Raptors in the Finals!!!
These words have never been written or spoken before... until now.
The Toronto Raptors are going to the NBA Finals.
I started writing this post just past midnight Monday in Korean time. Technically, 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. It's 11:01 a.m. Monday in EST. So it's been about two full days since the Toronto Raptors eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals.
And I am still pinching myself. This is all surreal to me. And also overwhelming.
Some housekeeping first.
I haven't blogged since Kawhi's four-bouncer over the Sixers because I am still not completely over my health issues. Gonna start looking for more fundamental solutions/cures this week. I started experiencing issues right around the start of the playoffs in both the NBA and the NHL. And the Stanley Cup Final starts in a few hours, while the NBA Finals will be Friday morning my time. My point is, yes, I have to start searching for better cures now.
Okay, enough with that.
The Raptors will be playing for the NBA title against the Golden State Warriors. And I can't believe I just typed that sentence. I don't even know where to start and there are a million thoughts swimming through my head. So I am just going to ramble on and see where this takes me.
In my two-plus decades of following Toronto sports, this will be the first championship final I'll get to enjoy as a fan. Apologies to the Argos and TFC. As for the Blue Jays' 1993 World Series, I did watch the clinching Game 6 in Korea, Joe Carter's home run et al, but it was purely by accident. I just stumbled upon the game while doing channel surfing as a kid and kept watching it without fully grasping the magnitude of the situation, just because I was a baseball fan. So that doesn't count.
I've rewatched the clinching Game 6 win over the Bucks twice. You can pick out any random possession from that game and I can confidently tell you what's going to happen. Rewatching a basketball game has never been easier. This was the most exciting Toronto sports moment for me since those 2015-2016 Jays' runs to the ALCS. You know, Jose's bat flip and Edwin's walk-off blast? Good times.
Anyway, so there's been no championship final played in Toronto, aside from the Grey Cup and the MLS Cup, since the 1993 World Series. That's a long drought, my friend. Maybe not quite Chicago Cubs pre-2016 World Series long, but long enough for me. And can you believe how spoiled those Boston fans must be now? The Red Sox won the World Series in 2018. The Patriots won the Super Bowl just a few months ago. And now the Bruins are favored to take the Stanley Cup. Good thing the Bucks handled the Celtics in the NBA. I am sure Boston is a nice city, but as fan bases go, it's insufferable as it is already.
When I was finally able to calm down from the euphoria of the victory, I started thinking about what the Raptors' advance means to me personally and to the city of Toronto and its fan base.
For me, this is unchartered territory. For the first time, I'll get to actively cheer on a team to win a major sports title. I don't even know how I am supposed to feel. I guess I'll have to wait until Game 1.
I wasn't all that confident against the Sixers. A healthy Joel Embiid would have made a huge difference. Against the Bucks, I don't think many pundits/experts picked us to win. After we dropped the first two games, including the winnable Game 1, the number of doomsayers probably went through the roof. We won 2 straight at home to pull even, but I was still not so sure. Only after we stole Game 5 in Milwaukee did I feel like I could taste it. By that time, our defense was working so well (and their offense was so horrible, though not sure which should come first) that I didn't lose faith in the Raptors even when we were down by 15 with 2 minutes left in the 3rd in Game 6. These guys made a believer out of me, and I am usually a pretty pessimistic guy when it comes to my teams in the playoffs.
So it's with a mixed bag of emotions that I am waiting for the Finals to start. I am obviously excited that we're in the finals and we're taking on the two-time defending champs. But on the other hand, I honestly don't think we can dethrone the Warriors. I'll be very happy if we could just avoid a sweep. Every game we play from here and on is a bonus for me. I didn't even think we could get past the conference semifinals!
For me and a lot of my fellow Raptors fans, just being in the Finals is validation on so many levels. We've been this weird franchise in a foreign country. After the Grizzlies left Vancouver for Memphis, we became the only team not in the U.S. and it has stayed that way. Though Toronto is a big market, we naturally didn't get much love from the U.S. mainstream media. I've said this before: I don't know if getting attention/coverage from the U.S. is really that important. For me, it's never been about getting Christmas Day games or some primetime Sunday games against big-ticket teams. I couldn't care less about playing on Dec. 25. I'd rather my Raptors players rest and enjoy the holidays and come back fresh for the January run.
