Liputan6.com, Oakland - Toronto Raptors berhasil menjadi juara NBA 2018-2019. Satu-satunya wakil Kanada di NBA itu memenangi pertarungan enam gim dengan juara bertahan Golden State Warriors.
Raptors mengunci gelar juara setelah menang 114-110 pada gim keenam NBA Finals 2019 di kandang Warriors, ORACLE Arena, Jumat (14/6/2019) pagi WIB.
Ini menjadi kali pertama Raptors menjuarai NBA. Untuk pertama kali pula sepanjang sejarah tim asal Kanada bisa menjadi yang terbaik di kompetisi NBA.
Sukses Raptors jadi juara NBA 2018-2019 membuat pemain cadangan Patrick McCaw mengukir rekor. Dia merasakan juara NBA tiga musim berturut-turut.
Dua gelar juara NBA sebelumnya didapat McCaw bersama Warriors. Pindah ke Raptors, McCaw kembali menjadi juara walau sangat minim kontribusi.
McCaw baru bergabung dengan Raptors pada Januari 2019. Dia free agent setelah didepak Cleveland Cavaliers. Di Cavaliers, McCaw cuma main tiga kali. Hampir enam bulan McCaw tak memiliki klub setelah terbuang dari Warriors.
Pemain 23 tahun itu masuk buku sejarah NBA. McCaw menjadi pemain pertama yang merebut three peat di NBA sejak Kobe Bryant dan Shaquille O'Neal di tahun 2002.
Sejak 1991 baru ada lima pemain yang meraih three peat di NBA . Dua lainnya adalah Michael Jordan dan Scottie Pippen. Berita video aksi-aksi terbaik yang terjadi pada game 4 Final NBA 2019 antara Toronto Raptors melawan Golden State Warriors di Oracle Arena, Oakland, Sabtu (8/6/2019) pagi hari WIB.
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BALL GAME!!!!!!! YOUUUUUU REEEEEAAAAAADDDDYYYYYY???? ONE MORE WIN!!!!!! THE REAL WARRIORS ARE IN THE 6 😂👌🏽
Bola.com, Jakarta - Tiga influencer asal Indonesia, yaitu Kemal Palevi "Pak Layup", Jovial Da Lopez "Kajo", & Andovi Da Lopez "The X Factor mendapat kesempatan istimewa menikmati momen NBA All Start 2019 di Charlotte, Nort Carolina, 18 Februari. Keseruan petualangan mereka bisa disaksikan dii The Finishers Episode ketiga.
Kemal, Jovial dan Andovi kali ini pergi jalan-jalan untuk mengikuti keseruan NBA All Stars 2019. Mereka bertemu pemain-pemain yang tampil di Celebrity All Stars, Rising Stars, All Stars, dan hingga pemain legenda NBA.
Petualangan hari pertama mereka diawali dengan melakukan kegiatan di luar pertandingan. Mereka berkesempatan berfoto-foto ala para pemain NBA yang tampil di pekan All Stars.
Jovial, Andovi, dan Kemal juga mendapat kesempatan berkunjung ke Museum Penerbangan yang ada di North Carolina. Mereka terlihat sangat menikmati dua momen istimewa itu.
Pada hari All Stars, para influencer Indonesia tersebut mendapat kesempatan berbincang ringan dengan para bintang NBA seperti Klay Thompson dan Kyrie Irving. Andovi bahkan sempat bertemu dan berfoto dengan pesepak bola yang pernah menjadi bintang pujaan di Chelsea, Didier Drogba.
Keseruan tiga influencer asal Indonesia di NBA All Stars 2019 dapat dinikmati melalui video The Finishers episode 3 berikut ini. Klik videonya di sini.
KOMPAS.com - Juara empat kali NBA bersama San Antonio Spurs, Tony Parker, memutuskan pensiun sebagai pebasket profesional pada usia 37 tahun, Senin (10/6/2019).
Dalam kariernya, Parker bergabung dengan San Antonio Spurs pada tahun 2001 dan memenangi gelar NBA, kompetisi basket tertinggi di AS, bersama klub tersebut pada 2003, 2005, 2007, dan 2014, sebelum bergabung dengan Charlotte Hornets pada musim lalu.
