The Toronto Raptors’ championship run wasn’t defined by the team living out some fictional destiny. The members of the team did everything to earn the title.
Everyone loves a good story: A narrative arc with a satisfying conclusion. If destiny played a role in determining the NBA champion, Steph Curry might be accepting his first Finals MVP award on Sunday, talking about how he played his heart out for Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson after the awful injuries that the two suffered. If karma and the so-called basketball gods had a say, DeMar DeRozan would’ve been in Oakland on Thursday to celebrate his first NBA title with his best friend, Kyle Lowry, as the two longest-tenured Toronto Raptors.
As tempting as it might be to say, destiny was not why this year’s Raptors won the franchise’s first-ever NBA championship in its quarter-century of existence.
It’s been commonplace to credit fate or divine intervention for sports victories over the past few years. Those years have seen the 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers break the city’s 52-year title drought across three different sports, the 2016 Chicago Cubs end an unthinkable 108-year period between World Series victories, and Tiger Woods win the Masters Tournament for the first time in 14 years.
Chalking any of it up to destiny downplays the accomplishments of those athletes. The same goes for the 2018-19 Raptors: First-time champions, the first Canadian team to win a title in a major North American sports league since the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays. When we talk about these Raptors, let’s not talk about fate or the breaking of curses. That would be a disservice to what this team achieved over the past eight months.
Let’s talk about the contributions from the end of the bench, along with OG Anunoby, who would’ve been part of the playoff rotation if it weren’t for an untimely injury. Talk about Norm’s fearlessness. And Serge’s knack for stepping up in big moments. And Fred’s incredible perseverance. And Danny’s ability to maintain his confidence. And Marc’s unselfishness. And Pascal’s remarkable growth. And Kyle’s heart. And just about everything to do with Kawhi.
Let’s talk about the 58-24 regular-season record, despite Lowry missing 17 games, Kawhi Leonard missing 22, various other injuries, and midseason roster turnover. Let’s talk about the 17-5 record in games without Leonard, the elite regular-season defense that became historically great in the playoffs, and the seven postseason road wins.
Let’s talk about the brilliance of Masai Ujiri, the payoff of the controversial trades he made, and the phenomenal job that Nick Nurse did after Ujrii hired him as a first-year head coach. Let’s talk about how Ujiri genuinely believed in his team and his city when seemingly no one else did.
These Raptors, especially after the February trade that brought in Marc Gasol, were not defined by their history or a predetermined fate. They were defined by their unwavering calm in the face of adversity. They never tried to change history or create new results. These Raptors played the only way they knew how to, and they took those results as a given.
In leading the Raptors this season, Leonard didn’t seek to right the franchise’s past wrongs. He just knew himself, and his championship pedigree. He brought the poise of a champion to Toronto.
That may have rubbed off on his teammates – the effect is unquantifiable – and it surely rubbed off on a fanbase that was far too accustomed to being the butt of all jokes, the cute little story that always got forgotten once the legends showed up (hi, LeBron).
Leonard quelled the sinking feeling that used to rise in the gut of every Raptors fan’s stomach whenever a crucial playoff game began to slip away. He and this team put to rest the constant self-doubt that every Toronto fan knows too well. They gave fans reason to truly believe, even after they lost Game 5 despite coming so close to the title, putting everything they’d accomplished into jeopardy.
Put aside whether or not you believe in a higher power. Just tip your hat to the Raptors for what they accomplished on a stormy Thursday night in mid-June. Over their two-month playoff run – and really, since training camp began in October – the Raptors earned this title. They earned all the memories, the chants, the roars of the home crowd each time Leonard soared for another lefty slam.
They earned the thousands of fans in Jurassic Park just outside the arena, the thousands more watching from different Jurassic Parks across the country, and the millions more watching on television around the world.
These Raptors earned everything. Destiny’s got nothing to do with it.