt came off as sexist and unnecessary.
