OAKLAND, CALIF.—It used to be that the only inevitability surrounding the Toronto Raptors was failure. But the Warriors ran out of bodies, one by one, and the Raptors smashed the ruins. The Toronto Raptors shocked everyone but themselves, and they are champions. “We’ve been growing and trying to prove to the world that there is a meaning to having an NBA team, one NBA team, outside the U.S.,” said team president Masai Ujiri, coursing with emotion. Every Raptors fan knows them by heart; it’s like a rite of Raptors passage to get them tattooed in your memory.

Source: thestar June 14, 2019 04:39 UTC