TORONTO — These parties always pass by too quickly and never last long enough, which is why the natural desire is to try and stretch them out as much as possible. The euphoria of Kyle Lowry hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy at Oracle Arena on June 13, the mayhem of an entire city seemingly jamming downtown and bottlenecking a championship parade, the roller-coaster of Kawhi Leonard’s free agency, the restart a mere 3 1/2 months later all passed in what felt like the blink of eye, a reminder of the championship afterglow’s fleeting nature.
That’s why it’s important for the Toronto Raptors and their deserving fans to really bask in this whirlwind of ambition realized, to fete it once more in the present before the franchise’s first championship is left to endure in the memories of those who experienced it.
Their ring presentation and banner-raising ceremony Tuesday ahead of a season-opening 130-122 overtime win over the New Orleans Pelicans was a fitting bookend of pomp and circumstance. Norm Powell danced his way to NBA commissioner Adam Silver before receiving his new bling. Serge Ibaka strutted. Fred VanVleet walked out all cool. Pascal Siakam pumped his fist with his head bowed before kissing his hands and pointing to the sky. Kyle Lowry walked out gratefully, hands clasped together and exchanged an emotional embrace with Larry Tanenbaum, the chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, after getting bejewelled.
Lowry then gathered his teammates and led a countdown to the unveiling of the new banner in the Scotiabank Arena rafters, and it shimmered in the spotlight before the ball tipped on 2019-20, and suddenly it was on to the next, because the calendar pauses for no one.
“It just meant the world for me to be able to address the crowd and to speak to everyone that’s put the work in, the time in, the blood, the sweat, the tears,” said Lowry, adding later: “We’re going to have one last celebration with each other and then really concentrate because it’s over now.”
Very much so, with uncertainty left in its wake, over when it all might happen again for the Raptors, thinned out by Leonard’s departure for the Los Angeles Clippers, and for a city that in recent years enjoyed titles for the CFL’s Argonauts and MLS’ Toronto FC, but not a title of similar scale since the Toronto Blue Jays won back-to-back World Series in 1992 and ‘93.
Will Toronto have to wait another quarter century for its next major sporting celebration?
The Toronto Maple Leafs, built around a homegrown base of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Morgan Rielly and William Nylander and augmented by the addition two summers ago of recently-named captain John Tavares, are the city’s likeliest candidate to win the next title.
General manager Kyle Dubas has built the team with a calculated audacity, shoehorning in big contracts under the NHL’s salary cap to retain top stars but also creating a top-heavy roster vulnerable on the defensive end. Still, it’s a talent base to be envied, one in a legitimate competitive window, with the most realistic aspirations of any team the Maple Leafs have iced since the 2001-02 squad lost in the conference final.
More than most teams, they understand the difficulty in getting over the top, evidence of their extended frustration hanging in the rafters above them, where 13 banners celebrate Stanley Cup championships, the most recent coming in 1967.
A realistic window for the Blue Jays is much further down the road.
They raised championship banners immediately after their parades in 1992 and ’93, presented rings to players the following opening day, and then didn’t reach the post-season again until 2015 and ’16, losing twice in the American League Championship Series.
The current rebuild has followed, the regime of president and CEO Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins promising to build a sustainable winner. As such, the 2019 season was surrendered in the hopes of future growth, and the club’s moves this winter are likelier to be careful attempts at incremental gains rather than daring dashes at rapid progress.
Shapiro and Atkins have said to expect more ambitious additions once their young roster is more advanced. We’ll see, as the strategic caution driven by the analytic processes that currently rule baseball emphasizes value above all else.
Winning with maximum cost efficiency is the sport’s new pursuit of happiness.
Had the Raptors behaved similarly, they wouldn’t have been celebrating a championship Tuesday night.
The safe play for them two summers ago was to keep DeMar DeRozan and not trade for one year of Leonard, who also arrived with uncertain health after quad troubles essentially cost him an entire season. They could have kept trying with their roster as it was and had multiple runs hoping for things to break right, seeing whether LeBron James’ departure from the Eastern Conference was enough to clear a path to the finals.
Instead, president Masai Ujiri went for it, but he went for it knowing the team had been built well. Leonard’s departure didn’t trigger a season in pursuit of the first-overall pick, but instead opened an opportunity for emerging stars Siakam and VanVleet to take over a still-talented roster.
Each scored 34 points against the Pelicans, Siakam adding 18 rebounds and five assists while VanVleet chipped in seven assists, five rebounds and was a team-high plus-18. Along with OG Anunoby, who had 11 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and was a plus-12, there’s a base to build upon, not a wasteland.
“They’re going to continue to grow,” said Lowry. “Pascal and Freddie, they are the young core, they are the young guys that will carry this thing along whenever the time comes, but I’m so excited for those guys to go out there and perform the way they did tonight, and we’ll see them grow all year and continue to see them flourish.”
That’s the hope, at least, and Toronto’s sporting history offers more than its share of plans gone awry. The 2018-19 Raptors were an exception, leaving behind the type of moments that make it all worthwhile.
“You kind of forget what the ride was, the journey and what it took to get there,” said VanVleet. “Obviously we’re excited about it, but you also forget what it means to the fans, and the city and the country. It’s just cool cap all of that, get the ring and then to finish out with a win is a pretty good night.”
More than just a pretty good night, it was an especially memorable one, the type that are frustratingly ephemeral, the type you want to hold on to and never let go.
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