Toronto Raptors players reimagined as characters from Harry Potter

Without Marc Gasol, the Raptors wouldn’t have won the NBA title. Like Hermione, he used his smarts and intelligence to make the perfect maneuvers to surmount a victory.

The Spanish tower, Marc Gasol, is by far an away one of the more intelligent basketball players in the game. In the playoffs, he was an integral defensive piece to stymie the play of Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Defensive skills take mastery to perform. They take years of learning and aptitude to perform, especially in basketball where more often than not the other team scores.

Hermione is of similar nature to Marc Gasol. Yes, she is gifted in witchcraft, but she had to master her skills with her intelligence and hard work. Her legacy, perhaps, was more earned rather than given.

Without Hermione, Harry and company would have been at a loss early on in the series. She was there to back up the mistakes made by Harry and counter them with maneuvers of her own accord that usually led to success over failure.

Although Gasol had a diminished offensive role this last year, he used his stellar defensive play to keep the Raptors in games–especially in the playoffs. Likewise, he was paid handsomely for his efforts by way of earning a championship title to coincide with his career.

Without Gasol, it’s tough to envision the Raptors making the necessary defensive stops to get by the Sixers or the Bucks along the way. Moreover, it’s tough to see a systematic change taking place in the Bucks series to pull together the necessary wins to outlast a two-games-to-none hole. Gasol may have been looked over on the offensive end, but his sheer size and will were perhaps just as important to the Raptors as Hermione’s intelligence and rational was to Harry.

Diligence is not only a trait of Gasol’s, however. With diligence, practice, and timing another player shone brightly even when he was abandoned early on.