• About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • T&C
Sunday, May 22, 2022
  • Home
  • Basketball
  • Football
  • Hockey
  • NCAA
  • Baseball
  • Tennis
No Result
View All Result
Lead In Sports
  • Home
  • Basketball
  • