“There are things we need to improve upon. There are things we need to do to adapt and evolve and continue to get better. As an organization, we believe we can do that together.”
– Kyle Dubas, 6th May 2019, TSN
The Toronto Raptors, a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto, finally won a championship! Parties everywhere were held by the fans who celebrated their win. This is what happened when the Toronto Raptors won their first ever National Basketball Association title, defeating the Golden State Warriors.
We The North has become We The Champs, but it was never like this. They’ve endured their fair share of pain over 24 years, from Vince Carter leading to multiple losses to LeBron James in the playoffs, and then there was Kawhi Leonard leading the Toronto Raptors to their first NBA title.
Getting The Right People To Win It
The Raptors joined the NBA in 1995 as one of two expansion teams that are franchised based in Canada. During their first three seasons in the league, the Raptors finished last place in their division. Vince Carter was their first acquired superstar, in a 1998 draft-day trade. A five-time All-Star for Toronto, Carter helped the franchise reach its first playoff berth, during the 1999–2000 season. In 2000–01 the Raptors again qualified for the postseason and advance to the conference semifinals, but it was a dramatic seven-game loss to the eventual conference champion, the Philadelphia 76ers. After a winning campaign that ended in a first-round postseason elimination in 2001–02, Toronto entered into a four-year stretch of losing seasons, which was marked by the trade of the disgruntled Carter in 2004.
The Raptors returned to the postseason in 2006–07, with a team featuring standout center-forward Chris Bosh, but were knocked out in the opening round of the playoffs. The 2013–14 season saw the team stage a stunning turnaround as it rebounded from a last-place divisional finish the previous season to win the second division title in team history. The Raptors won another division crown in 2014–15, but the team was swept out of the postseason in its opening-round series. In 2015–16 Toronto, led by All-Star guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, won 56 games and advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in team history, where the Raptors were eliminated by the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Raptors earned a franchise-record fourth straight playoff appearance in 2016–17 but were swept by the Cavaliers in the teams’ second-round postseason series. In 2017–18 the Raptors set a team record with 59 victories and had the best record in the Eastern Conference for the first time in franchise history. Despite Toronto’s stellar regular-season performance, the team once again faltered against the Cavaliers in the playoffs, losing all four games of the teams’ second-round series.
Searching for a way to finally break through in the following off-season, the Raptors traded franchise icon DeRozan to the San Antonio Spurs in a deal that brought versatile wing Kawhi Leonard in return. The trade was considered risky since Leonard had only one year remaining on his contract and had feuded with the Spurs for the better part of the previous year. However, Leonard was an ideal addition to the Raptors both on and off the court, as he teamed with Lowry seamlessly and led Toronto to the first conference championship in franchise history in 2018–19. Toronto then stunned the heavily favoured two-time defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors in the finals, winning a hard-fought six-game series to capture the Raptors’ first championship.
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It was a herculean task to rise up to the occasion and win that coveted title. Taking risks and getting the right people to do the job is what makes the Toronto Raptors the champions! You can be champions too with your real estate business by hiring the best people in the industry that could really help you grow your online presence and allow you to generate qualified leads. Connect with us to learn more on how we can help you with your business.