Instead, I wanted the Raptors to be more respected as a viable NBA team, not just as the only team in Canada that gave the NBA a memorable slam dunk champion and little else. Doing that required more than just playing on Christmas. We needed to win on big stages when it counted the most. Playing on Dec. 25 or getting ESPN games wasn't going to be enough.
And until this year, we've not been able to do that. Hey, 59 wins in 2017-2018, the best record in the NBA in the regular season? So what? Bron toyed with us and beat us in four straight.
See, we can't get swept by Bron for two straight playoffs and then turn around and say we should be respected. You can't demand respect. You have to earn it. That's one message from my favorite high school teacher, Mr. George Walsh, who taught my creative writing class and whose relentless encouragement fueled my love for writing. And I think it applies to sports franchises that feel they're disrespected. They have to go out there and earn respect. The best way, and really the only way, to do it is to win, baby!
And win we did this season. Whether this will lead to a Christmas Day game against the Bucks or the Warriors this December, I have no idea. And I don't really care either way. I just hope fans will enjoy this ride while it lasts. Could be as short as 4 games. I know I will cherish every moment.
I had lunch with a couple of co-workers today. One is an avid baseball fan, and the other doesn't follow sports. We got to talking about sports fandom in general, and I was telling them about the emotional roller-coaster ride I had last weekend watching the Raptors.
And I told them being a devoted sports fan isn't ideal for your mental health. The sense of helplessness watching your favorite team from afar (in my case, really far) can cause a great deal of stress. I can't really explain the kind of disappointment I felt watching the Leafs blow a 3-2 series lead against the Bruins. I don't think I've felt that devastated over anything else in my life in the past whatever years. I am usually an even keel guy. I try not to get too high or too low by the curveballs that life throws at you, but not so when it comes to Toronto sports.
And ultimately, we sports fans are all hopeless. But we still have the childlike, youthful enthusiasm and passion for our teams. In that sense, we may be younger than our actual age. I mean, we're basically rooting for guys to put a ball through the hoops, athletes on skates to put the frozen rubber into the net using their sticks, and ball players to, um, play a ball game. No grown-ups should be so actively encouraging other grown-ups to play children's games so hard. But that's sports fandom in a nutshell. That's what we do. And we wouldn't want it any other way.
I moved to Toronto in October 1995, just before the start of the Raptors' inaugural season. We played at what was still called SkyDome. It's barely passable as a ballpark, and it's certainly not a place where you want to play or watch hoops.
Now, I have my own silly legitimacy test when it comes to the Raptors fandom. People who say they've been "a long-time fan" of the Raptors but have never watched the team play at SkyDome are all fraud. I am sorry, but if you've never watched an NBA basketball at SkyDome, something I've done three times, you don't count as "a long-time fan" in my book. That's just me.
So what's gone on over these first 24 years of franchise history? Plenty of losing, sprinkled with some wins and a few signature moments, and lots and lots of playoff disappointments.
Forget getting swept by Cleveland LeBrons. At least it was against the GOAT. We once got swept by the freaking Wizards in the first round after winning the division! 'Nuff said.
I remember the first season having the "just happy to be in the NBA" kind of vibe. We won the very first game in the franchise history, over the then New Jersey Nets, and even beat the Chicago Bulls in their 72-win season. Damon "Mighty Mouse" Stoudamire won the Rookie of the Year. The Little Engine That Could.
The second season fueled hopes for better days ahead. We improved from 21 wins to 30 wins. I thought that was a pretty decent record for a second-year franchise. But then we plummeted to 16 wins in 1997-98. Stoudamire, our first franchise star, got traded. I was still an innocent teenager then. I didn't know a player that meant so much to a team could be dealt midseason. That was crushing.
Hey, but then Vince arrived. Won the ROY in the lockout season, and he led us to our first playoffs in 1999-2000.
Aside from this current season, that was perhaps my biggest personal favorite Raptor season, even more so than the next one when we came within a made Vince jumper from going to the ECF.
