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Toronto Raptors players look back at historic championship

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4 years ago

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Those final few seconds of last June’s title-clinching Game 6 win in Oakland felt like an eternity. It was a fitting conclusion for a team, franchise and fan base that had already waited so long.

A nail-biting turnover, a scramble for the ball, multiple reviews, plenty of confusion, a few free throws. Then, finally, the buzzer sounded and the Toronto Raptors were NBA champions.

That moment, which inspired a nation and touched so many lives, happened one year ago this coming Saturday, but for some it still seems surreal.

“To be honest with you, it still hasn’t hit me that the championship is real,” said Raptors guard Norman Powell. “I think there have been times when you think about it and it’s like, it’s here, it’s real, it’s tangible, [like] when you have the trophy in your hands… But besides that, when those moments come where people [say], “Hey, what up, Champ?” I still find it a little weird. It’s like, man, I’m really a champion. That’s like a lifelong childhood dream and you accomplished it. So, it’s still weird, but it feels right.”

Listening to members of that 2018-19 club reflect back on the experience 12 months later, what stands out is how deeply personal it was for each of them.

***

To appreciate what made the night of June 13, 2019 so special for Powell you have to rewind a bit.

On May 25, just a few weeks earlier, the Raptors completed their unlikely series win over Milwaukee – rallying from an 0-2 hole to win a fourth straight game and advance to the Finals in front of their home crowd. Powell was also celebrating his 26th birthday.

Shortly after he and his teammates were presented with the Eastern Conference champion trophy – and showered in confetti – Powell made his way to the podium for his post-game press conference. He took a few questions from reporters and was about to head to the locker room, but there was one more from somebody in the back of the room. He recognized the voice.

“It was my mom,” Powell said. “I was just like, ‘I know that voice.’ I look and she’s standing by the curtain and she waved. It instantly brought a smile to my face.”

A photo was taken of them as they walked back from the pressroom together. He would later get it framed and give it to her as a gift.

Those are the types of moments that came to Powell’s mind immediately after winning his first NBA title. He thought about his mother and the rest of his family. He thought about his journey from San Diego to the pros and everybody in his life that helped make it possible.

“It just validated all the hard work and the sacrifices that I’ve put into this,” Powell said.

***

Family was also the driving force behind Pascal Siakam and Serge Ibaka.

Siakam often thinks about his late father before and after games, especially at important milestones in his career, and this was the biggest one he had reached.

“Like I always say, I’m doing it for him,” Siakam told TSN in a champagne-soaked locker room after the Game 6 win. “I wish he was here but I know he’s proud of me. I’m just happy that I’m able to keep his name and legacy alive.”

What, or who, does Ibaka remember thinking about when he finally became a champion? To answer the question, the 11-year veteran reached for a book that’s displayed in the living room of his downtown Toronto condo. On the cover there’s a picture of him with his 13-year-old daughter, Ranie, on stage during the trophy presentation. It’s titled “Champ dad & Champ babe.” She had made it for him.

The two big men have something else in common. They both thought about where they come from – Siakam from Cameroon and Ibaka from the Republic of Congo – and what this could mean for the continent of Africa.

“Coming from where I come from, my people never [thought] I’d be where I am right now, winning an NBA Championship,” Ibaka remembers thinking in that moment. “And during that game, I know they were watching. So in my mind it was like, what are they going to think about it? How are they going to react? What are they going to learn from this?”

“I’ll say this and I’ll keep saying it: To me, winning a championship was bigger than just me.”

***

Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green were already champions when they came to Toronto in the blockbuster trade from San Antonio the previous summer. They won rings together in 2014 but they wanted to prove they were more than just cogs in the Spurs machine.

“The biggest thing that I’ll always take away from it is I feel like me and Kawhi helped bring something special to the city,” Green told TSN over the phone last month. “A lot of times people don’t expect [players] to survive or do [well] outside of [Gregg Popovich’s] system. And this isn’t to take a jab at Pop or anything, but for us to succeed in another system, another organization, and bring a championship to the city, made it really special.”

When they won the title in San Antonio they were both young, complimentary pieces, playing in the shadow of future Hall of Famers, a legendary head coach and one of the league’s most accomplished franchises. With the Raptors, they were filling different roles at a different stage in their careers.

This time, Leonard wasn’t a rising star. He was an established superstar and the undisputed top dog on the court. Green wasn’t in his mid-20s anymore. He was 31 and one of the most experienced players on a team that needed his leadership and championship pedigree.

