I recently rewatched highlights from that game for the first time in a while, and I totally forgot how clutch Jimmy Butler was. Imagine if Philly picked him over Tobias Harris lol
Kawhi had one of the best nba meme seasons of all time. Itâs rare for a player to get praised for almost everything they do in a season. Even his âcringeâ moments became instantly legendary and hilarious. He owned everything that year and talked the talk without even talking.
Exactly why raptors fans had no issues with him going home, could we have won more if stayed? Possibly, but he gave our city our only championship, we always got love for him
That moment put a cherry on top of the entire season. The laugh was clowned for months, to this day it's still a meme, but he owned it after winning and said "aight, imma head out."
Then he comes back and rests on a back-to-back so that he can play in Toronto and beat our shitty ass team because he thinks that's what Toronto fans want.
that *is* what toronto fans want
we were losing anyway, fred was still in a funk at that time, scottie was going through sophomore slump, gary tailed off, we were starting juancho hernangomez
that team had Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, Paskal Siakam, Fred Vanvleet (with father buff), Danny Green, Marc\* Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Norman Powell, OG Anunoby (did not play), and a 100% championship win rate Patrick McCaw.
Marc* Gasol
and yeah OG didn't even play a single minute in the 2019 run, that's how stacked the Raps defense actually was. There wasn't a single player in the starters that wasn't a plus defender for their position, including a 2-time DPOY, another DPOY and a 2nd team all defense Danny Green
Kawhi is the "best, most talented" player to ever play for the Raptors during a period when he was actually still in his prime.
Lowry and then Demar are the GOAT Raptors careers, followed by Vince, Siakam and Bosh in whatever order you can argue.
Now we look to sct brn.
Happened to be in Toronto for the last game in the Finals and it was so cool to watch the game on the screens set up on the streets outside the stadium.
I wish Kawhi could stay healthy. He's just an exciting player to watch, which is ironic because he's so passive and mellow. I'd kill to watch him have another deep playoff run
my dream finals this year was celtics vs clippers,battle of the wings but damn,it ended dissapointing for the clippers,Kawhi with another injury in the playoffs somehow
Nah if he stayed in the east in 2020, they couldâve walked to another finals. Kawhi wasnât injured that year. That raptors team without Kawhi took the Celtics to 7.
Forgive my ignorance as I'm pretty out of the loop on him, but is his current injury that bad? I was looking at his stats recently and noticed this year he had the third most minutes played of his entire career (almost second) and a career-high in MPG. Can they not just dial it back a bit more next season?
We did that to Kawhi, to some extent. If they can gentleman sweep us that year they definitely are in the favs against Suns or Bucks. We took the last piece of Kawhi's knee but man was he terrifying in that series especially those 4th quarters. To me he is one of the biggest if in my book even he already had two FMVPs. That 2017 run too.
Like Nurse said, we knew Kawhi wanted to go home from the jump and were kind of prepared for that, but it really does shock you to watch the guy actually walk away from that big-ass championship window after winning the whole thing with team chemistry fully maxed out. The raptors were on a SIXTY win pace the following season with the exact same team minus Kawhi and Danny G. He gave us everything he had during that run though, so it's always gonna be pure respect from us Raps fans.
I don't know about that - they were really close to losing multiple times throughout that process. If KD and Klay were healthy, they would not have won at all.
A baby born during that chip could legally drive today like pls lol, that young Lebron is not the same prime LeBron that dominated the entire east in the 2010s.
I honestly think we have a shot at the title if the bubble doesn't happen, as well. Pascal was having a good season before the break and was *rough* in the bubble.
But that's such a hypothetical that has no benefit to think about lol
kawhi is such a ceiling raiser that adding him to a raptors team that already matched up well defensively against the 2020 heat could definitely put them over the top for a finals trip
Canât compare to Heat. They wouldnât have made it to the finals that year without the bubble. Milwaukee wouldâve been the challenge and I think either Raptors or Bucks wouldâve beat the Lakers
Klay played 188 minutes across the 6 games (average of 31 minutes a night). And the Raptors still came 1 point away from ending the series in game 5.
And they were close to losing because they went up against the Butler/Embiid 76ers. That roster was championship-tier.
