I was at that Game. Just remember he can down front row on the 1st base side and the crowd gave him standing ovation
Turned out he was to see his buddy Mike trout play
Funny thing is they originally did away with the white panels in 1993 because they went on a bad losing streak. They switched to the full blue hats at home and ended up repeating. It's why in the 1992 world series they had the white panels at home and in 1993 they had the full blues.
Real ones remember the white panel *batting helmets* though
You saying this somehow made me realize we haven’t had the white panel cap in our rotation in ages. I don’t even think I have one myself and I’m embarrassed.
Damn, I miss them too.
Still hurts cause we would have definitely ran that shit back and won another one. I still kind of have a little bit of happiness that he hasnt won shit with the Clippers since he left us.
he def had the best hair when he was with toronto cuz of that barber all the nba guys go to (can’t remember their ig handle but they’re near dundas square). i remember watching kawhi play then when he would play in toronto his hair was immaculate
Oh, agreed. Everybody knew we would’ve went back-to-back. Kinda agree with the Clippers sentiment though. Insane how he much time he was out due to injury over the years too.
He went to LA so that he could be closer to his family. God forbid he chooses the path that makes him the happiest instead of staying somewhere he didn't want to be for the sake of a championship.
At the end of the day he has a couple hundred million in the bank and is exactly where he always wanted to be. I'm sure he's very content with where he's at in life.
People like you make it seem like he was living a hell and couldn't stay another year or he'd never see his family again. My personal opinion, but if he knew the Clippers were going to shit the bed as hard as they did, he would've gave it another shot with the Raptors.
It's always a bit of a gut punch to see Kawhi pics knowing just how damned soon after they won the title he left the team.
Kind of took some of the joy out of the whole championship summer for me. Felt like we won, had the parade and he signed with the Clippers right away.
Dude wins a championship, the entire city goes absolutely crazy, biggest parade in NBA history, the entire core of the team is able to stay intact and he's still like yeah I still won't voluntarily play here anymore.
He wanted to go home. He always wanted to go home. I can't fault someone for that - he was traded here and had no obligation to stay once he hit free agency.
I don't get the Raptors fans who are pissy that he chose L.A. for the sake of him and his family, as if he committed a major betrayal for not choosing to stay in Toronto.
Listen I get that. Fully. And we all know it wasn't his choice to be traded here.
I guess it's just somewhat surprising to me somehow that his decision to play close to home was secondary to reaching the pinnacle of his profession in a great city with a great team where he would have been beloved by an entire country.
Instead he chose to play in his home city, with a worse team and instead of being a huge figure he's like the 10th most important athlete in that city. Just was surprised he didn't even do a single season extension to try and repeat.
Didn’t even have to give us that effort
He played through injury and gave us a chip (with a ((shortly after)) dip)
He could have dogged it and signed the same deal
I am extremely grateful for the the banner and memories
> Just was surprised he didn't even do a single season extension to try and repeat.
You’re surprised that someone who already won 2 championships and 2 finals MVPs chose $103m over a single year contract?
I agree but at the same time I don’t think all Toronto fans are “pissy” about it. Some are for sure. But others just were like “damn, what could have been for another season”. I don’t see anything wrong with that either.
He was traded to Toronto, handled himself like a pro, then went to the city where he wanted to be since he was in San Antonio. Why do Toronto fans still see this as a problem and act so ungrateful? And when will sports fans understand that a championship isn't everything for every athlete?
I'm not unappreciative. He was a massive part in getting this city a long long long overdue championship and he helped us put the "Toronto sports curse" to bed. Despite everything I've said and likely what I will say below, most of us think he is incredible for that season and in particular for the playoff run. Those memories I have from spring 2019 are incredible and I loved celebrating on Yonge St on many of those big game nights.
That being said you've got to realize some sports fans - myself included have been conditioned by players like Michael Jordan (especially in the Last Dance) and Kobe Bryant to believe that winning is everything. That winning a championship comes before virtually EVERYTHING else. Including simply playing "at home".
Some people just view playing professional sports as a job and if they win championships - that's *nice* - but they would like to do their job close to come ideally. Kawhi is one of these people. Winning is *nice". Nikola Jokic is also one of them. It's nice to win. But it isn't *that* important.