Green’s tenure was brief, like Leonard’s, but his lone season in Toronto will always stand alone in his mind.

“To do it in more than one city and with a younger group of guys [also made it special],” said the Lakers guard. “It was a different type of role – throughout the year kinda coaching guys, teaching them and [showing] them what it takes to win. In San Antonio we weren’t in that role, we were the guys learning from the older guys – Tim [Duncan], Tony [Parker], Manu [Ginobili], Pop. So, to actually have the roles reversed, having those young guys follow our lead and help them experience something special, that’s something that will stick with me forever.”

***

Fred VanVleet was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief once Game 6 was over. He played a crucial role in securing that last win – scoring 22 points and hitting five threes, including three in the fourth quarter. He was excellent in the series and even earned a vote for Finals MVP, but his postseason had been a roller coaster.

Mired in a bad and very public slump, the Raptors’ guard went from playoff goat to playoff hero in just a few weeks. That it coincided with the birth of his son, Fred Jr., made for a fun story, but it certainly didn’t help his sleep schedule. It did make the celebration that much sweeter, though.

“The journey of actually being in the playoffs was way more excruciating and intense than I thought it would be just because of how long it took to finish those series out,” VanVleet said. “I mean, two and half extra months of basketball, but the actual winning and celebrating and having the whole summer to enjoy it and kind of rest on what you’ve done, that was beyond anything I could have imagined.”

VanVleet says he never doubted himself, which isn’t hard to believe – he’s as confident as they come – but he did have a few moments of frustration. One of them came after playing just seven minutes in Game 4 of the second-round series against Philadelphia.

“I had a moment with myself in the hotel room just thinking and watching the game, trying to figure out how to be better,” he said. “That was a tough night for me, for sure, but I was able to talk to some of my coaches and they [kept] me on the right track and understanding that it’s a long, long run in the playoffs. I needed to stay emotionally ready for whenever my moment was to come. I think being able to bounce back out of that, it was a little added validation for me to play as well as I played after that.”

***

It’s hard to imagine that title-clinching win meaning more to anybody than it did to the guy who fuelled it – the Raptors’ longest-tenured player, Kyle Lowry.

Famously, Lowry scored 11 of his 26 points in succession to start Game 6. After going scoreless in the playoff opener against Orlando – and taking plenty of heat for it – it seemed fitting for him to cap off the championship run with one of his best performances ever.

Lowry is arguably the most important player in franchise history. In eight seasons with Toronto, the point guard has made six All-Star games and led the team to seven straight playoff appearances. He’s adapted to different roles in different systems next to different players. All the while, he’s remained their heart and soul.

Still, there are people that question whether he should be considered among the league’s most valuable players. They’ll resurrect the false narrative that he fades in the playoffs. They’ll say he doesn’t score enough or won’t take big shots. At this point, he’s heard it all.

Like VanVleet, Lowry had to be feeling some vindication when he held up that trophy.

“Nobody deserves it more than that guy, man,” VanVleet told TSN after the Game 6 win over Golden State. “People crap on him and talk bad about him more than any other player in this league that I’ve seen. Our own fans kill him, and he’s taken the brunt of a lot of slander over the years, but he takes it like a champ.”

***

The Raptors’ reign as defending champions has been extended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the NBA to suspend play in March. If everything goes according to plan, the season could resume next month, meaning the league would crown a new champion by mid-October.

Despite their continued success – they sit second in the East – there still aren’t many people outside of Toronto picking the Raptors to repeat, and there were far fewer right after Leonard and Green left in free agency last July. They’re not losing sleep over it, though.

While last year’s championship means different things to every player, the common denominator seems to be this idea of validation. They each proved something to somebody, or to themselves, that night in Oakland.

“To be simple and truthful, I don’t care what people think of the Raptors,” Siakam said. “I think for us it’s been a lot of years of caring about ‘Oh, love me too’, you know what I mean? I think that’s over, man. We are where we are. We are the champions, and if you don’t see it that’s your problem. For us, it’s about us. We’re not worried about what other people think. We’re worried about us. We’re worried about continuing to win games and chase championships. That’s the only thing we care about.”

“For the organization, I think it just shows that you can’t continue to count us out, and yet, they still do,” said Powell. “But we’re here and we have our piece and our mark on history at the championship level, and so you can’t take that away from us. We’re going to continue to put that pressure on you and show that we can win not just one, but multiple [titles].”

Source: – TSN

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

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1 day ago

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October 18, 2024

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

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2 days ago

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October 17, 2024

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OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

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2 days ago

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October 17, 2024

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

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