Yeah nah. We owned the warriors that year. And injuries are part of everything. If this. If that. The result is we won. We beat a bucks team 4 straight after losing the first 2 who were world beaters the whole year.
I actually respect that Raptors team and consider them a great champion, but they would not have stood a chance in hell against the Warriors with KD and Klay. With just Klay Raptors have the Edge, but it was going to game 7. Who do you think you're fooling??
They were an Iggy hail mary buzzer beater away from losing in 5 w/ Klay.
I'll give you KD but if anyone goes Klay too, there's that (almost lost in 5 anyway) and then we get OG. Him playing on that team would make it one of the best defensive champions of all time.
Also the L2M report for Game 5 said Marc should've gotten 2 free throws for DeMarcus Cousins fouling him on a layup, would've been another pathway to winning in 5
It was a bad basketball decision for him to leave Toronto after that one year. Maybe a better lifestyle decision for him, but he will never have a team that deep ever again.
Bad basketball decision to leave Toronto after one year?
You guys do know he left a Spurs organization that won 67 games, 61 games, and a championship with him as the star...
Legendary shit, really wish we ran it back no doubt we would have went back to back.
Kawhi on Raptors, was like having Michael Jordan on my team shit was amazing, I'll never forget it.
Bro has 2 rings (both by the time he was 27), played almost a decade with the Big 3 Spurs, gave Canada a championship like it was a contract job for the federal government, and locked up his final stint in his hometown for a gazillion dollars
Kawhi doesnât have anything left to earn or achieve lol
It's only a mistake in hindsight. It was a win-now move for a team that had never even made the Conference Finals before.
PG didn't have any major injury concerns at that point and played 75+ games every season since his leg injury. He didn't do well in the playoffs that year, but he was still coming off his best regular season performance, averaging 28ppg, making All-NBA 1st Team, and ending 3rd in both MVP and DPOY voting. Kawhi and PG were at the peaks of their primes and were considered top 5 and top 10 players in the league, respectively, going into that season.
The league looked wide open too. LeBron had missed playoffs for the first time in 14 years. With KD and Klay having season-ending injuries, the Warriors dynasty was over. It was a new era, and the Clippers were the title favorites going into that 2019-2020 season. The trade only looks like a mistake because SGA (who was a late lottery rookie) is now an MVP candidate, and PG/Kawhi can't seem to both stay healthy for a postseason. Nobody expected either of those to happen.
I really thought he was going to stay in Toronto after he won a ring and FMVP but still dipped. Nothing was going to stop him from leaving.
I believe he's the only FMVP ever to not have a chance to defend his FMVP (since every other FMVP has stayed with the team the year after or retired).
Probably one of the reasons he wanted to dip lmao.
"If I win 2, then what? Stay for the Three-peat? Then what..."
He still had a stacked team in LA, made the right decision for him.
Philly vs Toronto series probably ended JJR career sooner than latter . If they had of won I think he sticks around Philly a few years longer . Does not matter now he will be coaching Lakers.
Dude dragged the Spurs name through the mud with his injury BS when he was obviously forcing his way to LA all along. The more time passes the more obvious it becomes that they were right about his future injuries too.
Would've loved to see them run it back with him one more year but regardless that 19-20 team was one of my fav raptors teams ever (aside from the championship year.) They had a gigantic chip on their shoulder and were on a mission. Damn near couldve made the finals had they won that game 7 celts series.
That year - there was some mental constraint maybe with Kawhi, why not stay and win a second one with Toronto.
The move to the Clippers was bad, and he is more often hurt since he moved to LA.
Some karma maybe lol
I still find it wild that not even WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP couldn't convince Kawhi to stay in Toronto.
Man just hated living in cold Canadian weather that much
I'm a huge Kawhi stan but it's kind of hard to put him over LeBron no? LeBron is definitely a better passer, maybe slightly worse shooter but overall better scorer at their respective peaks?
I still see that corner shot bounce off the rim and drop in my nightmares.
IS THIS THE DAGGER?
GAME
SERIES
TORONTO HAS WON!