I'd been an NBA fan well before I moved to Canada. I grew up playing an NBA computer game in the early 90s with teams like the Magic-era Lakers, Bird-era Celtics, pre-three-peat Bulls and the Bad Boys Pistons. Then around 1992, a Korean channel bought rights to NBA games and televised one game a week every Friday night. They showed highlights of the first half and the entire second half. The Dream Team happened at the Barcelona Olympics. I watched most of the U.S. games. Absolutely fell in love with the NBA. Then I moved to a city that just got a new NBA franchise. It was a perfect storm.
But in my recollection, it wasn't until that 2000 playoff appearance that Toronto really started caring about the Raptors and NBA basketball. It was still mostly a hockey town and the Jays, still only a couple of years removed from back-to-back championships, enjoyed strong support, too. Sure, Stoudamire and Carter winning ROYs was nice, but once the Raptors started winning, those curious onlookers joined the party.
And man, that team had a great collection of character guys. Surrounded Vince with Oak, Antonio Davis, Bogues, Dell Curry, Dee Brown, Doug Christie and Kevin Willis.
We had even better characters the following year. Keon Clark. Jerome "Junk Yard Dog" Williams. My favorite Raptor at the time, Alvin Williams, got regular minutes for the first time. We got our revenge against the Knicks and won our first playoff series. Heady stuff.
Then there was the Sixers series. The atmosphere across the city was insane. The Leafs were also in the playoffs and swept the hated Senators in the first round as No. 7 seed. But the town belonged to Vince. The man was dropping 50 points in a playoff game.
Vince's missed attempt at the buzzer in Game 7 changed everything. Recently, while doing TV analysis for the Raptors, Alvin talked about that series and how he and others felt they were going to get another crack soon.
No. We lost to the Pistons in the first round the next year, and didn't win another playoff series until beating the Pacers in 2016.
And I find this to be a remarkable stat for myself personally. Despite missing a few years of my fandom because of the Korean military and lack of streaming options earlier this century, I have managed to watch every playoff series victory by the Raptors in their franchise history. There have been eight so far, and seven of them have happened in the past three seasons.
Will I get to see No. 9 in the Finals? I won't hold my breath over it. I'll just try to enjoy the experience.
The Toronto Raptors are going to the NBA Finals.
I started writing this post just past midnight Monday in Korean time. Technically, 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. It's 11:01 a.m. Monday in EST. So it's been about two full days since the Toronto Raptors eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals.
And I am still pinching myself. This is all surreal to me. And also overwhelming.
Some housekeeping first.
I haven't blogged since Kawhi's four-bouncer over the Sixers because I am still not completely over my health issues. Gonna start looking for more fundamental solutions/cures this week. I started experiencing issues right around the start of the playoffs in both the NBA and the NHL. And the Stanley Cup Final starts in a few hours, while the NBA Finals will be Friday morning my time. My point is, yes, I have to start searching for better cures now.
Okay, enough with that.
The Raptors will be playing for the NBA title against the Golden State Warriors. And I can't believe I just typed that sentence. I don't even know where to start and there are a million thoughts swimming through my head. So I am just going to ramble on and see where this takes me.
In my two-plus decades of following Toronto sports, this will be the first championship final I'll get to enjoy as a fan. Apologies to the Argos and TFC. As for the Blue Jays' 1993 World Series, I did watch the clinching Game 6 in Korea, Joe Carter's home run et al, but it was purely by accident. I just stumbled upon the game while doing channel surfing as a kid and kept watching it without fully grasping the magnitude of the situation, just because I was a baseball fan. So that doesn't count.
I've rewatched the clinching Game 6 win over the Bucks twice. You can pick out any random possession from that game and I can confidently tell you what's going to happen. Rewatching a basketball game has never been easier. This was the most exciting Toronto sports moment for me since those 2015-2016 Jays' runs to the ALCS. You know, Jose's bat flip and Edwin's walk-off blast? Good times.
Anyway, so there's been no championship final played in Toronto, aside from the Grey Cup and the MLS Cup, since the 1993 World Series. That's a long drought, my friend. Maybe not quite Chicago Cubs pre-2016 World Series long, but long enough for me. And can you believe how spoiled those Boston fans must be now? The Red Sox won the World Series in 2018. The Patriots won the Super Bowl just a few months ago. And now the Bruins are favored to take the Stanley Cup. Good thing the Bucks handled the Celtics in the NBA. I am sure Boston is a nice city, but as fan bases go, it's insufferable as it is already.
