A pre-HISTORIC SZN
After rewriting their record books all year, the Toronto Raptors season has come to an end Monday night. This time, on the wrong side of history. They became the first top seed to get swept by a team before the conference finals in almost 50 years. Now after falling victim to the broom for the second year in a row, many questions face Raps nation.
The most popular question- will the Raps fire Head Coach Dwane Casey?
The logical answer would be no. Dwayne is likely to win coach of the year and is the founder of our Bench Mob and a primary reason we had a franchise record of 59 wins and first place in the East. But then again, the Raptors could be the first team ever to fire a Coach Of the Year award recipient and continue this momentous trend. After all, someone is to blame for all of these post-season woes we face year after year- but who?
Well, when one player could absorb the abilities of two "franchise" players I think we may have our answer. But I suppose trading Demar with a contract of 28M and 3 years left, as well as Lowry's contract which sits at 30m with 2 years left would be a poor look on management. Also, not very attractive for other NBA executives to take on and unlikely we would get an equal return.
This is Lebron's second year in a row sweeping the Raptors and 10th consecutive playoff victory against Toronto, now dubbed "Lebronto" thanks to the internet. He has the NBA record for most playoff sweeps and managed to sweep the first seed Atlanta Hawks in 2015 east finals.
In the upcoming weeks, James will continue his annual ending of the Boston Celtics season and will go to his 9th NBA finals. However, LeBoston doesn't roll off the tongue as smooth as Lebronto and it kind of gives a French Canadian vibe to a city that prides itself on Irish roots. So I understand why media hasn't come up with similar nicknames for Boston and the rest of the east.
But this?
According to Bleacher Report, he's now the King of Canada after his latest victory over the Raptors. Personally, I love how much NBA fans celebrate victories over the Raptors. Even media moguls, such as Shannon Sharpe, heavily celebrated REGULAR season victories over the Raptors.
This guy is popping bottles, and like he points out, not just any kind of bottles but bottles meant for extremely special occasions - Avion tequila. Sound familiar? Yes, the same tequila promoted by Turtle and the boys of Entourage aka not just your regular shot of Jose Cuevo.
It's evident that beating Canada's only team is no easy task and one worth celebrating. Our success and borderline-arrogance has caught the attention of the basketball world and taken it by storm.
Even some Canadians aren't use to all this attention and the emotional levels have been so high that we too start to act out of character.
Whatever the Raps decide to do this off season, I think one thing is for sure - the squad definitely need a swear jar for the start of next season.
Was the end of this season heart-wrenching? 100%. But Toronto is certainly on the map for basketball and has now become everyone's favorite city to hate on. That definitely sits well with me.
And unlike Philly, who is hanging on a thread in their series and down 1-3 to Boston. I take some pride in knowing that our standard for success will never be so low that we celebrate confetti style on making it to OT.
Till next year, Raps
