Nav Bhatia
Toronto RaptorsNav Bhatia is a fan’s fan to the core. Having attended every Raptors home game since their inception in 1995, he is easily recognizable from his turban and courtside seat. A trailblazer, he was the first fan ever awarded an NBA Championship ring when Toronto won the title in 2019, and went on to be a part of the first class of fan inductees to the NBA Hall of Fame in 2021.
For Nav, however, life wasn’t always so easy. Escaping violent anti-Sikh rioting in India, he emigrated to Toronto in 1984, but was unable to find work as an engineer and instead became a car salesman. After selling over a car a day for three months, he was able to buy the dealership in short order. Paying his good fortune forward in his adoptive country, Bhatia created the Superfan Foundation to unite fans from all walks of life, and spends several hundred thousand dollars yearly so that thousands of kids may also cheer in person for the team he loves.