When I was finally able to calm down from the euphoria of the victory, I started thinking about what the Raptors' advance means to me personally and to the city of Toronto and its fan base.
For me, this is unchartered territory. For the first time, I'll get to actively cheer on a team to win a major sports title. I don't even know how I am supposed to feel. I guess I'll have to wait until Game 1.
I wasn't all that confident against the Sixers. A healthy Joel Embiid would have made a huge difference. Against the Bucks, I don't think many pundits/experts picked us to win. After we dropped the first two games, including the winnable Game 1, the number of doomsayers probably went through the roof. We won 2 straight at home to pull even, but I was still not so sure. Only after we stole Game 5 in Milwaukee did I feel like I could taste it. By that time, our defense was working so well (and their offense was so horrible, though not sure which should come first) that I didn't lose faith in the Raptors even when we were down by 15 with 2 minutes left in the 3rd in Game 6. These guys made a believer out of me, and I am usually a pretty pessimistic guy when it comes to my teams in the playoffs.
So it's with a mixed bag of emotions that I am waiting for the Finals to start. I am obviously excited that we're in the finals and we're taking on the two-time defending champs. But on the other hand, I honestly don't think we can dethrone the Warriors. I'll be very happy if we could just avoid a sweep. Every game we play from here and on is a bonus for me. I didn't even think we could get past the conference semifinals!
For me and a lot of my fellow Raptors fans, just being in the Finals is validation on so many levels. We've been this weird franchise in a foreign country. After the Grizzlies left Vancouver for Memphis, we became the only team not in the U.S. and it has stayed that way. Though Toronto is a big market, we naturally didn't get much love from the U.S. mainstream media. I've said this before: I don't know if getting attention/coverage from the U.S. is really that important. For me, it's never been about getting Christmas Day games or some primetime Sunday games against big-ticket teams. I couldn't care less about playing on Dec. 25. I'd rather my Raptors players rest and enjoy the holidays and come back fresh for the January run.
Instead, I wanted the Raptors to be more respected as a viable NBA team, not just as the only team in Canada that gave the NBA a memorable slam dunk champion and little else. Doing that required more than just playing on Christmas. We needed to win on big stages when it counted the most. Playing on Dec. 25 or getting ESPN games wasn't going to be enough.
And until this year, we've not been able to do that. Hey, 59 wins in 2017-2018, the best record in the NBA in the regular season? So what? Bron toyed with us and beat us in four straight.
See, we can't get swept by Bron for two straight playoffs and then turn around and say we should be respected. You can't demand respect. You have to earn it. That's one message from my favorite high school teacher, Mr. George Walsh, who taught my creative writing class and whose relentless encouragement fueled my love for writing. And I think it applies to sports franchises that feel they're disrespected. They have to go out there and earn respect. The best way, and really the only way, to do it is to win, baby!
And win we did this season. Whether this will lead to a Christmas Day game against the Bucks or the Warriors this December, I have no idea. And I don't really care either way. I just hope fans will enjoy this ride while it lasts. Could be as short as 4 games. I know I will cherish every moment.
I had lunch with a couple of co-workers today. One is an avid baseball fan, and the other doesn't follow sports. We got to talking about sports fandom in general, and I was telling them about the emotional roller-coaster ride I had last weekend watching the Raptors.
And I told them being a devoted sports fan isn't ideal for your mental health. The sense of helplessness watching your favorite team from afar (in my case, really far) can cause a great deal of stress. I can't really explain the kind of disappointment I felt watching the Leafs blow a 3-2 series lead against the Bruins. I don't think I've felt that devastated over anything else in my life in the past whatever years. I am usually an even keel guy. I try not to get too high or too low by the curveballs that life throws at you, but not so when it comes to Toronto sports.