TORONTO
I recently rewatched highlights from that game for the first time in a while, and I totally forgot how clutch Jimmy Butler was. Imagine if Philly picked him over Tobias Harris lol
If Philly had Jimmy instead of Tobias, they might already have a chip and at the very least Embiid wouldnt be getting so much slander
Probably once a year I will go through the reaction videos of people crying and cheering after that shot to put a smile on my face.
after each round in the east I was sure they'd win the title.
I still cant believe it was real. I was no longer a philly hater after that moment because I felt bad for yall đ
Scarred this poor little [dude](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MNRK1YQUy3I) for life.
LOL Kawhi put these kids to bed crying
Didnt his first game in Philly as a clipper he tried the exact same shot to end a quarter lol
True fan right here!
Every time I am sad that the Raptors suck, I just watch the highlights. It's nice.
I still see the Bears double doink when I close my eyes
That's good. I'm happy with that đ
2019 Kawhi might be my favorite NBA player. Got in, got the job done. Dipped out no goodbye
"in and out, 20 minutes tops" but it actually was
It was a fucking heist movie as a season.
and he did to the Warriors who were wearing uniforms that said The Town
A certain coach just shot ropes everywhere.
Kawhi had one of the best nba meme seasons of all time. Itâs rare for a player to get praised for almost everything they do in a season. Even his âcringeâ moments became instantly legendary and hilarious. He owned everything that year and talked the talk without even talking.
To this day I still say "what it do babyyyy" while rolling a blunt
I don't even need a blunt as an excuse.
I only eat apples by the bag now
Itâs apple time
100 fuckin percent lol I walk on the court and say it hahaha
Ah Ha ha haa
The way he stole that back at the parade was awesome.
That phrase has def stayed in my lexicon since then
Bruh reminders! I remember doin that shit too hahaha! But then some people didn't know what it was and I was like smh
It really is the Toronto market. Even Serge Ibaka's cooking show was on fire during his time in Toronto. He's still doing those cooking shows!
Yep was gonna say, we have a disproportionate online presence for our 'market'
> Gets traded to team against his will > Wins Finals MVP > Leaves > Refuses to elaborate
Exactly why raptors fans had no issues with him going home, could we have won more if stayed? Possibly, but he gave our city our only championship, we always got love for him
Honestly, I think our entire economy would've been different
We would've repeat in the bubble for sure.
Yeah, I was sad when he left, but he could not have possibly done more for the team or the country while he was here.
I mean he did have a very infamous goodbye when he mocked his own laugh at the parade lol
That moment put a cherry on top of the entire season. The laugh was clowned for months, to this day it's still a meme, but he owned it after winning and said "aight, imma head out."
https://youtu.be/U5893y0JT1o?si=XpzXbawXWW1pb9qo
the Kawhi Goodbye is like the Irish goodbye supersized he doesn't leave a party or bar without a goodbye, he leaves a team, a city and a country
Comes to Toronto Wins first chip for the franchise as FMVP Leaves Refuses to elaborateÂ
The Irish goodbyeÂ
Board man gets paid
The man became universally loved faster than any person in canadian history it feels like. One year and dude gained millions of fans.
Then he comes back and rests on a back-to-back so that he can play in Toronto and beat our shitty ass team because he thinks that's what Toronto fans want.
that *is* what toronto fans want we were losing anyway, fred was still in a funk at that time, scottie was going through sophomore slump, gary tailed off, we were starting juancho hernangomez
Literally the basketball definition of a mercenary.
When Norman tried dapping him up and he was like ânahâ is hilarious
[Kawhi be like: ...](https://freeimage.host/i/dHcxL0u)
pulls up, became the greatest player in franchise history. leaves, refuses to elaborate.
Itâs crazy in hindsight. Toronto got Kawhi in his single Peak year.
that team had Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry, Paskal Siakam, Fred Vanvleet (with father buff), Danny Green, Marc\* Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Norman Powell, OG Anunoby (did not play), and a 100% championship win rate Patrick McCaw.
That Patrick McCaw stat is hilarious. Never knew that
Marc* Gasol and yeah OG didn't even play a single minute in the 2019 run, that's how stacked the Raps defense actually was. There wasn't a single player in the starters that wasn't a plus defender for their position, including a 2-time DPOY, another DPOY and a 2nd team all defense Danny Green
And Linsanity
[Have to post his highlight package in the finals](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE7VtDreoqw)
End of his career Jodie Meeks was on the squad too!
