Start punching from this is slam dunk

Chapter 229 The Sad Raptor

Jiangbei had a round with the rest of the team in Toronto. Fortunately, Jiangbei arrived in Toronto relatively early. There was still some time before the evening game, so Jiangbei could have a certain amount of time to rest and relieve the fatigue of the journey. For Jiangbei, such a period of time was enough.

Toronto is located on the northwest coast of Lake Ontario in Canada. It is the largest city in Canada, the provincial capital of Ontario, the political, economic, cultural and transportation center of Canada, and a world-renowned international metropolis.

Toronto is one of the largest financial centers in the world and has a leading position in industries such as finance, business services, telecommunications, aerospace, transportation, media, art, film, television production, publishing, software, medical research, education, tourism and sports.The Toronto Stock Exchange is the seventh largest exchange in the world, headquartered in the city, where most Canadian companies are listed.And Toronto has been rated as one of the most livable cities in the world by the United Nations Habitat for many years.At the same time, Toronto is also one of the safest, wealthiest and highest living standards cities in the world.

The Toronto Raptors are one of the youngest teams in the NBA. Although the Raptors have a short history, they quickly became one of the most competitive teams in the East after joining the NBA for a few years.

Speaking of which, the Toronto Raptors still have many famous players. In 1995, the Raptors played in the NBA for the first time. Rookie Damon Stoudemire was the leader of their first season.After that, the Raptors got rookie Vince Carter from the Warriors in the draft, becoming the second-generation leader of the Raptors. Since 2003, Chris Bosh has become the core of the team. With Bosh's transfer to the Miami Heat in 2010, the Raptors began to enter a leaderless period. After the short-lived Rudy Gay era ended in 2013, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan formed a backcourt duo in the 2013-2014 season.

Then under the leadership of the backcourt double guns, the Raptors scored the best playoff record and the best regular season record in team history for two consecutive seasons, but they still failed to get their hands on the NBA's supreme trophy.

Finally in the 18-19 season, the Raptors ushered in a change. They traded DeMar DeRozan and Jacob Poeltl from the Spurs for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.Under the leadership of Leonard, the Raptors defeated the Bucks with a record of 4-2 in the Eastern Conference finals of the playoffs and advanced to the finals for the first time in team history.Then in the next season, they reached the finals again and won the championship trophy in one fell swoop. This was also the Raptors' first championship.

But I don’t know why, after winning the championship, Leonard, who also won the FMVP, chose to quit the Raptors and go to the Clippers. This also created an embarrassing record, that is, he became the first FMVP in league history to leave the team in the summer when he won the championship.

Perhaps with Leonard's heroic attitude, he never cared about such a tasteless record at all.Needless to say, this titan with both offense and defense has an absolute attitude towards this kind of thing, because he believes that as long as "the winner takes all", he can wash away all his infamy, so he naturally doesn't care about such details.

But for his old club, the Raptors, it is tantamount to being nailed to the pillar of shame in history.After all, no matter which team has such an unprecedented embarrassing record, I am afraid that it will be difficult to escape the colored glasses of outsiders.What kind of terrible environment is it that can make the FMVP of the finals, who is loved by thousands, leave the team in the season of winning the championship?

In fact, this is not difficult to understand. Here we have to mention the environment in which the team is located. Just like the Timberwolves, the source of embarrassment for the Raptors is probably their extremely bad location.Toronto, which is perennially ice and snow, makes many star players daunting, and it also forms a sharp contrast with Miami, which is sunny and bikini.

The former, no matter how good the record is, has never attracted a real big-name free agent in team history, while the latter, no matter how bad the record is, has stars defecting every now and then. In the final analysis, it is nothing more than geographical factors.

If it's just a world of ice and snow, it's fine, but Toronto is still in Canada, and it is the only team in the entire league that is isolated overseas.At first glance, the teams here can get the full support of the whole of Canada, and the market is vast.But just look at the treatment of the Grizzlies before, and you can't escape the fate of moving in the end.

What's more, although Canada and M have the same roots, due to factors such as national strength, there has always been some regional discrimination.

It is also precisely because of this poor geographical environment that it directly led to the tragic team history of the Toronto Raptors.In the short history of this team, it is filled with the decision of the top stars of all generations to leave the team.

Back then, Carter had the reputation of "half man, half god" and had high hopes from the entire league.As for the Raptors where he is, not only the Toronto people support him, but even the whole of Canada regards Carter as his own, and the treatment is not bad.But even so, the Raptors still couldn't keep Carter's heart. The "Jordan successor" who was at the peak of the year, insisted on leaving even if he used the extreme method of betraying the team's tactics.

Admittedly, as a professional player who still has a contract, Carter's move to sell the team's tactics is not worth advocating anyway.What makes people feel interesting is that throughout Carter's career, this is probably the only time he has gone too far involving professional ethics, but it has increasingly highlighted the unpopularity of the Raptors.

After Carter, it was Bosh's turn to carry the flag.But this "Dragon King", who was trained by the team with all his strength, may have already given up his mind when his rookie contract expired.Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the "coincidence" that his contract renewals with James, Wade and other players of the same class expire at the same time.

But even if they had an early insight into Bosh's intention to leave, the Raptors' management really had no choice but to watch Bosh leave for Miami, which has a superior geographical environment.

I would rather go to Miami where the sun and bikinis are, and refuse to stay in Toronto where the world is icy and snowy.It is conceivable how big the influence of geography is.Although this is not the only reason why Bosh abandoned Toronto and chose Miami, it is definitely the key reason-after all, Bosh decided to join Miami, and it was still long before James made his choice.

Fortunately, it was James who attracted the wind and attracted most of the firepower. This made people forget about the reasons for Bosh's departure, and this allowed the Raptors to escape a cynicism that should have been overwhelming.

(End of this chapter)