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A wonderfully historic feeling

June 21, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Jasen Obermeyer

June 13, 2019 will forever be an important day in Toronto’s, and Canadian sports history. 

It’s now been exactly a week since the Toronto Raptors won their first National Basketball Association championship, as well as the first Canadian team to win a championship in any of the four major North American sports leagues since the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series in 1993. The first in my lifetime, I will treasure every minute of it.

I’ll admit I’m not as big a basketball fan as those who went to Jurassic Park or attended the parade Monday. Though I watched a few games during the regular season, I was focused on the Maple Leafs (look how that went). 

I did watch the Raptors during the Chris Bosh era, but once he left, my support waned. I jumped on the bandwagon in 2016, when they made it to the Conference Finals, but following two years of getting swept by the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round, I gave up. After they fired Coach of the Year recipient Dwayne Casey and traded star player and fan favourite DeMar DeRozan, I figured they’d be going through another dark period. How wrong I was.

The high-profile trade of DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green certainly got everyone talking. Focus was given more on Leonard, “The Klaw” who would shut the detractors. 

With head coach Nick Nurse, the regular season went as usual, and finishing second overall was not surprising. But it was the playoffs that would test if the gamble of Masai Ujiri would pay off. 

A dominant performance against the Orlando Magic, winning in five games, was definitely the right start. I started watching them in the second round, and was fortunate enough to watch Leonard score the game-winning buzzer-beater in Game 7. Hearing the crowd at Scotiabank Arena after holding their breath watching the shot bounce four times on the rim will forever remain an NBA legendary moment.

Heading into the Conference finals against the number one team Milwaukee Bucks, the Raptors definitely had the odds stacked against them. After going down two games in the series, including an embarrassing 125-103 loss, it seemed the team would be going back to the drawing board. 

But after a long, and very close second overtime victory, hope still remained. And after a dominant 120-102 victory, the roar in Jurassic Park was never silenced. Though in the next two games the Bucks started off strongly, incredible defensive play and amazing three-pointers by Green and Kyle Lowry allowed Toronto to finally advance to the NBA Finals. 

Being the only Canadian NBA team, and with the whole country coming together, it truly was a special time. Hearing about the team on late night talk show hosts was great. But all of that didn’t matter if we couldn’t be the Golden State Warriors, making their fifth straight Finals appearance. Though they were without Kevin Durant; Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, the Warriors were still a force to be reckoned with.

Throughout the series I noticed that it wasn’t entirely Kawhi who led the way, but it truly was a team effort. Lowry, Green, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, and Pascal Siakam all led at some point in the six games played. At times they stumbled for sure, not being able to get a basket for several minutes straight, while defensively they seemed to collapse against the might of the Splash Brothers. But ultimately, the Raptors prevailed, giving the Warriors very little chance of swiping victory from under us.

What I enjoyed most was watching the Raptors with my friend Kevin. He’s not a huge sports fan, but given the importance of being in the Finals, we watched the last three games together, and quickly he was getting into it, both of us tense and anxious for the buzzer to beep and declare the Raptors champions. It was so much fun getting together with a friend, drinking some beer, eating some snacks and watching the Raptors defy all expectations. 

Watching the parade was incredible, Ujiri’s gamble paid off, faster than many expected. It was only fitting for Leonard – who scored 732 points in the playoffs, third overall in league history – to win the Finals MVP Award. 

Whether you are a basketball fan or not, or a sports fan in general, you can’t deny the feeling we’ve all had these past couple weeks. The future is definitely looking bright for Toronto, and Canada in general. 

Go Raptors Go!

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