Untuk level timnas, pebasket asal Perancis itu pernah menjadi juara Eropa pada 2013.
"Dengan banyak emosi, saya pensiun dari bola basket, itu adalah perjalanan yang luar biasa! Bahkan, dalam mimpi terliar saya, saya tidak pernah berpikir saya akan menjalani semua momen yang sulit dipercaya dengan NBA dan tim nasional Perancis," ucap Parker pada akun media sosialnya.
Baca juga: Unggul 3-1, Raptors Berpeluang Mengubah Sejarah NBA
???????? It’s with a lot of emotion that I retire from basketball, it was an incredible journey! Even in my wildest dreams, I never thought I would live all those unbelievable moments with the NBA and the French National Team.
Thank you for everything! https://t.co/YKqTlnkG90
"Kesempatan bermain basket kursi roda bersama mereka adalah ungkapan rasa hormat, apalagi ini akan membantu mendorong, menginspirasi dan memotivasi mereka bermain olahraga dengan santai dan bahagia," kata Nick.
"Penyandang cacat sering menghadapi hambatan sosial dan kecacatan membangkitkan persepsi negatif dan diskriminasi di banyak masyarakat, terutama dengan perempuan, sementara peluangnya lebih kecil dari laki-laki dan saya fokus pada menutup kesenjangan kesetaraan untuk memastikan pemain perempuan dihargai kesetaraan," kata Nick.
Nick pun membuat film dokumenter untuk atlet difabel di True 24 Tv, dan sudah 93 episode dan ditayangkan setiap minggu di Thailand. Melalui siaran tersebut, orang tahu kehidupan atlet yang berbeda dan bagaimana mereka berjuang untuk mendapatkan medali untuk negara.
Ditulis oleh: Natalia S Tjahja Stephen Curry telah mencetakan 31 poin dalam kemenangan Golden State Warriors atas Toronto Raptors di Game 5 NBA Finals, dengan skor akhir 106-105.
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KAWHI Leonard jadi representasi pebasket NBA dengan gaya yang bertolak belakang dengan gemerlapnya NBA.Apa yang membuat pebasket andalan Toronto Raptors itu lebih memilih diam seribu bahasa dan membiarkan tangannya yang berbicara. Dahulu kala di zaman Mesir Kuno tersebutlah perselisihan dua orang dewa, Osiris dan Seth.Pertempuran terjadi karena Seth tidak pernah rela kakaknya, Osiris, menjadi dewa paling utama di Mesir Kuno. Seth akhirnya menjebak Osiris dan berhasil menewaskannya dengan tipu muslihat.Peristiwa pembunuhan itu benar-benar membekas pada benak Horus, keturunan Osiris dan pasangannya, Isis. Seperti ayahnya, Horus juga seorang dewa yang termanifestasi dalam badan seorang pria berkepala elang.Tak seperti dewa lainnya, Horus tak pernah banyak bicara. Kedua matanya adalah matahari dan rembulan. Sebagai penguasa langit, dengan kedua matanya Horus lebih banyak mengamati dunia lewat matanya ketimbang menghabiskan waktunya dengan bicara.Namun, Horus tak bisa menyimpan kesedihannya yang mendalam atas tewasnya sang ayah. Dalam kebisuannya, dia menunggu waktu dan menguatkan seluruh potensi yang ada didirinya untuk mengalahkan Seth.Selama waktunya tiba, Horus tak pernah sekalipun mengeluarkan sepatah dua patah kata. Pada akhirnya Horus berhasil mengalahkan Seth meskipun mengorbankan mata kirinya yang berupa rembulan.Kawhi Leonard, pebasket NBA dari klub Toronto Raptors, bukanlah Horus. Namun, kesedihan kehilangan ayah yang dialami Horus hingga kini masih membekas di hati Kawhi Leonard.Pebasket kelahiran 29 Juni 1991 itu tidak pernah lupa peristiwa yang terjadi pada 18 Januari 2008 di sebuah tempat cucian mobil yang dimiliki ayahnya, Mark Leonard.Harusnya hari itu setelah tempat cucian mobil tutup, Mark Leonard akan segera menonton Kawhi bermain basket. Namun hingga pertandingan usai, Mark tidak pernah datang melihat Kawhi.Usai pertandingan, Kawhi hanya bisa menatap nanar langit-langit stadion begitu melihat ibunya, Kim Leonard, menangis keras memeluk dirinya. Ibunya datang seorang diri tanpa kehadiran ayahnya.Sesampainya di rumah, Kawhi mendengar cerita yang pernah dia dengar sebelumnya jika tinggal di kawasan keras di Amerika, Compton, New York. Dari orang-orang yang datang ke rumahnya, Kawhi mengetahui sesaat sebelum ayahnya menutup tempat cucian mobil miliknya, tiba-tiba saja seseorang datang masuk dalam tempat cucian.Entah mengapa pria itu langsung menembakkan pistol ke tubuh Mark yang tidak bisa melawan. Seketika Mark tewas di tempat. Kawhi tidak pernah tahu apa yang menyebabkan orang itu membunuh ayahnya.Bahkan, hingga kini polisi tidak pernah sanggup menemukan siapa yang telah membunuh ayahnya. Sejak saat itu Kawhi bukan hanya kehilangan ayahnya, juga kehilangan kepercayaannya pada dunia. Dia berubah menjadi pribadi yang tertutup.Dia selalu irit berbicara dan tidak pernah mau meluapkan emosi yang dia rasakan. “Saya ingat Kawhi Leonard karena beberapa hari setelah ayahnya meninggal, dia bertanding basket dengan anak saya.Saat itu saya datang dan melihat dia begitu memesona karena berhasil mencetak banyak angka. Namun, setelahnya dia lebih banyak diam,” kata aktor Hollywood, Denzel Washington.Namun yang Denzel Washington tidak tahu, setelah pertandingan itu, Kawhi langsung pulang dan memeluk ibunya, Kim Leonard, sambil menangis histeris.“Mungkin itu tangisan terakhir yang pernah dia perlihatkan kepada saya,” kenang Kim.Beruntung, menurut Kim, Kawhi memiliki satu hal yang tidak pernah bisa dihilangkan darinya, yakni olahraga basket. Cabang olahraga ini justru jadi bukti adanya jalinan kasih antara Kawhi dan ayahnya.Kim mengatakan,awalnya Kawhi justru jatuh cinta pada cabang olahraga lain, sepak bola Amerika. Kebetulan sang ayah, Mark, memang menyukai olahraga itu. Namun, seiring waktu tepatnya saat berada di sekolah menengah pertama Kawhi justru tertarik dengan olahraga basket.Hal ini tentunya membuat Mark sedikit kecewa. Pasalnya, Mark memang menginginkan Kawhi jadi atlet sepak bola Amerika profesional. Namun, Mark tidak pernah mengatakan tidak buat Kawhi.“Termasuk ketika Kawhi bertanya kepadanya, apakah dia sudah terlalu terlambat untuk belajar basket,” ucap Kim. Mark mengatakan tidak ada kata terlambat jika ingin mencoba melakukan sesuatu.Sekalipun tidak memiliki bakat, Mark percaya anaknya itu bisa menjadi atlet basket yang baik dengan berlatih lebih keras. Sejak saat itulah, Mark tidak pernah absen mengajak anaknya berlatih basket. Kebersamaan mereka inilah yang membuat jalinan kasih sayang itu bertambah kuat.Mark yakin meski terlambat, Kawhi bisa mengatasi semua kelemahan yang ada di dirinya. “Dulu ketika dia masuk pertama kali ke San Antonio Spurs, dia tidak pernah terbiasa melakukan tembakan tiga angka. Namun, dia mau berlatih terus-menerus tanpa henti. Dia mau mendengarkan orang melatih dirinya,” ujar Greg Popovich, pelatih San Antonio Spurs.Sikap Kawhi yang mau belajar dan mendengarkan orang lain sangat bertolak belakang dengan gaya superstar NBA yang ada saat ini.Dia tak ubahnya seperti antitesa superstar NBA yang terlalu mudah besar kepala, pongah, dan merasa lebih baik dari pelatihnya sendiri. Dia juga tak seperti superstar NBA lainnya yang kerap jadi pusat perhatian bukan karena kemampuannya bermain basket tapi gayanya