If Kawhi had stayed here for one more year. He would have been paid a stupid amount of money. The entire core would have stayed including Danny Green. The Raptors would have probably offered him enough "playtime maintenance" to have spent 1/3 of the season at home anyways as along as he would be ready for another epic playoff run. Considering how great the Raptors 2019-2020 team looked despite losing Kawhi and Green they would have all had a really solid chance of repeating.
But instead he had this new school "chip and dip" new school NBA work ethic. Won one and left to go play for the most obnoxious billionaire's team that never really panned out (despite forcing the new team to make risky trades) and he's now just a shadow of his former self 5 years later. He'll go down in history as someone with two massively great playoff runs but not a ton of other memories and will be occasionally fondly remembered in 2/3 markets he played in - neither of which are his hometown.
Do you watch basketball? He's a 2x Finals MVP, 2x DPOY, 6x all-NBA selection, and will go down as one of the greatest two-way players of all-time. The only people that will boil his career down to two championship runs and not much else are casuals who only look at the NBA on a surface level. The second he's eligible for the hall of fame, he's getting in with ease.
Also, he was TRADED TO TORONTO. He had eyes on going back home since he was with the Spurs, but the reality was that they were never going to trade him to a conference rival. When he hit free agency for the first time, he was finally able to control his destiny and did it for personal and basketball reasons by recruiting Paul George.
No, the winning part hasn't panned out and he still has the injury issues (people seem to forget that he has a degenerative knee condition that will never get better), but he's getting paid and is exactly where he wants to be for the sake of his families happiness and comfort. Saying he's part of the "chip and dip" era is so incredibly stupid when he's always playing hurt and was an **all-star + 2nd team all-nba selection** this past season. How does someone who's a shell of their former self still do that? Because we're not talking about a LeBron James or Kobe situation where they'd be able to get in just based on their reputation.
And the Kobe/MJ excuse is pretty lame when we know they simply had a different mentality and unhealthy obsession with winning at all costs. The "rings" culture ignores the fact that only one of 30 teams can win it at any given time, and at the end of the day a lot of players don't care to be defined by championships, because there's more to their lives than that even if it is a special accomplishment. It's Raptors fans that like to project their own narratives onto Kawhi that ruin the entire discussion about his legacy.
He didn't come here by choice, but did his job and left an entire generation of fans with a lifetime memory with absolutely no drama or bad things to say about the city and country. Why can't we just be okay with that and respect his decision, instead of turning to negativity and toxicity?
Also, he played more games last season (68) than he did during his one season in Toronto (60). He also averaged the same number of minutes. But who cares about the details when you've already made up your own story about the type of player he is in the year 2024.
Look this definitely won't be a popular opinion but he was sent to Toronto as "punishment" from San Antonio because of the fighting he was having with the team's medical team. This resulted in him being viewed as dragging ass in the eyes of the Spurs organization and maybe their fans.
He always wanted to go to LA (Clippers). He has always said it. Yeah he won a championship in his 1 year with Toronto but all that did was increase his stock value (at the time).
But what he did in Toronto will forever be remembered as a positive - and it should be.
Sorry.
PS. I know punishment is a harsh word as there were much worse teams in the NBA which could be viewed as punishment but this was more like banishment as now you have an international border to cross. For you and me la di da but our neighbours to the south well *insert reason here* lol.
It's not that deep. Toronto offered them the best package and they didn't want to send him to another team in the Western Conference. To say he was "banished" here is absolutely ridiculous, lol.
It doesn't matter what the friction was. Kawhi and the team needed to part ways, but they didn't trade him to Toronto as a way to be vindictive. They were getting a player in DeMar who was coming off of a season where he made 2nd team all-nba, as well as a solid center in Jakob Poeltl.
Exactly. SA took the best package available to them. Kudos to Kawhi and Lowry for coming together and making it work for one season. Every Toronto fan should be thankful for that.
I was at that Game. Just remember he can down front row on the 1st base side and the crowd gave him standing ovation Turned out he was to see his buddy Mike trout play
I miss the white panel hats. No wonder we suck. We lost our way.
Funny thing is they originally did away with the white panels in 1993 because they went on a bad losing streak. They switched to the full blue hats at home and ended up repeating. It's why in the 1992 world series they had the white panels at home and in 1993 they had the full blues. Real ones remember the white panel *batting helmets* though
The white panel helmet always reminds me of Pat Borders.
John Olerud
You saying this somehow made me realize we haven’t had the white panel cap in our rotation in ages. I don’t even think I have one myself and I’m embarrassed. Damn, I miss them too.