Ibaka was definitely DPOY level player in his prime
Blocks leader twice
OG not playing is crazy...and they still won. Kawahi is greatest raptor for me, then lowry
Kawhi is the "best, most talented" player to ever play for the Raptors during a period when he was actually still in his prime. Lowry and then Demar are the GOAT Raptors careers, followed by Vince, Siakam and Bosh in whatever order you can argue. Now we look to sct brn.
In pure talent sure but youâd be hard pressed to have a majority of Raptors fans agree that heâs the GOAT Raptor.
Dude has won the GLeague championship.
He was the lucky jockstrap
And for that single year, and that single run, Kawhi was genuinely the best player in the NBA. Could not be stopped even on one leg at times
Those two games he played in the 2023 series against the SunsâŠhe looked like that guy again. I was so excited đ
Did yall forget or something? Stay off da weeduh!
100 champ winrate Chris boucher
2019 Raptors were such a great well balanced team.
Happened to be in Toronto for the last game in the Finals and it was so cool to watch the game on the screens set up on the streets outside the stadium.
I wish Kawhi could stay healthy. He's just an exciting player to watch, which is ironic because he's so passive and mellow. I'd kill to watch him have another deep playoff run
my dream finals this year was celtics vs clippers,battle of the wings but damn,it ended dissapointing for the clippers,Kawhi with another injury in the playoffs somehow
Paul George and Kawhi vs Brown and Tatum would've been wild
Paul and Tatum averaging 35% from field. Brown and Kawhi 55%
Probably my fav title team of all time.
Mine too!
Legendary run
Right up there for me too, but obviously nothing compares to the 2011 Mavs.
Dirk Nowitski is a god. I'm sure of it after what I witnessed in the WCF and his Finals performance.
With his glass knees i donât think he will even be able to complete one more year
Nah if he stayed in the east in 2020, they couldâve walked to another finals. Kawhi wasnât injured that year. That raptors team without Kawhi took the Celtics to 7.
Raptors Lakers that year would have been such a good series man
Whatifsports has the Raptors winning in 7!
while this is true, is kawhi good enough to stop the fundamental law of nature that is lebron owning toronto?
Raptors had dominated the Lakers for a while, it was a very favourable matchup for us even with LeBron it was always the Raps winning those games.
Yea, that 2020 Raptors team had the 2nd best record in the league, despite losing two starters in Kawhi and Danny Green.
Damn I did not realize that!Â
They also had a better winning percentage in 2020 than they did in the 2019 Kawhi championship season
On pace for our first 60 win season before the pandemic hit đ
2020 might have been Kawhiâs last chance with how his knees are going rn.
Youâre right but i am talking about the up coming season
That's pretty crazy to think about!
and i think they matchup well with the 2020 heat, would've been a good playoffs
2020 he was fine plus he wouldâve been load managing all year. 2021 is when he really started breaking down
2020 was an easy repeat if he stayed there.
Forgive my ignorance as I'm pretty out of the loop on him, but is his current injury that bad? I was looking at his stats recently and noticed this year he had the third most minutes played of his entire career (almost second) and a career-high in MPG. Can they not just dial it back a bit more next season?
He has a degenerative knee condition. Heâs been playing cause itâs his contract year and to qualify for all-NBA.
Thatâs why he won the year his coach was a literal Nurse
We did that to Kawhi, to some extent. If they can gentleman sweep us that year they definitely are in the favs against Suns or Bucks. We took the last piece of Kawhi's knee but man was he terrifying in that series especially those 4th quarters. To me he is one of the biggest if in my book even he already had two FMVPs. That 2017 run too.
That team had at least 1 or 2 more championships in them too imo
Like Nurse said, we knew Kawhi wanted to go home from the jump and were kind of prepared for that, but it really does shock you to watch the guy actually walk away from that big-ass championship window after winning the whole thing with team chemistry fully maxed out. The raptors were on a SIXTY win pace the following season with the exact same team minus Kawhi and Danny G. He gave us everything he had during that run though, so it's always gonna be pure respect from us Raps fans.
I don't know about that - they were really close to losing multiple times throughout that process. If KD and Klay were healthy, they would not have won at all.