di luar lapangan basket.Dia malah berusaha sekeras mungkin untuk tidak ribet dengan media sosial. Bayangkan saja dia tidak pernah memiliki akun I nstagram . Bahkan, akun Twitter resmi miliknya yang dibuat pada 2015 hanya memuat 4 unggahan dan tidak pernah bertambah hingga kini.Orang-orang bahkan tidak tahu apa yang dia lakukan sehari-hari di luar bermain basket. Seakan-akan Kawhi tidak ingin berada dalam sorotan lampu. Seolah-olah dia ingin bersembunyi di balik bayangannya sendiri. Padahal, dia pantas untuk dapat sorotan karena kemampuannya bermain basket tidak perlu diragukan lagi.Dia pernah mengantarkan San Antonio Spurs berhasil menjuarai NBA tahun 2014. Di babak final NBA 2014, dia bahkan dinobatkan sebagai Most Valuable Player (MVP).Dia juga sudah tiga kali tercatat masuk tim utama NBA All Star, dua kali masuk tim utama NBA secara keseluruhan dan tiga kali masuk dalam daftar pebasket dengan pertahanan terbaik di NBA.Dengan catatan itu, duduk sama rendah dan berdiri sama tinggi dengan pebasket yang pernah menjadi juara NBA seperti LeBron James, Kevin Durrant, Steph Curry dan sebagainya. Namun, Kawhi menempuh hidup yang berbeda dibanding mereka.Dia berusaha menutup diri dari kontroversi. Hal yang sama dia lakukan ketika diterpa masalah seperti saat musim 2017-2018 ketika cedera lama dan tidak membela San Antonio Spurs. Waktu itu dia memilih fokus pada cederanya dan tidak mengatakan apa pun.Hingga akhirnya San Antonio Spurs menjualnya ke Toronto Raptors, Kawhi tidak pernah sekalipun mengucapkan hal yang buruk buat San Antonio Spurs.“Adalah hal yang sia-sia jika kita ingin mengubah seseorang dari kepribadiannya. Jika orangnya pendiam, kita tidak bisa menuntutnya untuk menjadi lebih banyak bicara. Saya rasa situasi inilah yang membuatnya mampu menjadi yang terbaik,” ujar Popovich.Jesse Washington, analis NBA dari The Undefeated, bahkan mengatakan NBA butuh pebasket seperti Kawhi lebih banyak lagi.Memang, sikap tertutup Kawhi membuatnya jadi figur yang tak menarik untuk diikuti. “Tapi NBA membutuhkan pebasket yang magical , yang bisa membuat sebuah pertandingan begitu membius bukan karena gaya mereka di luar lapangan tapi kemampuan mereka di atas lapangan,” ucapnya.Daya sihir inilah yang pernah ditunjukkan Kawhi di ajang Playoffs NBA 2019. Dia membawa Toronto Raptors dengan gaya dan kepribadiannya yang tertutup atau introvert. Kawhi adalah sebuah antitesis dari superstar NBA.
Bola.com, Jakarta - Komite Olimpiade Filipina (POC) resmi mengganti gim NBA 2K19 dengan Hearthstone pada SEA Games 2019 di Filipina.
Gim Hearthstone sudah menjadi salah satu cabang yang dipertandingkan sebagai cabang ekshibisi Asian Games 2018. Pada laga ekshibisi itu, Indonesia diwakili oleh Hendry "Jothree" Handisurya. Pada perhelatan itu, Jothree mendapatkan medali perak.
Melihat prestasi tersebut, Indonesia tentu bisa berharap meraih medali emas dari nomor Hearthstone di SEA Games 2019.
Melansir esport.id (13/6/2019), seleksi pemain untuk pelatnas Indonesia cabang Hearthstone belum ditentukan.
Cabang-cabang gim yang akan dipertandingkan pada esports Sea Games 2019 antara lain Dota 2, StarCraft II, Mobile Legends, Arena of Valor, Tekken 7, dan Hearthstone.
Pada SEA Games 2019 , Indonesia membidik dua medali emas dari Dota 2 dan Tekken 7.
Sumber: IESPA, Esport.id Penggemar Esport khususnya game League of legends pasti tahu dengan Faker, gamer yang sudah mendunia dan melegenda. Faker hadir di Jakarta dalam gelaran ujicoba esports di Asian Games 2018.