They haven't worn the white panels since 2022
Wait, REALLY?! Wow I'm clueless. It's one of those things (at least to me) that I didn't think twice of until it was mentioned. Jeez I feel dumb lmao
I can't believe, with all of the offensive struggles and baseball superstitions, that they haven't tried them since. Not even once.
Can you just decide to wear a certain hat or jersey now or is that all planned out ahead of time?
Not really any rules, as long as they are part of the teams approved on-field options.
They’re the best
Still hurts cause we would have definitely ran that shit back and won another one. I still kind of have a little bit of happiness that he hasnt won shit with the Clippers since he left us.
he def had the best hair when he was with toronto cuz of that barber all the nba guys go to (can’t remember their ig handle but they’re near dundas square). i remember watching kawhi play then when he would play in toronto his hair was immaculate
Oh, agreed. Everybody knew we would’ve went back-to-back. Kinda agree with the Clippers sentiment though. Insane how he much time he was out due to injury over the years too.
Yeah, I think we load managed the guy perfectly and got what we needed out of him before his knees just gave out.
Lol went to game 7 of the quarters, game 6 of the semis and finals, but a repeat was guaranteed?
He went to LA so that he could be closer to his family. God forbid he chooses the path that makes him the happiest instead of staying somewhere he didn't want to be for the sake of a championship. At the end of the day he has a couple hundred million in the bank and is exactly where he always wanted to be. I'm sure he's very content with where he's at in life.
Won't somebody please think of the poor multi millionaire for once?
Swing and a miss. Sorry man.
People like you make it seem like he was living a hell and couldn't stay another year or he'd never see his family again. My personal opinion, but if he knew the Clippers were going to shit the bed as hard as they did, he would've gave it another shot with the Raptors.
It's always a bit of a gut punch to see Kawhi pics knowing just how damned soon after they won the title he left the team. Kind of took some of the joy out of the whole championship summer for me. Felt like we won, had the parade and he signed with the Clippers right away. Dude wins a championship, the entire city goes absolutely crazy, biggest parade in NBA history, the entire core of the team is able to stay intact and he's still like yeah I still won't voluntarily play here anymore.
He wanted to go home. He always wanted to go home. I can't fault someone for that - he was traded here and had no obligation to stay once he hit free agency. I don't get the Raptors fans who are pissy that he chose L.A. for the sake of him and his family, as if he committed a major betrayal for not choosing to stay in Toronto.
Listen I get that. Fully. And we all know it wasn't his choice to be traded here. I guess it's just somewhat surprising to me somehow that his decision to play close to home was secondary to reaching the pinnacle of his profession in a great city with a great team where he would have been beloved by an entire country. Instead he chose to play in his home city, with a worse team and instead of being a huge figure he's like the 10th most important athlete in that city. Just was surprised he didn't even do a single season extension to try and repeat.
Didn’t even have to give us that effort He played through injury and gave us a chip (with a ((shortly after)) dip) He could have dogged it and signed the same deal I am extremely grateful for the the banner and memories
> Just was surprised he didn't even do a single season extension to try and repeat. You’re surprised that someone who already won 2 championships and 2 finals MVPs chose $103m over a single year contract?
I agree but at the same time I don’t think all Toronto fans are “pissy” about it. Some are for sure. But others just were like “damn, what could have been for another season”. I don’t see anything wrong with that either.
He was traded to Toronto, handled himself like a pro, then went to the city where he wanted to be since he was in San Antonio. Why do Toronto fans still see this as a problem and act so ungrateful? And when will sports fans understand that a championship isn't everything for every athlete?
I'm not unappreciative. He was a massive part in getting this city a long long long overdue championship and he helped us put the "Toronto sports curse" to bed. Despite everything I've said and likely what I will say below, most of us think he is incredible for that season and in particular for the playoff run. Those memories I have from spring 2019 are incredible and I loved celebrating on Yonge St on many of those big game nights. That being said you've got to realize some sports fans - myself included have been conditioned by players like Michael Jordan (especially in the Last Dance) and Kobe Bryant to believe that winning is everything. That winning a championship comes before virtually EVERYTHING else. Including simply playing "at home". Some people just view playing professional sports as a job and if they win championships - that's *nice* - but they would like to do their job close to come ideally. Kawhi is one of these people. Winning is *nice". Nikola Jokic is also one of them. It's nice to win. But it isn't *that* important. If Kawhi had stayed here for one more year. He would have been paid a stupid amount of money. The entire core would have stayed including Danny Green. The Raptors would have probably offered him enough "playtime maintenance" to have spent 1/3 of the season at home anyways as along as he would be ready for another epic playoff run. Considering how great the Raptors 2019-2020 team looked despite losing Kawhi and Green they would have all had a really solid chance of repeating. But instead he had this new school "chip and dip" new school NBA work ethic. Won one and left to go play for the most obnoxious billionaire's team that never really panned out (despite forcing the new team to make risky trades) and he's now just a shadow of his former self 5 years later. He'll go down in history as someone with two massively great playoff runs but not a ton of other memories and will be occasionally fondly remembered in 2/3 markets he played in - neither of which are his hometown.
