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Astonishing reports: The former Toronto legend athlete has returned and pledged to…
- Kawhi Leonard stood there showing no emotion throughout the longest 0.9 seconds of basketball in Toronto Raptors history, during which supporters at every Jurassic Park celebration between St. John’s and Oakland, California, were bobbing and quaking with pent-up excitement.
- The Raptors were ahead 112-110. Leonard was approaching the free throw line for two shots. Surely, he knew.
- It would be impossible for the Warriors to gather a rebound and attempt a desperate three-pointer with less than a second remaining in Game 6 of the NBA Finals to salvage their season. The supporters of the Golden State Warriors knew it was over. The Warriors players accepted their lot in life. The NBA champions for 2019 were the Toronto Raptors.
Leonard, though, remained unfazed and remained smiling. Not quite yet. He still had two free shots to make, after all. Leonard gave out a guttural shout, arms raised, only to have the buzzer sound and everything about this much anticipated moment become official.
- “I’m a guy who tries not to get too high or too low—and it worked out,” Leonard would later say, clutching the NBA Finals MVP trophy in his arms. “This is what I play basketball for. This is what I work out for all summer and during the season. I’m happy my hard work paid off.”
The trophies will certainly define Leonard’s career. He stands alongside Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James as the only players in league history to have won finals MVP with two different teams. But it pales in comparison to how this NBA title has united and mobilized a nation. As the Raptor players gathered for the presentation of the Larry O’Brien trophy, a sea of red—mixed with purple—flowed down from the upper bowl toward court level, an impromptu ensemble for the singing of O Canada. Back in Toronto, tens of thousands filled downtown streets, while ecstatic fans across the country partied in places where anything connected to Canada’s largest city is normally anathema—Montreal, Regina, Halifax. (The merrymakers were generally well-behaved: damage appeared limited to a bashed-up bus and vandalized police cruiser in Toronto.)