OAKLAND, Calif. -- In his office overlooking downtown Toronto in January 2015, Masai Ujiri, then the general manager of a surprising 24-9 Toronto Raptors team, looked back on an unlikely 13-month rise that began with the trade of Rudy Gay to the Sacramento Kings in late December 2013 -- when the Raptors were just 7-12.
"We made the Rudy trade to see where we would be," Ujiri said then. "Are we gonna break it all down? That's where luck comes in. We all walk around thinking we're geniuses, but in this business, you need that Lady Luck."
It was a somewhat unexpected admission, even if Ujiri was only admitting the obvious: The Raptors traded Gay (and five months earlier, former No. 1 pick Andrea Bargnani) to open a path toward a total rebuild. It helped that Andrew Wiggins, then considered the greatest Canadian prospect ever, loomed as the prize atop the 2014 draft.
Kyle Lowry would go next -- probably to the always-thirsty New York Knicks. The deal died just before the finish line. Meanwhile, the Raptors discovered the Gay trade had supplied them with a viable bench in Greivis Vasquez, Patrick Patterson, John Salmons and Chuck Hayes.
They started winning. They kept winning.
"You can sink and drown, or you can float," DeMar DeRozan told ESPN three weeks after the Gay deal. "And we out here like Michael Phelps."
Most championship teams have clear through lines that trace their journey to the top: They draft a foundational player that defines everything that comes next, or acquire one who agrees before stepping in the door to stay for a long time.
The Raptors have neither. There is no apparent modern precedent for a team trading for its only top-five player in a walk year -- without free agency matching rights, without signing said player to an extension as part of the trade -- and having that player lead the team to a title that same season. Toronto might be the most unconventionally constructed championship team in basketball history, and its six-game win over the Golden State Warriors has insiders across the league asking: Is there anything we can learn? Can we replicate what Toronto just did?
Toronto traded a protected first-round pick for Lowry -- believed to be the first reverse-protected pick in NBA history -- after missing out on Steve Nash in July 2012. Toronto's analytics group told higher-ups their numbers indicated Lowry was a top-10 point guard hiding in plain sight. He became much more. He also spent part of his first season in Toronto backing up Jose Calderon -- a development that caused minor tension between Dwane Casey, then the team's coach, and Bryan Colangelo, Ujiri's predecessor.
Six years later, Lowry is an unlikely tentpole of an unlikely champion. The Raptors look like proof of the value in staying good -- proof that tearing down isn't the only way to go from 50-win playoff also-ran to champion. Most contenders who fall short year after year eventually peter out and break up; the Indiana Pacers and LA Clippers of this decade stand as perhaps the best recent examples, but they have antecedents across the NBA landscape. 2019 NBA Finals Find everything you need to know about Toronto's first NBA title. • Raptors in 6: News, reaction and more
• Can any team do what Toronto just did?
• Raps dethrone Warriors | Kawhi earns MVP
• What is Toronto's best pitch to keep Kawhi?
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There are rare teams that remain competitive, tinker around their best player, and finally break through. The 2011 Dallas Mavericks come to mind, but they are more conventional than these Raptors in that they got their keystone -- Dirk Nowitzki -- in the draft and simply kept him. Dallas also de-emphasized the draft in favor of chasing aging stars and splashy veterans. Toronto mined the draft and the fringes of the NBA to fatten its asset base so that when a superstar became available, it could strike. The Raptors are not so different from the Houston Rockets -- their partners in that Lowry trade.
Houston avoided a teardown after the Tracy McGrady/Yao Ming foundation ran its course. The Rockets dealt Lowry because they felt another first-round pick would be a more valuable trade chip in pursuit of a star; they included that pick in the deal that got them James Harden. They just haven't busted through yet. (Harden was in the final year of his contract at the time, but he was set to be a restricted free agent -- meaning the Rockets would hold matching rights in the event Harden hit the market. He never did.)
Much has been made of Toronto having zero lottery picks left on its roster, but they used their lottery picks in that asset-accumulation mode. Bargnani became Jakob Poeltl (thanks, Knicks!), who became an important piece in the Kawhi Leonard trade, along with DeRozan, a former No. 9 pick. Jonas Valanciunas, the No. 5 pick in 2011, became the centerpiece of the Marc Gasol deal -- Toronto's version of the 2004 Detroit Pistons' (perhaps the Raptors' closest analog as a convention-busting champion) Rasheed Wallace acquisition.
