Thank Goodness I Chose Raptors

 This is more of a mixed bag post, need to get all of my sports thoughts out before the weekend. Hopefully it's a weekend with multiple game 7s after the Thunder lost last night sending their series to 7. We just need the Leafs to somehow get in the win column again to make it a reality. Enough preamble, lets get into it: 

Leafs 

When I got to high school everyone was a Raptors fan. Up until that point I had been mostly watching the Leafs with the Raptors as my secondary team. I got more and more into basketball and it helped that the Raptors got good around the same time as my first year of high school. What does being good mean in sports? Generally that means you're going to get your hopes up and your heart broken at some point. The 2013/2014 Raptors in their first playoff run went up against a more experienced Nets team and lost in a hard fought 7 game series. Massive success of a season if you ask anyone, but after you make it once the expectations start to roll in. The following season the fanbase needed to see a playoff win, the Raptors got swept in 4 games by the Washington Wizards in probably their worst playoff appearance ever. The season after that the Raps bounced back and made the conference finals! They managed to get the series to 2-2 after winning 2 games at home against LeBron's Cavs. LeBron says in a press conference that he's felt pressure before and this isn't pressure. The Cavs go on to smoke the Raps in the next 2 games and end the season. Now fans really have expectations. The next season the Raptors meet the Cavs in the second round, get swept. Masai Ujiri says after the season that the team needs a cultural reset, everyone thought that meant firing coach Dwayne Casey but he stuck around and implemented a new ball movement focused offense. The team was awesome the next year, they won 59 games and were the number 1 seed in the East. This same season, Kyrie left the Cavs and LeBron was carrying a team of decent role players practically on his own. The Raptors dealt with the Wizards in 6 games that first series while the Cavs struggled against the Pacers and barely won their series in 7 games. Raptors fans were feeling it, this was the year! The Cavs are weakened, they barely beat the Pacers, surely the Raptors are going to put up a real fight. Nope, the Raptors get swept by the Cavs in a series where the term LeBronto was born. 

It was official, DeRozan was a guy who could win you regular season games and get your team into a good playoff position. Once you were there, he was going to totally disappear and leave fans frustrated. He'd win you back next year in the regular season only to break your heart again in the playoffs. Then an opportunity to trade for Kawhi Leonard popped up. The Raptors sent DeRozan and Poeltl to the Spurs for Kawhi and Danny Green, they made one more move to trade Valanciunas for Marc Gasol and this was finally their year. They have a hard fought series against Philly, who probably had an even better team than the Raps. Their season ends in heart break when Kawhi hits the coldest buzzer beater in NBA history in game 7. They face the best player in the world at the time in Giannis in the conference finals, get down 2-0 and look to be dead. They change the strategy to have Kawhi guard Giannis and the Raptors end up winning 4 straight. They get to the finals against a super experienced Golden State dynasty who just swept the Western Conference Finals, everyone shows up for the series and they win, they win a championship. All that heartache and disappointment disappears as the team showed they can actually fight through adversity and win it all. The Fans got their moment, 2 million people skipped work to stand outside in the heat for a parade and none of us will ever forget that run for as long as we live. 

I say all of this because I felt every single emotion throughout that time period. I would be angry for a week after the Raptors embarrassed themselves again but I'd always come back and watch the next season hoping and thinking it would be different. When it finally was different it was cathartic, the best experience as a sports fan ever. There are people who feel this way about the Toronto Maple Leafs and I really feel for you guys. Year after year Austin Matthews has an amazing regular season, he gets the fans to open up Matthews vs McDavid debates, he wins awards even! Then the playoffs start and Matthews doesn't show up. I was pounding the this year is different drum because I wanted it to be like 2019 for all these fans who've suffered heart break every year, but it's not. The Leafs lost 6-1 on Wednesday in an embarrassing beat down after getting embarrassed on Sunday as well. They fight for their lives in game 6 in Florida tonight, but I'd be shocked if they win. They look like the Raps against the Cavs, as soon as the adversity hits they are shook. I'd love to be wrong, I'd love for the Leafs to win game 6 then win game 7 and get this choker monkey off their back, but it would surprise me. At this point, I am waiting on the Matthews trade. You can only hope that it's as impactful as when the Raptors traded for Kawhi. I am a Raptors fan first, and even in a season where the team won 30 games and got disappointing lottery results I am still grateful that my emotional equity lies with them instead of this Leafs team. Congrats Leafs, you made me a hater again. 

OKC in 7

I am getting nervous. Denver is just so playoff ready, and fun to watch as well. The Thunder players not named Shai all played terrible last night in Denver to extend the series to 7 games. I still have the Thunder winning the whole thing and I desperately want to see a Canadian finals MVP but they will have a tall task going up against the best player in the world for a winner takes all game. What really scares me though is my favorite team to hate, the Minnesota Timberwolves, sit waiting for the result of this series for the Western Conference Finals. The Wolves seem to have the Nuggets' number, they've played only 10 games in this playoffs vs Denver who will have played the maximum 14 games after game 7 on Sunday. I think OKC matches up really well against the Wolves, but if Denver pulls this off we might be staring down a golden opportunity for the Wolves to make the finals and potentially win. Scary times we're in. All seriousness though, I can't remember an NBA playoffs that was this good. Any of the teams remaining can realistically win this, even the Celtics without Tatum who delivered a gutsy performance to keep their series alive against the Knicks. I hope my Thunder make it through, but either way we'll be seeing some really fun basketball in the conference finals. 

That's all for today! I just wanted some quick comments on OKC but I really wanted to take this moment to bully Leafs fans. I had been really positive and supportive of the Leafs all the way up until they reminded me who they are. Now I am back in my natural habitat as a hater, will that be enough to shift the Karmic order of the universe? Time will tell.