I grew up in a family that has evolved from rooting for the Houston Rockets, to the Miami Heat, eventually leading to half of the family loving Lebron James. This left me, who literally couldn’t care less. When the 2019 National Basketball Association Championships rolled around is when basketball actually got interesting. 

Even though I didn’t care about what was happening in the NBA world, I knew one big thing. The Golden State Warriors were set up to win this year. The entire country was turned on the Toronto Raptors. But when I saw highlights of the final games between the Raptors and the Milwaukee Bucks, I knew that the Raptors would win the championship. When I told my brother I thought the Raptors would win, he told me that the Raptors would be lucky to even win one game. 

From then on, I watched the NBA finals like a hawk constantly cheering for the Raptors, even though I didn’t understand most of the things happening. While everyone was on the edge of their seat, there was still this air of believing that the Warriors would win easily, that they didn’t even have to try. When the Raptors won the first game, everyone was shocked. It was obvious that even though the Warriors had the big shots, without Kevin Durant, they would struggle. This was then taken to the Raptor’s advantage. 

Game two, the Warriors won in Toronto. Free Doritos Locos Taco from Taco Bell! While this seemed like a reassurance for everyone in the country, the Warriors only won by five points. To me, it seemed like the Warriors were struggling which is something that I hadn’t seen before. The Warriors had lost two players on their team due to injuries, which would come into play in game three. 

June 5, 2019, the day of the third game in the NBA finals, and the first game in San Francisco. The Warriors lost by 14. More free tacos! This was the first time that I could really talk about basketball with my friends and at the end of this game was when everyone started rooting for Raptors. Now, the Warriors weren’t in a perfect light. They were struggling in this championship more than they had in the past years against a team that was supposed to be considerably worse. 

In the NBA championship, the champions are the ones who are the first to win four games. If you haven’t kept up, at this point, Toronto was winning three to one. The fifth game was devastating. I watched the entire thing knowing the Raptors were going to lose this one, and honestly, the Warriors deserved this win. They played much better than the Raptors did and even though they only won by one, it was enough to put some doubt into me for the first time in the series. 

Game six, the game that no one thought would even have to occur. The most interesting part of this game to me wasn’t the final result but rather when Stephen Curry missed a three-point shot towards the end. At that moment it seemed like he had given up, he knew he had tried his best but it just didn’t work out. In the end, Toronto won 114-110 in San Francisco. I was ecstatic. The Warriors were obviously not happy with the outcome, but they accepted it gracefully. 

Do I think I am going to start purchasing NBA merchandise and start watching the regular season? Honestly, probably not. However, I might be interested in some cool championship games. All in all, my life didn’t drastically change but I learned to appreciate the sport and understand more about why people love it so much, which is equally important.