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Ranking Kawhi Leonard's game winner in Toronto sports lore
It bounced four times.
For nearly two full seconds, Kawhi Leonard’s buzzer-beating Game 7 winner hung in the air above the rim, seemingly holding the fate of the entire Toronto Raptors franchise in the balance while deciding whether to fall through the net or not.
Four bounces. Followed by pandemonium.
The miracle shot sent the Raptors to the Eastern Conference Final and fans into hysterics, immediately vaulting to the top of the greatest moments in franchise history and entering the argument as one of the greatest sports moments in the history of all Toronto sports.
Where exactly does “The Shot” fall in the pantheon of great Toronto sports moments?
It’s a great question, and one that I am assigning myself the responsibility to answer. Let’s relieve some of the city’s greatest single moments and see if we can find a spot for Kawhi’s four-bounce game-winner.
The Great Moments
The Play - The Vince Reverse Windmill
The Situation - 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest
The It Factor - The sheer force of Vince Carter’s first dunk in the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest announced the arrival of the Toronto Raptors to the NBA radar. Yes, they had officially been a franchise for four seasons by this point, but Carter’s emphatic dunk was the first time the entire basketball world had their eyes fixed on a player in a Raptors jersey performing at the highest level among the game’s elite. Carter won the contest in a walk and the Raptors went on to make the playoffs for the first time.
Yes, the previous high-water mark for singular franchise moment was in a skills exhibition. Kawhi’s shot mattered.
The Play - The Gilmour Wraparound
The Situation - 1993 Norris Division Finals, Game 1
The It Factor - This very same spot could be reserved for the Nikolai Borschevsky OT winner to beat the Red Wings in the first round during this same run, but the nod goes to Gilmour for pure individual effort. He has the puck alone behind the net for a full 10-seconds, moving Curtis Joseph across the crease before curling back and stuffing the game-winner home in double OT, sending Maple Leaf Gardens into an absolute frenzy.
The entire 1993 Toronto Maple Leafs playoff run was bananas. All three of their series went to seven games, and Gilmour’s “solo job” heroics earned him instant legend status in the city as the standard of a playoff hockey performer.
The Play - The Wild Card Walkoff
The Situation - 2016 American League Wild Card Game
The It Factor - A one-game play-in to decide which team moves on to the ALDS found itself in the 11th inning. The visiting Baltimore Orioles had an unhittable closer in Zach Britton in the bullpen, only to watch manager Buck Showalter bring in five other pitchers in the seventh inning or later to try to keep the Blue Jays off the board. By the bottom of the 11th, Ubaldo Jimenez was the on the mound, letting two runners reach base before facing Edwin Encarnacion.
Middle-middle fastball, parrot out, and it’s pandemonium in the Rogers Centre. The Blue Jays head to the ALDS.
The Play - Steve Thomas buries the Senators
The Situation - Game 5, 2000 Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals
The It Factor - If you weren’t there, it is impossible to describe the relationship between the early-00’s Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators. No matter what the Sens did in the regular season, the Maple Leafs would find a way to get it done in the playoffs in the most dramatic and heartbreaking way possible.
Stumpy Thomas’ Game 5 goal is the living personification of this: The play begins behind the Leafs net, with goaltender Curtis Joseph playing a no-look pass (??) up the boards, directly to a Senators forward. The puck is centred and a great chance goes wide, and a desperate clearing attempt bounces past a helpless defenceman caught halfway in a pinch. Sergei Berezin passes — this never happens — on a two-on-one, and Thomas just puts enough on the redirection to beat Tom Barrasso.
Honourable mention to “Sundin... PING”
The Play - Alomar off Eckersley
The Situation - 1992 ALCS, Game 4
The It Factor - The 1992 Blue Jays had a lot to prove. The franchise was in the playoffs for the third time, and had lost to the Minnesota Twins the year prior in the ALCS. Up 2-1 in the series, they trailed 6-1 to the Oakland Athletics as late as the 8th inning in Game 4. A small rally brought them within a pair heading into the 9th, but the A’s had a weapon ready. Dennis Eckersely, winner of both the American League MVP and Cy Young Award that season, needed just three outs to tie the series.
Instead, with a runner on third, Roberto Alomar jumped on Eckersley’s 2-2 pitch and hit it into the right field stands, opening the door for an 11th inning comeback win and ending the narrative that the Blue Jays were going to come up short once again. They would go on to beat the A’s in six games before going on to win their first World Series. None of it happens without Alomar’s huge home run.
The Play - Altidore clinches it for TFC
The Situation - 2017 MLS Cup Final
The It Factor - A year after losing to the Seattle Sounders in penalties in the MLS Cup Final, Toronto FC get their revenge. All the great pieces of the team come in to play on the goal, with Victor Vazquez passing to Giovinco, who sends in Jozy Altidore on a run towards the goal with a perfectly weighted through ball. Altidore touches it once to get room, then slots it into the net in front of the supporter’s section at BMO Field.
Skill, speed, power, revenge. TFC would add another in the closing minutes to seal the game and capture their first MLS Cup trophy, and do so at home in front of a rabid fanbase.
