Alex Wong - We the Champs: The Toronto Raptors Historic Run to the 2019 NBA Title

Contents

Foreword By Jack Armstrong

as told to Alex Wong

This is my 21st year working as a broadcaster for the Raptors, and Ive always told people this entire situation was a sleeping giant. Toronto is the third largest market in the NBA and a world class city.

When you go to a Raptors home game, its a cultural mosaic. The arena is a reflection of the city of Toronto and theres nothing like it in the NBA.

Beyond that, look at the whole experience of thousands of fans gathering at Jurassic Park and viewing parties across the country. The spirit, love, and passion of the fans is everywhere.

After Game 4 of the NBA Finals in Golden State, there was close to a thousand Raptors fans just going bonkers in the lower bowl section. When we travel to play in cities in the United States, there are Raptors fans and Canadian flags at every arena. It is something truly unique and indescribable to the traditional sports fan in a United States market.

Here I am, an American fortunate to be working in Canada and getting to see and experience this and be able to connect with people on a daily basis, having the complete privilege of having to try and explain all of this to my American friends.

Now, I feel like people are seeing this for themselves.

Kawhi Leonard celebrates as the clock finally runs out and the Toronto Raptors are officially crowned 2019 NBA champions.

The scenes that come on their television during the NBA Finals were seen not just across Canada, but across the United States and across the world. Ive always said if you get some good people to the organization who are committed and know how to run this thing, the skys the limit. The Raptors hit a home run when they hired Masai Ujiri. Hes hit it out of the park. You also have to give so much credit to ownership, management, the coaching staff, and the players. Theyve all done an amazing job.

For me, a cool moment was sitting on the announcers table right next to the Raptors bench before going on the air to broadcast Game 1 of the NBA Finals. I just sat there for a few minutes to watch the Raptors warm up. When you go through an experience like this, the demands on your time are off the charts, and I just promised Id give myself two or three minutes to sit there and watch.

The thing that I fixated on was all the fans coming in and getting into their seats and getting ready for an incredible moment in Canadian history of an NBA Finals being hosted in Toronto. The joy, the pride, and the excitement on peoples faces, I just looked at that and thought, man, its been a fun journey and its all worth it.

The Raptors finally won a championship.

It was well earned and well deserved, and Im proud to have been a part of the journey.

Introduction

By Alex Wong

Believe in this city. Believe in yourself.

Masai Ujiri, president of the Toronto Raptors and architect of this championship team, uttered those words on media day in September. The franchise was about to embark on the strangest and most exciting year in history. They had traded away DeMar DeRozan, a player who spoke repeatedly about finishing his career in Toronto, for Kawhi Leonard, a stoic superstar reluctant to embrace anything except the task at hand, who was coming off a season in which he played nine games due to injury and demanded a trade out of San Antonio.

Leonard arrived just a year away from free agency. There were early reports he would not report to Toronto at all. Those early concerns were washed away when Leonard did appear wearing a Raptors uniform on media day. Once he arrived, the attention turned to the basketball team. Toronto had made the playoffs for five consecutive seasons, the most successful stretch in franchise history, but they were only remembered by their playoff disappointments.

This season would be different, but under rookie NBA head coach Nick Nurse, the pieces needed to come together. The Raptors started the regular season with a 12-1 record, but the team was still finding themselves as a contender. Treating his health as the top priority, Toronto rested Leonard on back-to-back games and other portions of the busy 82-game schedule. The term load management went mainstream. Leonard played in 60 games. The Raptors won 58 games anyways.

In their preparation for the playoffs, Pascal Siakam emerged into a star, Marc Gasol was acquired at the trade deadline, and Danny Green gave them a championship caliber two-way player. Despite the new additions and development of younger players on the roster, the team still ran through Kyle Lowry, the heart and soul of this team, the point guard who guides everyone on the floor in the right direction at all times.

Pandemonium at Jurassic Park as Raptors fans celebrate the teams first NBA title.

The opener of the postseason a home loss to the Orlando Magic served as a bad omen then, as Lowry went scoreless. The defeat was buoyed by a miscommunication on the final defensive play of the game by Leonard and Gasol, further illustrating the growth required by the Raptors to make the deep postseason run they were hoping for.

Despite their past failures, this Raptors team stopped disappointing their fans in the postseason. Instead, they showed them what the other side looked like. They fought through adversity. They went on the road and followed Leonard the best player in the entire postseason to win pivotal games in the opposing teams arena in every single series.

The Raptors won their next four games against the Magic. They went seven games with the Sixers in the second round, escaping by the narrowest of margins with Leonards series-clinching buzzer-beater in Game 7. Toronto fell behind 2-0 to the Milwaukee Bucks the Easts best team during the regular season and then improbably came together and won the next four games. In their first NBA Finals appearance, Toronto appeared to be the most experienced team, winning both games at Oracle Arena in Games 3 and 4, and ending Golden States dynastic five-year NBA Finals run with a Game 6 victory back at Oracle in the last game ever played at the arena.

It was the culmination of a journey many years in the making, 24 years for those who have been following the team since its very beginning. The team that was named after the Jurassic Park movies and wore purple dinosaurs on their uniforms was now standing at the top of the mountain, NBA champions for the first time in franchise history.

What comes next is unclear, from Leonards free agency and whether this collective group can come together and do it again next season. But for the first time, Raptors fans no longer have to look back or look ahead. In this very moment, they are the NBA champions.

Believe in this city. Believe in yourself.

NBA Finals vs. Golden State, Game 1

Raptors 118, Warriors 109

May 30, 2019 Toronto, Ontario