And ultimately, we sports fans are all hopeless. But we still have the childlike, youthful enthusiasm and passion for our teams. In that sense, we may be younger than our actual age. I mean, we're basically rooting for guys to put a ball through the hoops, athletes on skates to put the frozen rubber into the net using their sticks, and ball players to, um, play a ball game. No grown-ups should be so actively encouraging other grown-ups to play children's games so hard. But that's sports fandom in a nutshell. That's what we do. And we wouldn't want it any other way.
I moved to Toronto in October 1995, just before the start of the Raptors' inaugural season. We played at what was still called SkyDome. It's barely passable as a ballpark, and it's certainly not a place where you want to play or watch hoops.
Now, I have my own silly legitimacy test when it comes to the Raptors fandom. People who say they've been "a long-time fan" of the Raptors but have never watched the team play at SkyDome are all fraud. I am sorry, but if you've never watched an NBA basketball at SkyDome, something I've done three times, you don't count as "a long-time fan" in my book. That's just me.
So what's gone on over these first 24 years of franchise history? Plenty of losing, sprinkled with some wins and a few signature moments, and lots and lots of playoff disappointments.
Forget getting swept by Cleveland LeBrons. At least it was against the GOAT. We once got swept by the freaking Wizards in the first round after winning the division! 'Nuff said.
I remember the first season having the "just happy to be in the NBA" kind of vibe. We won the very first game in the franchise history, over the then New Jersey Nets, and even beat the Chicago Bulls in their 72-win season. Damon "Mighty Mouse" Stoudamire won the Rookie of the Year. The Little Engine That Could.
The second season fueled hopes for better days ahead. We improved from 21 wins to 30 wins. I thought that was a pretty decent record for a second-year franchise. But then we plummeted to 16 wins in 1997-98. Stoudamire, our first franchise star, got traded. I was still an innocent teenager then. I didn't know a player that meant so much to a team could be dealt midseason. That was crushing.
Hey, but then Vince arrived. Won the ROY in the lockout season, and he led us to our first playoffs in 1999-2000.
Aside from this current season, that was perhaps my biggest personal favorite Raptor season, even more so than the next one when we came within a made Vince jumper from going to the ECF.
I'd been an NBA fan well before I moved to Canada. I grew up playing an NBA computer game in the early 90s with teams like the Magic-era Lakers, Bird-era Celtics, pre-three-peat Bulls and the Bad Boys Pistons. Then around 1992, a Korean channel bought rights to NBA games and televised one game a week every Friday night. They showed highlights of the first half and the entire second half. The Dream Team happened at the Barcelona Olympics. I watched most of the U.S. games. Absolutely fell in love with the NBA. Then I moved to a city that just got a new NBA franchise. It was a perfect storm.
But in my recollection, it wasn't until that 2000 playoff appearance that Toronto really started caring about the Raptors and NBA basketball. It was still mostly a hockey town and the Jays, still only a couple of years removed from back-to-back championships, enjoyed strong support, too. Sure, Stoudamire and Carter winning ROYs was nice, but once the Raptors started winning, those curious onlookers joined the party.
And man, that team had a great collection of character guys. Surrounded Vince with Oak, Antonio Davis, Bogues, Dell Curry, Dee Brown, Doug Christie and Kevin Willis.
We had even better characters the following year. Keon Clark. Jerome "Junk Yard Dog" Williams. My favorite Raptor at the time, Alvin Williams, got regular minutes for the first time. We got our revenge against the Knicks and won our first playoff series. Heady stuff.
Then there was the Sixers series. The atmosphere across the city was insane. The Leafs were also in the playoffs and swept the hated Senators in the first round as No. 7 seed. But the town belonged to Vince. The man was dropping 50 points in a playoff game.
Vince's missed attempt at the buzzer in Game 7 changed everything. Recently, while doing TV analysis for the Raptors, Alvin talked about that series and how he and others felt they were going to get another crack soon.
No. We lost to the Pistons in the first round the next year, and didn't win another playoff series until beating the Pacers in 2016.
And I find this to be a remarkable stat for myself personally. Despite missing a few years of my fandom because of the Korean military and lack of streaming options earlier this century, I have managed to watch every playoff series victory by the Raptors in their franchise history. There have been eight so far, and seven of them have happened in the past three seasons.
Will I get to see No. 9 in the Finals? I won't hold my breath over it. I'll just try to enjoy the experience.
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