(Lowry in this analogy is Chauncey Billups -- the late-blooming star point guard. The Pistons even moved on from an accomplished coach in Rick Carlisle the year before their title run, and hired Larry Brown -- just as Toronto fired Casey and replaced him with Nick Nurse.)
Delon Wright, the 20th pick in 2015, was a key part of the Gasol trade too. Terrence Ross, the No. 8 pick in 2012, turned into Serge Ibaka. Toronto had to include another first-round pick in that deal, but those are the minor risks you can take with picks when you've already piled up extra ones.
Ujiri somehow hoodwinked the Milwaukee Bucks into sending out the pick and draft rights that became OG Anunoby and Norman Powell (very good picks at Nos. 23 and 46, respectively) for one year of Vasquez. Nabbing someone as good as Pascal Siakam at No. 27 is a once-a-decade-level masterstroke. An undrafted player, Fred VanVleet, now stands as one of the league's best reserves.
The Raptors weren't perfect. Bruno Caboclo proved a reach. DeMarre Carroll, one of the biggest free-agent signings in franchise history, ended up costing a first-round pick to dump. Still: The bigger pre-Leonard picture of careful management over an extended timeline should be an achievable ambition.
But the Raptors feel different than most of those good-but-not-good-enough predecessors. They were never as good as the best Frank Vogel-era Pacers, late-2000s Mavericks, or the Chris Paul/Blake Griffin/DeAndre Jordan Clippers. The Pacers pushed LeBron James to the brink; James openly mocked the Raptors, and made a habit of sweeping them. The Clippers were a borderline championship-level team stuck in a hellish conference as an unexpected dynasty rose 400 miles north.
Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images
The Raptors made the Eastern Conference finals in the junior varsity side once before this run, in perhaps the least inspiring fashion ever in 2016: a seven-game squeaker over the seventh-seeded Pacers that Indiana should have won, and another seven-game war of attrition against the Miami Heat in which both teams suffered major injuries. DeRozan regularly shrunk in the playoffs; Casey benched him in what ended up the final non-garbage-time fourth quarter in Toronto for both.
The Raptors were good. The culture they built during Casey's tenure helped prepare them for this. But they were never serious good. They knew it. Ujiri spent much of the past half-decade simultaneously hunting for a starry upgrade and positioning the team to bottom out. Toronto chased Paul Millsap to close the long-term hole at power forward before settling on Ibaka when the Atlanta Hawks demanded what the Raptors considered too much, sources say. They had preliminary talks about a package for Paul George that looked in broad strokes like what they ended up trading for Leonard, league sources say.
The 2017 offseason, coming after a Cavs sweep in the second round, represented a pivot point. Lowry and Ibaka were free agents. Ujiri could let them walk, trade DeRozan, and bottom out ahead of the loaded 2018 draft. But Ujiri has rarely lost players for nothing. He created a template for a new kind of sign-and-trade as GM of the Denver Nuggets when he re-signed Nene Hilario to a five-year, $67 million deal in 2011 only to trade him for a younger player at the same position (JaVale McGee) three months later.
Toronto re-signed Ibaka and Lowry to three-year deals, timing them to expire together with Valanciunas' contract. The core had three years before detonation by default. In engineering that timeline, Ujiri delayed a rebuild so that the start of it would coincide with the Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers -- then considered heirs to the East -- reaching their peaks; Toronto would rise again as those rivals fell. In the meantime, the Raptors could enjoy winning seasons and investigate what their players might fetch in trades. Editor's Picks Anthony Davis trades: Which team can make the best offer?
2019 NBA Finals: Raptors dethrone Warriors in Game 6 1 Related
They could never have envisioned Leonard's relationship with the San Antonio Spurs fracturing, and an MVP candidate becoming available for a modest price. That was by far the most important step in Toronto's journey, and the hardest for any team looking to the Raptors for guidance to replicate.
But if there is a lesson to take from Toronto's ascendancy, it might be that the league was too risk-averse chasing Leonard. He should not have been available for DeRozan, a solid rotation big and potential low-end starter in Poeltl, and what would inevitably be a pick toward the bottom of the first round.
