Casey proud of his influence up north
‘I left a lot of blood, sweat and tears here’
TORONTO — When it’s all said and done, when careers are over and it’s time to sit on the porch and reflect, Dwane Casey is going to look back on his seven seasons in Toronto, a time of unprecedented success and growth with the Raptors and his chest will swell.
It might not be for a few years and there are many more NBA wars to be fought and won or lost but that day is assuredly coming and the most successful stretch in franchise history will relish in what he did.
“I left a lot of blood, sweat and tears here, I left here with my head high and did what I was asked to do,” Casey, now the head coach of the Detroit Pistons, said on the occasion of his return to Toronto for the first time since the Raptors fired him in May.
“I know revisionist history and everyone wants to take credit for the wins and the losses is an orphan. I’ll take all the losses but I know what we started with, how it was built, what was built and how it got there.
“I take total pride in that.” Casey imprint on franchise can not be understated. During his seven-year run, the Raptors went from an afterthought to a perennial playoff team and a legitimate conference championship contender. His 320 wins — against
241 losses — are the most by any coach in team history; his 21-30 playoff record may not be glittery but it’s better than anyone in Toronto has ever done.
He took a ragtag group that won 23 games his first season and willed it to a franchise-record 59 wins last season, weeks before he was fired after a playoff sweep administered by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
There was bitterness in the immediate aftermath of that dismissal and some of it lingers. But it’s slowly being replaced by
the realization that what Casey accomplished here was significant.
Casey, his wife and two children were integral parts of their adopted homeland over seven years, Casey said he was proud of developing Canadian traits.
“Just, again, treating people right, doing right by people, being nice to people, being honest with people,” he said. “All those
things are positive Canadian norms and values that I hope my kids picked up and it rubbed off on me, too.”
And it’s the only thing that Casey and his family have exported to Detroit.
“Tim Hortons,” he said. “My son loves Timbits and thank God they have Timbits and Tim Hortons in Detroit because he wouldn’t be able to survive.”