A new collaborative ad pokes fun of the namesake of the Toronto Raptors with a little help from a few friends.
Bringing together Raptors rookie Scottie Barnes and Hollywood icon Jeff Goldblum, the ad riffs on the origins of the team’s name—the pop-culture dino-frenzy following the 1993 release of Jurassic Park. With Jurassic World: Dominion coming this summer, the franchise has teamed up with the North and ESPN to bring together two of the worlds biggest dinosaur-themed brands.
The ad opens with Barnes walking around the ESPN newsroom with NBA player-turned-broadcaster Richard Jefferson remarking on “all the dinosaurs in the office.” Then, they run into 75-year-old NBA legend and analyst Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who shouts, “You know I can hear you, rookie!”
“Yo bro! You can’t talk about Kareem like that. He’s one of the greatest of all time, show some respect,” Jefferson tells Barnes, who is actually talking about “dinosaur dinosaurs” as a velociraptor jumps on top of a cubicle.
This is where Goldblum, who is reprising his role, as Dr. Ian Malcolm in Dominion makes his entrance. “Yeah… uhh, nobody believed me either,” he says apprehensively as he backs away from a dino lunging towards him.
With Scottie Barnes gearing up to be the next Raptors franchise mainstay, putting him beside court icons like Abdul-Jabbar and Jefferson is only fitting. With the addition of screen legend Goldblum, the partnership of the franchises is even sweeter.
It goes without saying that the Raptors and Jurassic collab makes total sense. In fact, it’s not the first time they linked up—last year, the team and the movie franchise joined forces for an OVO apparel collection.
Now, what would make even more sense is if they played the ad while the crowd at Toronto’s own Jurassic Park watches the playoffs in the coming days.
Jurassic World: Dominion hits theatres June 10.
