One month changed face of local sports
July is done, and if you’re a Toronto pro sports fan it couldn’t have been any more dramatic.
The seismic shift in star power — in hockey, basketball and baseball — has changed the face of the local sports scene in short order, and given us all plenty to talk over and debate.
Within a month, free-agent John Tavares signed with the Maple Leafs on Canada Day, DeMar DeRozan made an emotional exit from the Raptors in exchange for Kawhi Leonard on July 18, and the Blue Jays traded away star closer Roberto Osuna — still suspended and facing an assault charge — on Monday.
Top players come and go, but the sheer number in such a short span is perhaps unprecedented in the city. Hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts were in play as all three franchises tried to change their fortunes in pursuit of a championship.
Toronto lost a part of its soul when DeRozan, who had signed a long-term deal with the Raptors after declining to even talk to other clubs, was dealt to San Antonio along with Jakob Poeltl for the enigmatic Leonard plus Danny Green.
For the Mississauga-born Tavares, signing a contract worth $77 million U.S. over seven years was the fulfilment of a childhood dream that was always on his mind as a New York Islander.
“The Leafs weren’t just my first hockey love … they were basically my first human memory,” Tavares said in a letter thanking Islanders fans.
It’s hard to compare the impact of the Tavares signing and the DeRozan trade.
In DeRozan’s case, there was a mix of marquee talent and public frustration after consecutive playoff exits at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James — who made huge headlines himself on the same day as the Tavares signing by agreeing to a monster deal with the Los Angeles Lakers. They say winning is everything in pro sports, and the Raptors never made the NBA final despite DeRozan’s success, but the fourtime all-star meant something more to his many fans.
The Star’s Doug Smith described it best when he wrote about DeRozan’s departure, referring to him as one of “us,” uncommon in modern sports.
“Not ‘us’ in the old, non-athlete kind of way, but in a bigger ‘us’ context. An ‘us’ we could all aspire to and appreciate,” Smith wrote. “(DeRozan) is, as much as possible, normal. He isn’t egotistical or at all self-centred. He put team and others ahead of himself. I don’t remember a lot of ‘I’ conversations or ‘me’ conversations; it was generally ‘us’ and ‘we’ and the team … admirable.”
Days after the trade, DeRozan took the high road with a tribute to Toronto fans, while making it clear that he didn’t welcome the move and was led to believe it wouldn’t happen. Later, he would say quite publicly that he was “done” with Raptors boss Masai Ujiri.
Leonard, a former NBA final MVP and regular-season MVP finalist in San Antonio, has big shoes to fill on and off the court. Taking the Raptors further in the post-season would go a long way, and he’s said to match up against James as well as anyone in the NBA — when healthy, after a season where he managed to play just nine games.
After initial reports that he didn’t want to come to Toronto, comments by Ujiri and new Raptors coach Nick Nurse suggested otherwise. The fact that he’s heading into the final year of his contract is a conversation for another day.
As for Osuna, still facing a charge of assaulting a woman in Toronto with the next court date set for Wednesday, the future is cloudy in an entirely different way. Monday’s trade to the Astros for reliever Ken Giles and two prospects came as a surprise locally and in Houston, where the club’s zero-tolerance policy on abuse suggested a double standard.
In the wake of the move came reports that the Jays decided long ago that Osuna would have to go, and it was just a question of when and where, while the Star’s Richard Griffin, who has been quietly gauging local fan reaction about Osuna for months, notes that the base has been in favour of such a move.
In a statement, Osuna vowed he won’t let his new teammates down, but it won’t be easy. Early reaction to the deal in Houston was negative, while respected baseball writer Buster Olney tweeted: “For years, the level of forgiveness for players busted on domestic violence cases has been directly proportional to their talent. It’s time for that to end. Teams are selling themselves short if they believe like their best chance of winning comes through that kind of move.” Tavares. DeRozan. Osuna. It was quite a month.