On Thursday night the Toronto Raptors won their first NBA championship in team history. They beat the Golden State Warriors 114-110 in Game 6 to win the series 4 games to 2 and capture that title. As you know I’m not a huge fan of the NBA but I did find it interesting to see how the fans of each team reacted in this series.
I can understand that a fan base is very excited when their team is on the verge of winning a championship especially the first won but that’s no excuse for how the Raptors fans cheering when Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson got injured in this series. It’s one thing to clap as the player is being helped off of the court. However, it’s something else when you’re clapping for the actual injury. I guess you’d say classless.
Now I’m sure you’re wondering how it was possible for Raptors fans to cheer for Thompson’s injury since the game was at Oracle Arena. Well through the magic of social media there where some posts from different establishments where Raptors fans had gathered to watch Game 6. These posts clearly show fans jumping out of their seats and applauding when Thompson goes down injured. Sorry that’s just not the way to go about that situation unless you’re a 10-year old kid and you don’t know any better. Obviously it was easier to see Raptors fans cheering when Durant was injured since Game 5 was played at Toronto’s Scoatiabank Arena.
Golden State fans don’t think that you’re off the hook. Your Warriors have been to five straight NBA finals and they’ve won three titles for you. You have to be able to give credit to the team that beat you even if you’re not 100% sure that they would’ve beat you have circumstances had been different.
Now instead of doing this Warriors fans immediately started complaining that their team wasn’t healthy and if they hadn’t had these injuries they would’ve easily won this series. Now sure on paper you’d think that a healthy Golden State team would beat a healthy Toronto team, but you don’t know that for sure because it didn’t happen. Also I’m curious as to how you know that the Raptors weren’t dealing with any injuries. While they didn’t have any player miss any games, there were reports throughout the series about injuries that both teams where dealing with.
I don’t know, maybe it’s just me or maybe this is just how NBA fans are. I don’t remember St. Louis Blues fans cheering when Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins broke his jaw in the Stanley Cup finals. Maybe there is a difference in fans from different sports.
Now that the NBA finals is over, there are questions abound for both of the teams that were playing for the championship.
Front and center was Durant’s free agency looming over the Warriors and now with his injury it will be interesting how this changes the off season. There were a few teams that were clearing salary cap space to make a run at Durant and another top free agent and now that Durant will miss all of the 2019-20 season due to his injury, what will these teams do? There have been some reports that teams will still pursue Durant just like they would’ve had he not been injured and allow him to rehab next season on their dime.
While Durant was the big name heading into free agency once the finals ended don’t forget that Thompson was also headed into free agency. There was less being made about Thompson becoming a free agent since most people thought that he’d re-sign with Golden State. Thompson ended up tearing the ACL in his left knee. They’re saying that he’ll be able to return in February of 2020, but there have been cases of guys who’ve had ACL surgery missing the entire season after that surgery.
The Warriors also have Kevon Looney who played very well for them in the playoffs and DeMarcus Cousins headed into free agency. So they’ll have some decisions to make.
Don’t think that Toronto is off the hook. When the Raptors traded for Kawhi Leonard, they knew there was a chance that they might only have him for one season, but they wanted to try and win a championship with him and hope that would convince him to re-sign with the Raptors. Well they got their title and now will have to see if Leonard will re-sign with the Raptors or if he’ll move on.
Danny Green and Jeremy Lin will also be headed into free agency while Marc Gasol has an option year on his contract for a little over $25.5 million dollars, so he can he invoke the option and stay with Toronto or decline that option and take his chances in free agency.
It will be interesting to see where some of these free agents end up. Will they return to the team they where with? Or will they end up wearing a different uniform next season?
The other big question I saw coming out of this NBA finals was; is the Warriors dynasty over?
After five straight trips to the NBA finals and with a couple of crippling injuries to a couple of their top player next season might not be the Warriors year, but over might be a little bit too much.
Remember this is a team that will still have Stephen Curry and Draymond Green and the one thing that no one seems to have mentioned is the fact that the Warriors are allowed to add players in free agency like all the other teams. Of course the one big thing that could hinder the Warriors is if Durant decides to invoke the option year on his contract. If Durant does this he’ll be paid $31.5 million dollars next season. Having to carry a salary like that would pretty much end the Warriors pursuit of any upper level free agents unless they would be willing to take a very friendly team contract. It would also be interesting to see how Durant exercising his option year would affect Thompson. It’s possible the warriors would have to let Thompson walk if Durant’s big salary has to be counted against their salary cap next season.
It looks like next season could be tough for the Warriors but are you counting them out?
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