Legendary Status
With all due respect to the plays above, which you can rank in whatever order you please, three moments stand head and shoulders above the rest. You can claim recency bias if you want, but I don’t think it can be debated that Kawhi’s shot belongs in this echelon. It is, at worst, third best.
The Play - The Bat Flip
The Situation - 2015 ALDS Game 5
The It Factor - If the events leading up to The Bat Flip weren’t recorded and available to rewatch as many times as needed, it would be impossible to believe as a standalone event. Saying “you’ll never see anything like that again” falls well short of the reality of what happened.
In a 2-2 tie with two out in the top half of the inning, Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin catches a pitch and prepares to throw it back to the pitcher. This happens roughly 250 times per game and thousands of times per season. This time, however, Martin throws the ball directly off the bat of Texas Rangers hitter Shin-Soo Choo and watches as it dribbles into the infield. Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor never hesitates, scampering home from third to take the lead. Play is interrupted for several minutes as boos and beer rain down from the stands and the teams try to figure out what the hell just happened. It’s one of the most unbelievable runs to ever score in a playoff game, and would unquestionably be the last image of the series had it not been only the beginning of the story.
The moment the ball left Martin’s hand, the Baseball Gods took over.
In the bottom half of the inning, who else but Martin leads off with a routine ground ball to short. Elvis Andrus steps in to field it, but never picks it up. An eerie E-6, getting Martin on base.
The next batter, Kevin Pillar, hits a grounder to 1st. Mitch Moreland picks it up and throws to Andrus at 2nd to get Martin (who else) on a force play. Except Moreland’s throw bounces, E-3, two on and nobody out.
Third up is Ryan Goins, who lays down a bunt. Adrian Beltre charges, turns, and throws to third to get the lead runner. Except Beltre throws it to Andrus, who has been cursed beyond belief. He drops the ball, E-6. Three straight errors.
The Rangers get a force out at home, and then Josh Donaldson hits a blooper that someone finds a way to fall after Odor — of all people — mistimes a jump on a makable play. That sets the stage for two-on, one-out, and Jose Bautista at the plate.
The 1-1 from Dyson...
Unreal. Impossible. Iconic. The Bat Flip.
The Blue Jays win the series only to come up short in the ALCS, but fans get a moment that will last for the rest of their lives. A different team wins the World Series every year, but no team in history has ever ridden any roller coaster quite like that fated seventh inning.
The Play - The Kawhi Shot
The Situation - Game 7, 2019 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals
The It Factor - Prior to the game there was no shortage of people willing to tell you what was on the line in Game 7 for the Raptors. There’s no hyperbole in the statement that the fate of the franchise could be at stake if a disappointing performance was turned in. Kawhi’s free agency, that has quietly lingered in the background of the whole season, could immediately become the focus by the time the final buzzer went. Everything Masai Ujiri built — Kyle Lowry’s legacy, the reputation of the franchise in the league-wide scope — pretty much everything could have been said to be on the line in a do-or-die game.
Up four with just over a minute to go, Raptors fans felt the all-too-familar pangs of pain as they watched the lead evaporate, capped with Leonard missing a free throw with 10 seconds left, only to watch Jimmy Butler scamper the length of the court to lay in a game-typing bucket with 4.2 seconds on the clock.
Tied at 90, Marc Gasol inbounded to Leonard, who drove to right, past Ben Simmons and into the path of seven-footer Joel Embiid, who reached as high as he possibly could to disrupt the shot as Leonard let it go with 00.5 seconds on the clock.
The first bounce. The ball clangs off the near side of the rim, straight up into the air, matching the height of the backboard and adding just a hint of top spin.
Second bounce. Off the front rim again, this time with the added spin sending it across the rim. Leonard crouches down into a squat, and everyone in the building holds their breath.
Third bounce. Straight up in the air again, this time off the far rim with far less force, with inertia slowing to a softer, kinder roll.
Fourth bounce. Just a kiss off the inside of the rim. A soft, perfect roll. Into the net. It took 1.9 seconds between hitting the front rim and falling through. The entire buzzer had come and gone. The whole world stopped on a dime to watch.
Raptors win. Everyone mobs Kawhi. Raptors win. They aren’t chokers. The Playoff Raptors narrative is dead. It’s the biggest shot in franchise history. Compare it to the Vince Carter miss, compare it to Michael Jordan on Craig Ehlo. For a moment, nothing else matters. It doesn’t matter if Kawhi stays or not, it doesn’t matter what else happens. It was the greatest moment in Toronto Raptors history, and Kawhi Leonard is front and centre. If they go on to make an even deeper run, the lore of this shot will only grow larger.
The Play - Touch ‘Em All, Joe
The Situation - 1993 World Series, Game 6
The It Factor - It’s a walk-off home run to win the World Series.
This is as big as big moments get. It can’t be surpassed, only equalled.
Some things don’t need to be explained, just enjoyed. “Touch ‘em all, Joe. You’ll never hit a bigger home run in your life.” Neither will anyone else, for that matter.
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