Toronto Raptors succeeded the unexpected and they became the first ever non USA team to win the NBA Title. Their first ever NBA title after wining the series against the FGolden State Warrior (of teh many and serious injuries) with 4-2

Before the first NBA team outside the U.S. ever played a game, the new franchise in Toronto needed a name. The owners asked the entire nation of Canada for ideas. Some were good. Some were bad. Some were terrible. And one was the Raptors. It was 1994. “Jurassic Park” was big. That was reason enough for this basketball team to be named after dinosaurs. The Raptors beat the Golden State Warriors, 114-110, in Game 6 of the Finals on Thursday to win the series, 4-2, with a commanding performance on the road in Oracle Arena’s last game to dethrone the league’s reigning dynasty and win the Raptors’ first title.

To hear “Toronto Raptors” and “NBA champions” in the same breath would’ve sounded like a hallucination to most fans for most of the franchise’s existence. This is the same team that once played in purple dinosaur uniforms. They couldn’t keep star players and couldn’t attract free agents. Toronto was too cold, too Canadian, too much unlike any other team in the league to compete at this level. There is no one in the NBA like Kawhi Leonard. He is quieter than every other player. He is also better. And he just put together one of the greatest playoff runs in the history of the league.

But it wasn’t just him in a Game 6 that was both a classic and a fittingly insane send-off to this arena. Kyle Lowry scored 26 points. Pascal Siakam, who was studying to be a Catholic priest in Cameroon less than a decade ago, also scored 26 points. Fred VanVleet, an undrafted guard who is very generously listed at 6 feet tall, had 22 points and hit some of the biggest shots in the game.

Pushing back against the Golden State Warriors, who were the reigning NBA champions for two consecutive years, the competition underdogs halted the Californian team’s dreams of securing a “three-peat”. It was a night of firsts at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California — as the only Canadian team in the NBA, the Raptors’ win on Thursday therefore marked the first time Canada had nabbed the basketball title.

The team’s Jeremy Lin, known for the “Linsanity” trend during his tenure at the New York Knicks, also became the first Asian American to win the NBA.   

Pushing back against the Golden State Warriors, who were the reigning NBA champions for two consecutive years, the competition underdogs halted the Californian team’s dreams of securing a “three-peat”.

It was a night of firsts at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California — as the only Canadian team in the NBA, the Raptors’ win on Thursday therefore marked the first time Canada had nabbed the basketball title.

The team’s Jeremy Lin, known for the “Linsanity” trend during his tenure at the New York Knicks, also became the first Asian American to win the NBA.

Fans back in Toronto were pictured partying and cheering in the streets after the emotional win.

Flares and fireworks were set off as people hoisted themselves onto cars and buses amid the celebrations.