The Toronto Raptors Aren’t Going Anywhere
Though their season ended in pretty ugly fashion, the NBA’s Canadian representatives have a hell of a lot to look forward to.
Immediately after dismantling the Toronto Raptors and clinching his sixth straight trip to the NBA Finals, LeBron James needed a minute. It wasn’t to gather his thoughts nor catch his breath, though. It was to take a moment to acknowledge the Air Canada Centre crowd standing, cheering and chanting its team off the floor for the final time during the 2015–16 season.
Success often works in stages. Coming in waves, first one level is conquered, then another, then another. Overachieving becomes the expectation, then the norm. Three years ago, the Toronto Raptors burst back into the playoffs after a five-year drought, packing the ACC as well as the square outside of it. Following a thrilling seven-game first-round series against a veteran Brooklyn Nets team, the season was over, but the dream was alive. The Raptors had arrived.
Since that series, NBA fans across the globe have watched Raptors fans express their love for the team. Stretching across Canada and showing up in arenas across the U.S., these fans have cheered and chanted and waved their #WeTheNorth flags as a show of appreciation for a team that has been steadily climbing the NBA ranks as it has created a new identity for itself.
On Saturday morning, less than 12 hours since Toronto’s most successful season in franchise history came to an end, DeMar DeRozan delivered a love letter in spoken word form to the city. Speaking to the media for his exit interview before the players went their separate ways for the summer, the longest-tenured Raptor spoke of loyalty and history, of a changing public perception and being the guy who stayed to watch it all unfold.
Basketball in Toronto has been filled with more lows than highs over the past 21 years. Fans have always been passionate and supportive, but the sting of players leaving — Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, most recently Chris Bosh — has lingered. It remained as fans waited for a new story, for moments of celebration to point to that didn’t include ex-heroes who had bolted for greener pasture.
The rewriting began in the seven-game series against the Nets and was traced over in ink when the team aired a video tribute for Carter when he and the Memphis Grizzlies were in town last year. The touching tribute caused tears from Carter, as well as many in the stands. Most powerful, though, was the reaction of the fanbase who gave a standing ovation, finally able to let go of painful memories to make room for new ones to come.
DeRozan is expected to opt out of the final year of his contract this summer. There will be suiters ready to throw all of the money they’re allowed to at him. These are the kind of summers that used to make Raptors fans nervous, worried that the familiar feeling of unrequited love would be back to leave a pit in their stomachs. Listening to DeRozan speak in his exit interview was a reminder that things had changed. From Kyle Lowry re-signing with the team two summers ago, to DeMarre Carroll choosing to come to the Raptors a year ago, to DeRozan saying he couldn’t really envision a better scenario for himself, it’s clear that Toronto’s basketball presence has evolved.
In addition to his pride for how far the team has come in the previous four years, DeRozan shared how the downtown skyline has developed since he was a 19-year-old rookie. As the city has grown, so has its profile. Drake, the team’s Global Ambassador, became one of the biggest superstars on the planet, and the highest-profile courtside cheerleader in any sport. DeRozan pointed to NBA players now opting to visit the city in the summer, often during Drake’s OVO Fest weekend. Even as he delivered his exit interview, he gestured to the room he was standing in, part of a gorgeous new practice facility unveiled shortly before All-Star Weekend. In the same time that Drake’s stardom has skyrocketed, helping the city earn its shine, DeRozan has grown up here, becoming a father and a two-time All-Star as Toronto’s team has grown with him.
James and the Cleveland Cavaliers stomped out Toronto’s postseason in two blowout losses to close the series, but those losses couldn’t sweep the steps Toronto has taken under a rug. From 56 regular-season wins to 20 postseason games, to the first All-Star Game in history being held in Toronto — with DeRozan and Lowry on the Eastern squad, representing the Raptors — it’s been a year for the record books. Even more, it’s been a journey filled with memories for each of those screaming fans to hang onto.
Bismack Biyombo’s emergence, defined by finger wags and euphoric smiles. Cory Joseph, Toronto’s very own, coming home, repping the 6 in his No. 6 jersey. Second-round pick Norman Powell coming to the rescue against the Indiana Pacers, capping off a thrilling Game 5 comeback with a nearly-bobbled-but-recovered dunk in transition. There were two thrilling wire-to-wire match ups against the Warriors. Lowry’s 41-point performance and game-winning shot against the Cavs in February. The 11-game winning streak that had basketball being mentioned in the same breath as hockey on Canadian nightly sports shows. These Raptors survived through so much: Carroll missing 41 games in the regular season and being limited in the postseason; Jonas Valanciunas missing 17 games in the regular season then eight more in the playoffs when he was playing the best basketball of his career; two seven-game series to advance to the Conference Finals for the first time in franchise history.
The Raptors ignored the jokes and memes and dismissals to bounce back from a 2–0 deficit and deliver a pair of the team’s most thrilling victories at home to tie the series. They had a season so remarkable, a sold-out arena chanted for the final three minutes, and then again after the buzzer, of the 26-point Game 6 loss. Then there was James, pausing his own post-game celebration to celebrate a fanbase and country’s love of a game he’s dominated for more than a decade.
Of course it would have been a nice story for Toronto to have forced Cleveland into a Game 7. It would have been fun for Game 6 to have been a nail-biter. What stands out most about the end of Toronto’s season is that it doesn’t take away from the beginning, or the middle, or everything that led up to that very last defeat. The end signified how far the Raptors have come, serving as a reflection of the franchise’s continued steps toward a brighter future.
—
Images by Quincy Williams
