I’ve been watching basketball for almost two decades, I’ve prided myself on cheering on the non-big market teams (shoutout to the ‘04 Pistons, the best team ever), and tried to be as impartial as I can going into each season. I understand the idea of fandom and fanatics, I understand people’s hometown pride, but I wanted to approach the NBA from a different perspective. Sure, I’ve got my squads that I will consistently root for (Pistons and Nuggets, odd combination, I know), but I try to look at all other teams evenly. Living in Toronto, it was especially easy for me to not fall into the Raptors fandom when they first made it the playoffs in 2013 and every other year because, well it’s the Raptors. Any real Raptors fan (or in my case, someone who absorbs so much Raptors energy) will draw from the sentiment of NBC Sports’ Tom Haberstroh when he says “we’re doing this again“?
Year and year again, that was exactly the thought. Make the playoffs, get beat by LeBron. Have an amazing year, get beat by LeBron. Bring in defensive stoppers in PJ Tucker and DeMarre Carroll, still get beat by LeBron. The Ls were inevitable. That’s how it was until the summer of 2018 when Kawhi Leonard became available and Masai Ujiri and the front office staff made a trade that will forever change the Raptors history. We’ve all heard the story, Kawhi doesn’t want to come to Toronto, doesn’t like the city, doesn’t like the weather, but the Raptors were convinced that they could do to Leonard what the Thunder did to Paul George a year prior (ironic, right).
Leonard’s introduction to Toronto was met by Internet memes and Ujiri telling reporters to stop underselling Toronto. As someone who moved to Toronto in 2015, I feel the same sentiment as Ujiri. The city is like no other with its energy and sports fandom (although often bandwagon-y). But he and Danny Green started playing and something was different about this Raptors team. Pascal Siakam became the starting power forward and his off season work was being demonstrated on the court. Green and Leonard became the defensive stoppers that Toronto wished Carroll could have been in the past. Leonard started sitting the tail end of back to backs due to “load management“, a term coined by the Raptors and then used throughout the league later on in the year.
Toronto was riding high going into the playoffs as the 2nd seed, no pundits were asking “we’re doing this again”. This Toronto team was different, the energy and confidence was different, the attitude was serious, and they battled every night (except Game 1 against Orlando…). These guys came out to fight and it was evident in the Magic, Sixers, and Bucks series’. Once June came around and the team reached the Finals, there was an attitude that’s never been on the team before. They walked into game 1 not scared of the defending Champs, they had a “we belong here” attitude rather than a “happy to be here” approach. This attitude going into games is what makes the difference between Champions and the rest. We all know how the rest of the story goes, Leonard wins Finals MVP on 1.5 legs, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant both get injured in the series, Norm Powell and Fred VanVleet are incredible off the bench, Marc Gasol gets really drunk on the parade bus, and Eric Moreland earns his paycheck by saving Gasol.
The Raptors reached basketball royalty, a position that more than a handful of teams in the NBA still have not experienced. Literally the top of the NBA world, where 11 NBA teams still have never reached in their history. That does not include teams like the Kings and Hawks whose franchises won the title in the 50s, or the Bucks and Knicks whose teams won in the 70s. For the Raptors, this was not a long time coming considering the team is still young (remember, the team was named after dinosaurs in the 1993 version of Jurassic Park). Raptors fans are faced with a tough decision now.
Never has the Finals MVP jumped ship and left the franchise after winning (asides from Jordan retiring in 93 and 98), but the franchise knew the risk it was getting in to when they traded for Leonard. The risk was clear, Leonard’s team had been vocal about wanting to go back to LA, where he’s originally from. Somewhere far away from Toronto’s -20 degree winters and foreign taxes. On the other hand, the Raptors would never have made it to this position if not for the risk that Ujiri and the Raptors brass executed bringing in Leonard and and letting him load manage throughout the year. For fans, I believe, the answer should be obvious. Show some love to Leonard and Green for what they did for the city. That part is obvious, these guys played injured during the playoffs and they left it all on the court.
But Toronto fans need to do more than appreciate Green and Leonard. Remember to love the rest of the players, from 1-15, each of these players had an impact on the game, the locker room, and practices. Leonard would not have been able to manage his load throughout the year if it weren’t for role players stepping up during the season, Green’s shooting woes would have been further emphasized if Van Vleet and Powell didn’t execute in the playoffs, and the team’s bench would have been much weaker without #MaFuzzy Chef, Serge Ibaka. Show some love for the other players, the team leader Kyle Lowry (who bounced back from not scoring in game 1 against Orlando to scoring 26 in Game 6 of the Finals), the coaching staff, and the front office who took a massive gamble that brought in Leonard and Green. This Raptors organization just lost its superstar player, but still has a superstar office behind the scenes.
