Bummer.

So, I left out one detail in my last post about Saturday.  Craig and I were awake before the kids on Saturday morning, and when I came out from the shower and Craig was rousing himself by checking his phone, he happened to see that both Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green of the Raptors had signed free agent deals with other teams--Kawhi to the LA Clippers, and Danny to the LA Lakers.

Well...shoot.

See, we knew this was a possibility.  Even during the season everyone knew that Kawhi wanted to play in Los Angeles.  That's where he's from and that's where his extended family is.  He was not happy about ending up in Toronto last summer, but thank goodness he set that aside and played his heart out for the team, which in the end resulted in a championship.  It was an amazing season, and I'm sure every single Raptors fan was hoping deep down that the big win cemented something in Kawhi that would make him want to stay, be it camaraderie, comfort with the team chemistry, or even just the opportunity to repeat next year.  Jacob would say to us at least once a day, "I really hope Kawhi signs with Toronto," and every time, I'd respond, "Me too," but then give him a gentle warning that the lure of going closer to home and family is generally so much bigger than even a giant paycheck.  I knew that the delay in his decision and the meetings with all three teams (Toronto and both LA teams) probably wasn't great news.  Almost every other big free agent had signed by then.  Except Danny Green, of course, but rumor was that he was waiting for Kawhi to make a decision because they were good friends--they were traded to Toronto together--and probably wanted to stick together if possible.  In the end, they ended up in the same city but on different teams.  Kawhi could have been a Laker, most likely, but who knows whether it was their glut of superstars, their giant payroll, or his lack of potential input into their team that made the decision.  Ultimately, his campaigning to get Paul George, a player from an entirely different team, to his team was the deal breaker, and since Toronto would have completely mortgaged their future with the rumored trade, it just couldn't happen.  The Clippers pulled it off, and that was it.

But, of course, when we got that news on Saturday, my heart completely sunk.  Not just because we had really loved watching this team with all of these players, but because I knew Jacob would be devastated and it would probably derail our entire day.  He had really seemed to get in the right mindset for the tournament, finally.  Instead of complaining about it and just wanting to be done, we were getting a few more mentions of how he wanted to score, which I took as a good sign.  But I knew that once he heard that news, his brain would do a huge 180 and he would probably be firmly focused on basketball all day, instead of lacrosse.  Kawhi was essentially the key to the championship, and arguably the best player to ever wear a Raptors' jersey, and Danny was his favorite player, to the point he just ordered sneakers he designed.  Ugh.  It was definitely a helpless feeling.

I briefly considered stealing his phone, or at least "misplacing" it for a while, and ideally we would have at least found a way to distract him enough that he wouldn't have looked at it that morning.  But sure enough, as we were getting ready for breakfast he happened to grab it, and he saw the news.  He actually took it better initially than I expected, but he talked about it non-stop as we went to breakfast and then got super testy when we were down at breakfast trying to grab our food amidst the usual hotel breakfast chaos.  I know food can always be a little stressful for him, but I had a feeling the signings were at the root of the anger.

Fortunately, the tournament went well, he scored his goal, and he officially finished up his lacrosse career, so whatever was on his mind was not enough to completely throw him off his game.  But the majority of the ride home was like Groundhog Day, with the same conversation happening over and over again.  We rehashed every angle of it, from why Kawhi did it, to why Danny did what he did, to what that might mean for all teams involved this year, to him still thinking the Raptors can win it again, and on and on and on.  I'd like to say it's cooled off in the days since, but it's still a rather popular topic of conversation.

The thing is, Jacob can't for the life of him figure out how Kawhi could have turned down so much money.  Danny did get a great deal, probably far more than the Raptors could have offered him, so he gets that.  But no matter how many times I try to explain to him how important it was for him to be near his family, he just doesn't get it.  Based on what we heard, Kawhi essentially gave up an extra $100 million to sign with the Clippers.  He wanted to be near his home and family so much that he gave up $100 MILLION to do it.  That's a LOT of money, no doubt.  But one thing I tried to explain to Jacob is that once you make more money than you know what to do with, a million (or a hundred) here and there probably doesn't make that big of a difference.  Unless you know you need that money, other stuff is going to end up outweighing what is essentially a surplus.  And for Kawhi, his priority was to have his family close by, and that meant more.  Of course, Jacob's like, "He could just move his family to Toronto!"  Then I try to explain to him that someone like, say, Kawhi's mom is happy in California, all her friends are there, she's comfortable with her surroundings, and probably doesn't want to reinvent her life in a different city, let alone a different country.  Canada may be mostly like us in many ways, but ultimately it is a different country with different government, stores, brands, etc.  So much would feel foreign, and I'm sure he didn't want that for his family if he could help it.  I even tried to relate it to my parents, who strongly considered moving to Rochester a few years back.  They even looked at a couple houses.  But in the end, I think the idea of leaving their friends, family, and familiar surroundings was too much for them.  Yes, being close would have been great for all of us for different reasons, but ultimately we're pretty busy and our time together would still be limited.  So is that 10% of the time where we can be together worth giving up their daily general comfort for the other 90%?  Probably not.  And I think that's a scenario that Kawhi didn't want for his family, either.  Sure, he could have flown them out there frequently, but in the end it probably just made more sense to go home.  He's one of the best players in the league and can pretty much dictate his own career at this point, so why not take advantage of it while he can? 

Jacob's inability to understand the family aspect of it makes me feel like a failure as a mom, to be honest, because I appear to have raised a kid who not only values money above all else but can't fathom why being near family (and thinking of their needs) would be so important.  I'm hoping it's just a kid thing, but I'm not so sure.  Guessing I won't be getting a lot of visits if he achieves his dream of playing in the NBA, though!  Sigh.  At this point he's thinking Kawhi might second-guess himself if these smaller earthquakes turn into a big one, or that maybe someday he'd come back to Toronto, but I'm very doubtful on both counts.  The good news is that he's confident the team is still very strong and that they'll find ways to work around this.  To be fair, they were pretty good even when Kawhi didn't play.  Championship good?  Well, probably not quite, but good.  So hopefully they can fill in some holes, develop their young talent, and make another great run next year.  They've got the championship experience in their back pocket, at least, and sometimes that's half the battle.

On a side note, as a native Buffalonian, I suppose this turn of events feels a bit par for the course.  I mean, in the back of my mind, particularly recently, I've figured that if Buffalo finally won a championship, there would probably be something that would mar it.  Maybe an incident during the parade, or an untimely player death, or something that would just play into the haters saying, "See, they never deserved it in the first place," or "That's why Buffalo just isn't supposed to win."  It's a horrible thought, I know.  But when it's been kept from you for so long, you begin to wonder if there's a bigger picture surrounding why.  So, between the shooting at the parade and now the departure of two huge puzzle pieces, I find myself thinking, "Sure, we finally support a team that wins, and the honeymoon is so short-lived.  We can't even get to the season opener without losing hope that there could be a repeat."  No playoff MVP has ever changed teams so quickly, and of course it has to be ours.  It's really just a bummer, you know?

In the meantime, Jacob is still very eager for the season to start and it'll be a long 3-1/2 months until then as he analyzes and re-analyzes all that has happened in the past few months.  I'll be brushing up on my general basketball knowledge (gotta bond with him somehow), and our entire family will be geared up in the fall.  I'm sure we'll always wonder what could have been, but like I've said about championships in the past, once you win one, no one can ever take that from you.  So even if it never happens again, we'll always know what it felt like for the Raptors to become champs, and always be grateful for that one amazing season where Kawhi was in the middle of it all.  What a great ride it was.