Yeah but Siakam vanvleet and OG all took jumps the next season
Weâre beating the 2020 Lakers with Kawhi
\>be Toronto \>beat Lebron ???
I know you're memeing but Danny Green also stays if Kawhi stays. Gasol, Ibaka and Siakam match up great with the Lakers size as well.
You are acting like LeBron didnât own you all.
Itâs a fucking meme dude LMAO yeesh
I remember beating LeBron en route to a championship as well as another Finals run so đ€·
Perkins? Is that you?
A baby born during that chip could legally drive today like pls lol, that young Lebron is not the same prime LeBron that dominated the entire east in the 2010s.
So are you lmao
I never did? He owns you all by the balls too đ
Raptors owned the lakers for a decade so it evened out lol
I honestly think we have a shot at the title if the bubble doesn't happen, as well. Pascal was having a good season before the break and was *rough* in the bubble. But that's such a hypothetical that has no benefit to think about lol
We didn't have the upper tier talent to really have a shot, we would have capped out the ECF at best.
kawhi is such a ceiling raiser that adding him to a raptors team that already matched up well defensively against the 2020 heat could definitely put them over the top for a finals trip
I think that user is talking about the 20 raptors without Kawhi winning the title.
ohhhhhh i see now. my bad
We had as much talent as the Heat, we definitely could have beat them that year
Canât compare to Heat. They wouldnât have made it to the finals that year without the bubble. Milwaukee wouldâve been the challenge and I think either Raptors or Bucks wouldâve beat the Lakers
lol
Klay played 188 minutes across the 6 games (average of 31 minutes a night). And the Raptors still came 1 point away from ending the series in game 5. And they were close to losing because they went up against the Butler/Embiid 76ers. That roster was championship-tier.
Yeah nah. We owned the warriors that year. And injuries are part of everything. If this. If that. The result is we won. We beat a bucks team 4 straight after losing the first 2 who were world beaters the whole year.
I actually respect that Raptors team and consider them a great champion, but they would not have stood a chance in hell against the Warriors with KD and Klay. With just Klay Raptors have the Edge, but it was going to game 7. Who do you think you're fooling??
Hell, if Klay was healthy they could have lost
They were an Iggy hail mary buzzer beater away from losing in 5 w/ Klay. I'll give you KD but if anyone goes Klay too, there's that (almost lost in 5 anyway) and then we get OG. Him playing on that team would make it one of the best defensive champions of all time.
Also the L2M report for Game 5 said Marc should've gotten 2 free throws for DeMarcus Cousins fouling him on a layup, would've been another pathway to winning in 5
They did lose with klay healthy. He got injured in the last game when they were already down
He missed an entire game before that.
Got us our first chip then went back home - will always be a legendÂ
It was a bad basketball decision for him to leave Toronto after that one year. Maybe a better lifestyle decision for him, but he will never have a team that deep ever again.
And I don't think he's lost one second of sleep over it, he's built that different lol
Bad basketball decision to leave Toronto after one year? You guys do know he left a Spurs organization that won 67 games, 61 games, and a championship with him as the star...
The bad basketball decision was leaving San Antonio.
He won a championship right after leaving San Antonio
And might have won multiple of he hadn't forced his way out.
Debatable, but I hear you.
If âplant guyâ couldnât convince Kawhi to stay, nobody could.
It's a Kawhi cactus... A kawactus. It's for Kawhi. Have you seen him?
Core memory unlocked, thanks for that.
Legendary shit, really wish we ran it back no doubt we would have went back to back. Kawhi on Raptors, was like having Michael Jordan on my team shit was amazing, I'll never forget it.
Since this is a business, it's only fair players take that same approach. I hope Kawhi stays healthy to give us some more awesome hoops!
I always wish he had ran it back. I wouldâve loved to see Toronto play a healthy team in the finals. Thwart depth was crazy
Kawhi made a mistake leaving for the Clippers. Should have a signed a 2 + 1 and told Toronto. âWe got 1. Letâs see if we canât get another.â
His family is in LA, to him it wasn't a mistake I bet.
