Nav Bhatia (born July 9, 1951), nicknamed the Raptors Superfan, is a Canadian businessman and superfan of the

Toronto Raptors The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), E ...

basketball team. He founded and currently runs the Superfan Foundation to help unite people through the love of the sport. Bhatia has attended every Toronto Raptors home game since 1995, temporarily ending in 2020 when he could no longer attend home games in person due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and the Raptors' temporary relocation to Tampa, Florida. His 26-year 100 per cent Toronto home game attendance streak ended on December 10, 2021, when he was forced into isolation following a COVID-19 outbreak at an event he attended. On June 19, 2018, Bhatia was named a recipient of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrants Award.

Early life and career

Bhatia was born in

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

and moved to

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

in 1984 amid anti-Sikh riots in India. He struggled to find work as a mechanical engineer and decided to work as a car salesman. He achieved a record 127 car sales in three months and bought the dealership two years later. Bhatia is the owner of one of the top-selling

Hyundai Hyundai is a former South Korean industrial conglomerate ("''chaebol''"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Asan, a real estate construction ...

car dealerships in Canada.

Toronto Raptors superfan

Bhatia is known for being the Raptors’ biggest fan, having attended every Raptors home game in the franchise's 25-year history from 1995 to 2020, until the

forced the Raptors to temporarily play their 2020–2021 season in

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, Florida. His 26-year 100 per cent Toronto home game attendance streak finally ended on December 10, 2021, when he was forced into isolation due to an outbreak of COVID-19 at

Masai Ujiri Michael Masai Ujiri (born July 7, 1970) is a professional basketball executive and former player who is the President (corporate title), president of the Toronto Raptors in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Ujiri was born in the Unite ...

's Giants of Africa Gala, which he attended. After the Toronto Raptors won the NBA Championship during the 2018–2019 season, he became the first fan to receive an official NBA Championship ring. In 2020, the

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pre ...

announced that Bhatia would be one of the first fans memorialized in its new superfan gallery for their 2020 induction class. He was officially honoured by the Hall of Fame on May 15, 2021, as part of their ceremonial induction weekend. In 2021, Bhatia was announced as the subject of both ''Superfan: The Nav Bhatia Story'', a

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

documentary film which aired on December 3, 2021, and ''Superfan'', an upcoming Hollywood studio biopic slated to star

Kal Penn Kalpen Suresh Modi ( born April 23, 1977), known professionally as Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration. As an actor he is known for his portrayals of Kumar Patel in t ...

as Bhatia. In 2023, the city of

Mississauga Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...

awarded Bhatia the Key to the City. Bhatia is frequently invited to talk about basketball in the media.

Philanthropy

Bhatia founded the Superfan Foundation in 2018 as a way to bring people in Canada and around the world together through sport. He spends $300K every year to send thousands of children to Raptors games.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhatia, Nav 1951 births Living people 20th-century Canadian businesspeople 21st-century Canadian businesspeople Automobile salespeople Canadian Sikhs 21st-century Indian businesspeople Indian emigrants to Canada People from Mississauga People from New Delhi Sports spectators Toronto Raptors