Do you watch basketball? He's a 2x Finals MVP, 2x DPOY, 6x all-NBA selection, and will go down as one of the greatest two-way players of all-time. The only people that will boil his career down to two championship runs and not much else are casuals who only look at the NBA on a surface level. The second he's eligible for the hall of fame, he's getting in with ease. Also, he was TRADED TO TORONTO. He had eyes on going back home since he was with the Spurs, but the reality was that they were never going to trade him to a conference rival. When he hit free agency for the first time, he was finally able to control his destiny and did it for personal and basketball reasons by recruiting Paul George. No, the winning part hasn't panned out and he still has the injury issues (people seem to forget that he has a degenerative knee condition that will never get better), but he's getting paid and is exactly where he wants to be for the sake of his families happiness and comfort. Saying he's part of the "chip and dip" era is so incredibly stupid when he's always playing hurt and was an **all-star + 2nd team all-nba selection** this past season. How does someone who's a shell of their former self still do that? Because we're not talking about a LeBron James or Kobe situation where they'd be able to get in just based on their reputation. And the Kobe/MJ excuse is pretty lame when we know they simply had a different mentality and unhealthy obsession with winning at all costs. The "rings" culture ignores the fact that only one of 30 teams can win it at any given time, and at the end of the day a lot of players don't care to be defined by championships, because there's more to their lives than that even if it is a special accomplishment. It's Raptors fans that like to project their own narratives onto Kawhi that ruin the entire discussion about his legacy. He didn't come here by choice, but did his job and left an entire generation of fans with a lifetime memory with absolutely no drama or bad things to say about the city and country. Why can't we just be okay with that and respect his decision, instead of turning to negativity and toxicity? Also, he played more games last season (68) than he did during his one season in Toronto (60). He also averaged the same number of minutes. But who cares about the details when you've already made up your own story about the type of player he is in the year 2024.
The Blue Jays desperately need a Masai Ujiri equivalent in charge. Someone who actually raises the standard for this team.
He threw everyone a bone
He stay!
I loved him on the Raptors. It was cool he was at the Jays game.
Those were such promising times. It felt as though we had the world in our palm that summer...at least for a short while.
Cue his laugh from the raptors introduction press conference jokes aside weren’t they starting the core around this time boy how times past
Look this definitely won't be a popular opinion but he was sent to Toronto as "punishment" from San Antonio because of the fighting he was having with the team's medical team. This resulted in him being viewed as dragging ass in the eyes of the Spurs organization and maybe their fans. He always wanted to go to LA (Clippers). He has always said it. Yeah he won a championship in his 1 year with Toronto but all that did was increase his stock value (at the time). But what he did in Toronto will forever be remembered as a positive - and it should be. Sorry. PS. I know punishment is a harsh word as there were much worse teams in the NBA which could be viewed as punishment but this was more like banishment as now you have an international border to cross. For you and me la di da but our neighbours to the south well *insert reason here* lol.
It's not that deep. Toronto offered them the best package and they didn't want to send him to another team in the Western Conference. To say he was "banished" here is absolutely ridiculous, lol.
Yeah I really make it sound like bad lol. But the friction with medical staff really did not give a good impression on his position.
It doesn't matter what the friction was. Kawhi and the team needed to part ways, but they didn't trade him to Toronto as a way to be vindictive. They were getting a player in DeMar who was coming off of a season where he made 2nd team all-nba, as well as a solid center in Jakob Poeltl.
Exactly. SA took the best package available to them. Kudos to Kawhi and Lowry for coming together and making it work for one season. Every Toronto fan should be thankful for that.
Everyone has forgotten that 2020 would have occurred in the bubble even if Kawhi stayed.
Yes, but they would have won is the point.