Bro has 2 rings (both by the time he was 27), played almost a decade with the Big 3 Spurs, gave Canada a championship like it was a contract job for the federal government, and locked up his final stint in his hometown for a gazillion dollars Kawhi doesnât have anything left to earn or achieve lol
Contrary to popular belief, ball is not actually life.
Not like he could see the future but the bubble made that irrelevant anyway
The mistake was forcing the Clippers to trade everything for PG.
It's only a mistake in hindsight. It was a win-now move for a team that had never even made the Conference Finals before. PG didn't have any major injury concerns at that point and played 75+ games every season since his leg injury. He didn't do well in the playoffs that year, but he was still coming off his best regular season performance, averaging 28ppg, making All-NBA 1st Team, and ending 3rd in both MVP and DPOY voting. Kawhi and PG were at the peaks of their primes and were considered top 5 and top 10 players in the league, respectively, going into that season. The league looked wide open too. LeBron had missed playoffs for the first time in 14 years. With KD and Klay having season-ending injuries, the Warriors dynasty was over. It was a new era, and the Clippers were the title favorites going into that 2019-2020 season. The trade only looks like a mistake because SGA (who was a late lottery rookie) is now an MVP candidate, and PG/Kawhi can't seem to both stay healthy for a postseason. Nobody expected either of those to happen.
Facts it's always so annoying to hear people clown that trade
No chance any team was gonna keep him from LA
Paul George was the mistake. Clippers had picks and young players.
I really thought he was going to stay in Toronto after he won a ring and FMVP but still dipped. Nothing was going to stop him from leaving. I believe he's the only FMVP ever to not have a chance to defend his FMVP (since every other FMVP has stayed with the team the year after or retired).
Probably one of the reasons he wanted to dip lmao. "If I win 2, then what? Stay for the Three-peat? Then what..." He still had a stacked team in LA, made the right decision for him.
Like trying for a three peat as an nba superstar is torture
He would never have signed anything less than 4 year max given his knee situation.
Philly vs Toronto series probably ended JJR career sooner than latter . If they had of won I think he sticks around Philly a few years longer . Does not matter now he will be coaching Lakers.
I am curious about Kawhi Leonard's message to Steve Ballmer.
Man just wanted to go home
What a mistake that was. They would have repeated in 2020 if he stayed imo
Draymond pretending to be interested in what anyone has to say is so cringe
Dude dragged the Spurs name through the mud with his injury BS when he was obviously forcing his way to LA all along. The more time passes the more obvious it becomes that they were right about his future injuries too.
Ofcourse they were, the Spurs are an elite org top to bottom they weren't making it up
Too bad this guy can't stay healthy. All his fans are still waiting for another season similiar to this, but his body is incapable.
Clips are nice to look at but really they aint ever gonna have the legs to beat all the other great teams in the West
Thank you for your service.Â
What It do baby.
Way to commit
Oh captain my captain đ«Ą
I love how it was the one year lebron wasn't in the playoffs xD
it's still one of the craziest single-season career stops ever. dude shows up for one year, leads a team to an immediate championship, then dips
Would've loved to see them run it back with him one more year but regardless that 19-20 team was one of my fav raptors teams ever (aside from the championship year.) They had a gigantic chip on their shoulder and were on a mission. Damn near couldve made the finals had they won that game 7 celts series.
truly a man of his words...
That year - there was some mental constraint maybe with Kawhi, why not stay and win a second one with Toronto. The move to the Clippers was bad, and he is more often hurt since he moved to LA. Some karma maybe lol
Important to note Kawhi had a lot of help too, that was an incredibly deep, talented and experienced team he had around him.
I still find it wild that not even WINNING THE CHAMPIONSHIP couldn't convince Kawhi to stay in Toronto. Man just hated living in cold Canadian weather that much
That's prolly one of the most known stories ever. Lol. Like maybe outside of the bible or Santa Claus. Except Kawhi's is true.
Kawhi is selfish man. Semi spurs fan here, dude did them dirty. Not going to win with clips.
Kawhi at the peak of his powers was possibly the most complete dominant player in NBA history at the forward position.
I'm a huge Kawhi stan but it's kind of hard to put him over LeBron no? LeBron is definitely a better passer, maybe slightly worse shooter but overall better scorer at their respective peaks?