I’ve been a fan of the Raptors since their founding 24 years ago — 24 mostly depressing years. There were a few glimmers of success, but only a few and they rarely lasted. Then the Kyle Lowry-DeMar DeRozan team began to click and we enjoyed five years of pretty decent basketball … followed by ugly playoff flameouts.

So, when we traded for Kawhi Leonard this year, I was really excited. He’s long been one of my favorite players, and we lost DeRozan (who, while I respect as a thoroughly decent human being and an incredibly loyal, driven player, just isn’t a great fit for today’s NBA game and is not a good defender). But could I ever have imagined … this?

Raptors champs

Well, yes — yes, I could. But I can imagine a lot of things. Realisticly, did I think we would win? No, not really. I assumed I was just being crazy.  But when it happened — damn, it felt good!

Raptors win

I mean, I’ve never really enjoyed having my team win it all. I’m not a big baseball fan, so the Blue Jays wins in the early 1990s didn’t mean much to me (although it was fun living in Baltimore when the Jays won because at the time, Baltimoreans hated the Jays). The Leafs have never won while I’ve been alive, and when I was growing up, I was more of a Canadiens fan — but winning for the Canadiens in the 1970s was just kind of assumed.

But to follow a team like the Raptors for two-and-a-half decades and finally win it? That was so fun. Especially for a team like the Raptors. No one drafted higher than 15th! With players like Marc Gasol drafted in the second round and others, like Fred VanVleet, not drafted at all. They were just a smart, relentless team of grinders. No prima donnas. That’s a great team to be a fan of.

And, of course, there was “the shot”.

Kawhi’s series-winning shot to end the second-round series against the 76ers.

Kawhi shot

Bouncing four times — four! — on the rim before dropping.

Kawhi waiting

Nearly the same shot that Vince Carter botched in game 7 against the 76ers 18 years ago. That was sheer sports poetry.

Kawhi winner

I’m so happy for Kawhi Leonard, the best two-way player in the league and just a force of nature. For Marc Gasol, the awesome Catalan. For Pascal Siakam, the third-year player who blossomed this season, seemingly from out of nowhere to become a true star (oh, and he just won the Most Improved Player award for last season!). For Van Vleet, who suffered through so much criticism (including by me) to turn things around and become such an important player to this championship.

Gasol_Parade

And especially for Kyle Lowry. He’s had some bad playoff series in the past. But in game 6 against the Warriors he hit his first four shots and got the Raptors first 11 points. In the first half, he had 21 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds. But all playoffs long, he just hustled and played amazingly.

God-mode Lowry

So, yeah. It’s been a fun couple of months. I watched nearly all the games from my iPhone, nestled beside my computer at work (because of the time difference in Korea, most of the games started around the time I got to work in the morning). And now my wonderful Raptors are NBA champs.

(Okay, thanks for indulging that. I’ll probably write more about my writing and Korea and my usual stuff soon. There are some interesting things going on that I hope to be able to talk about soon).