It's much easier today, with Toronto atop the league, to declare other Leonard suitors -- Boston, Philadelphia, and the Los Angeles Lakers especially -- acted too cautiously. But if Leonard bolts in three weeks, everything looks different. Yes, the Raptors won with Leonard. Going all-in worked for them. That doesn't mean it would have worked for another team.
What if Leonard's four-bounce shot rolls out, and the Raptors lose to Philadelphia in overtime of Game 7 and bow out in the second round? What if Milwaukee sneaks out Game 3 of the conference finals in double overtime? The margins are that thin.
Toronto's prolonged pretty goodness worked to insulate it from the downside those other teams faced in trading for Leonard. The Raptors didn't have a present or a future they feared trading from. They had very little they would regret having lost for nothing in the event Leonard walked away after one season. They had no prized top-five pick, and no mapped-out path toward true title contention with their pre-Leonard group. It's hard to remember now, but a year ago, Anunoby probably had as much trade value as Siakam -- and maybe more.
They also had no cap space to lure Leonard in free agency. The Lakers did. Los Angeles brass had to ask themselves whether it was worth trading young players for Leonard if they could sign him outright in a year.
Philadelphia had the assets to make a play, but the Spurs wanted one of Ben Simmons or Joel Embiid, sources have said. That was a nonstarter.
If there is a team feeling Leonard regret now, it is Boston. The Celtics had the coveted young players and draft picks to outbid Toronto. Boston larded up its offer with draft picks, but declined to include Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown without gaining more assurance than was possible about Leonard's health and interest in re-signing, sources said at the time of the trade.
Boston's fretful waffling was understandable in the moment. Brown appeared on track to be an All-Star. Maybe more important, Boston believed it had a championship team already. They had just taken James and the Cleveland Cavaliers to Game 7 without Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. Was it worth trading a key piece of what appeared then to be both a championship present and future to rent Leonard and watch him leave?
(It is incredible how much has changed for Boston in the past calendar year -- how many things went wrong, how many carefully laid plans appear in jeopardy.)
Acquiring Leonard also would have left Boston with four max-salary players in Irving, Hayward, Leonard and Al Horford -- untenable for long. Boston was saving its chips for Anthony Davis. Everyone around the league -- including the Raptors -- wondered if Leonard's health would ever allow him to be the player he was in 2017. 2019 NBA draft Get ready for Zion, Morant and more. • 2019 mock draft
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In retrospect, Boston was both too cautious and too optimistic about its existing core. (I was, too, by the way. Speaking of thin margins: A lot of us got so wrapped up in Boston pushing Cleveland to seven that we breezed past the fact that a middling Milwaukee team had done the same to the Celtics two rounds earlier.)
If you have a chance to win the title and a healthy culture, believe in that culture enough to take a risk that meaningfully boosts those title chances -- even for just one season. Every chance is precious. Even teams that appear set up to contend for five or 10 years are delicate organisms. Lesson learned.
Toronto had no such concerns. Acquiring Leonard at this price was almost risk-free. In the afterglow of a title, including Anunoby -- something Toronto refused, sources say -- looks like a no-brainer too.
Including Siakam would have hurt more than almost anyone anticipated (even those of us who hopped on the Siakam bandwagon when it was still in the parking lot). "Obviously there were a lot of talks and a lot of names thrown out there," Siakam said. "I definitely thought [being traded] was a possibility."
Toronto had the leverage to say no on both Anunoby and Siakam. That speaks to how little leverage San Antonio had -- or created -- in dealing Leonard. It really did take a perfect storm for the Raptors to acquire Leonard at this price.
They deserve credit for pouncing. Not every team would have traded a beloved homegrown All-Star for a superstar who signaled no interest in joining -- even if the cold analytical terms appeared a home run. Fewer still would have had the assets to dangle in deals for Ibaka, Leonard and Gasol.
Nabbing Leonard in this manner was the game-changing move that turned an artful holding pattern into a championship -- and the hardest for would-be followers to duplicate. In its rarity, the trade marks a fitting endpoint for the most unlikely championship construction project in NBA history.
Bola.com, Jakarta Kawhi Leonard mencetak 36 poin dalam kemenangan Raptors atas Warriors dengan skor akhir 105-92, Raptors memimpin 3-1 di NBA Finals 2019.
