The Golden State Warriors have run roughshod over the NBA for the past five years. Ending their dynasty would mean more than the typical championship for the Toronto Raptors.
Every NBA team has the same goal: to win a championship. Not many teams get that opportunity, though. The Toronto Raptors, for the first time in franchise history, have the chance to put their name in the record books.
It might not have sunk in yet, but the Toronto Raptors are going to the NBA Finals.
After closing out the Eastern Conference Finals in six games, the Raptors progress to the grandest stage of them all to take on the Golden State Warriors; the top dogs of the NBA for the last half-decade.
The Warriors will be representing the Western Conference for the fifth successive year and are looking to win their third straight title. During their dominance, they have revolutionized the way basketball was played, and led by Steph Curry, ushered in the fully fledged three-point era.
Their stranglehold has been unrivaled and a dynasty has been born under the tutelage of Steve Kerr.
All dynasties have to end at some point, and speculation on the future of Kevin Durant has been rife as he heads into free agency upon the conclusion of this season.
Durant could always re-sign with the Warriors, but if the Raptors were to win: who knows what might happen?
The Raptors becoming the champions of the NBA might bring that dynasty to a crashing halt, and that would mean more than just a normal NBA championship.
There hasn’t been a team in basketball this dominant since the days of the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls of the late eighties and nineties. There probably won’t be another quite like it for a while.
Living in the existence of a team this good is – as an objective fan of another team – quite souring. A team this good incites a lot of disgruntlement, purely because it isn’t your own team. Everyone wants a homegrown team led by a legitimately nice guy. A team that is built from the inside up, before adding one of the greatest scorers of all-time.
You can hate them all you want, and discredit them for picking up Durant after the 2016 NBA Finals, but which team would really turn down the services of someone like KD?
Not even the dysfunctional Los Angeles Lakers would say no, so why would the Warriors?
Still, the end of the road is certainly nigh for this team — or at least this incarnation of it. Father Time waits for no man, and while the stars of the show are still in their prime, important rotational pieces like Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston are well into their twilight years. With that being said, Iguodala has still had a highly impressive postseason.
This article isn’t here to speculate on the future of Kevin Durant or the Warriors free agency situation, but hypothetically, a loss in the Finals could spell the end of the dynasty.
And for the Toronto Raptors, the chance to be the team that ends for of the most destructive runs in NBA history would be an added bonus to their first ever NBA title.
Hey, it might even kickstart a new dynasty. Who knows?