A turning point
Even if Warriors remain a viable power, Raptors’ perseverance to embolden others
Oh my, Canada! The Toronto Raptors are champions. And an entire nation revels in the success of one team.
Few championships can ever be appreciated more, or perhaps be more significant.
The Raptors, after 24 years, after all those agonizing playoff defeats, after front-office moves that shook the franchise to its core, are champions. And that’s just the start.
The mighty Warriors were conquered, and the NBA felt different, with more than its champion changed.
Assumptions that the Warriors would inevitably end another season on top and that the Raptors would somehow find a way to fall short again proved incorrect, and other conjecture about what will or can never happen likely should be shunned as well.
How players and franchises evaluate injuries will be influenced not only by Kevin Durant’s return and devastating fall, but also from Kawhi Leonard’s determination to rehab fully before he would play, only to come back as one of the sports’ best. How others talk about injured players should change, too.
The series even seemed to elevate the sport beyond the excellence on the floor, forcing those who forget that players are more than images on screens and it’s best to appreciate the flesh and blood and heart and soul that elevates to something greater than watching people jump high and shoot straight.
But beyond the defeat of hot takes and lazy narratives, there was a sense that no matter what becomes of the Warriors, the league has reached a turning point.
The Warriors’ run of excellence, unlike their reign, might not be at an end. But they will be different in ways that go far beyond the arena and side of the Bay they will call home.
Their greatness could endure. Their well-earned aura of invincibility will not.
The Raptors did what the Rockets could not, going beyond worthy challenger to be the team that took out the champs, taking advantage of the injuries to Durant and Klay Thompson, but also rising to the occasion.
They likely will inspire others to make bold moves, even with the deal that will send Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers, according to an ESPN report, expected to elevate the Lakers from lottery team to contenders.
The move, with the Lakers reportedly sending Josh Hart, Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and three first-round picks to New Orleans, will if anything increase the Western Conference arms race.
The Rockets were already willing to be daring, as Kyle Lowry’s outstanding Game 6 reminded, having been delivered to the Raptors in the trade that brought the Rockets the pick needed to deal for James Harden. But others likely will be similarly emboldened to take chances to climb from contender to champion.
More than following that lead, teams could view the league as relatively open.
The Raptors spent the season among a pack of four Eastern Conference teams with legitimate championship hopes, along with the ascendant Sixers, Bucks and Celtics. Those contenders will remain and if the Bucks and 76ers keep their free agents, will feel as if the championship is in reach as much as when LeBron James moved out of their way.
The Warriors will be without Durant next season regardless of his free-agency decision. Thompson, who will be trying to come back from a torn ACL and is certain to miss a large chunk of next season, is also a free agent, though less likely to leave.
If Leonard moves on after one season in Toronto, perhaps joining James in or the deep Clippers in Los Angeles, someone will add the only player to be a Finals MVP with teams in each conference.
Just as the Warriors demonstrated in the series and especially in Game 6 that champions do not go down without a fight, showing so much fortitude that they could be appreciated in defeat in ways that go beyond their abundant talent, they will not concede the end of their era.
“I wouldn’t bet against us being back on this stage next year and going forward,” Stephen Curry said. “This five-year run has been awesome. I definitely don’t think it’s not over.”
The Warriors left as valiant champions, refusing to succumb to the Raptors or the relentless run of injuries that stretched from stunning to gut-wrenching. They were warriors, as if acting out a Rocky fight in which they took an impossible torrent of blows and somehow stayed on their feet to fight on.
If Curry remains the face of the franchise, Draymond Green has been the voice, and went one step further, adding defiance to his predictable confidence.
“Everybody thinks this is the end of us,” Green said. “That’s just not smart. I hear a lot of that noise, the end of the run and all that jazz. I don’t see that happening. We’ll be back.”
Still, Western Conference teams, the retooled or just refortified Rockets included, will view the path to the NBA Finals far more open than it has been in the Warriors years. After years of openly building themselves with the Warriors in mind, the Rockets could be ready to reevaluate what will be needed to breakthrough, opting for renovations rather than a full remodel.
Or they could just look at the Raptors, if not how they were rebuilt, but how they recovered. As shattered as the Rockets were following their fourth loss to the Warriors in the five-year Golden State run, the Raptors were similarly crushed by their losses to the Cavaliers and James.
They, like the Rockets, had the best regular season in franchise history in 2017-18, only to also be eliminated by their frequent tormentors. They were considered unworthy for the title now theirs.
The Raptors made changes and the Rockets will, too. The Rockets will not deal for a signature superstar or change coaches, having them already in place, but will seek to build similar depth.
Most of all, the Rockets — and so many other contenders — will be able to look at the champions not as some standard impossible to reach but as an example of perseverance and refusal to accept the roles assigned to them.
Leonard came back from all that that was thought of him when he played just nine games last season. Lowry was considered incapable of reaching championship heights. Nick Nurse had paid dues from 11 years coaching in England to the G League stops with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and Iowa Energy. There is not a lottery pick on the roster, with every Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam far exceeding expectations.
The series will be in many ways remembered for the fallen, but that perseverance is its lesson.
Years after Kevin Garnett exulted “Anything is possibllllllllllllle!,” the Raptors’ triumph demonstrated that nothing is inevitable, nothing should be assumed.
“Never let someone say you can’t do something special,” Lowry said.
When he said it, the NBA had changed. No one could argue.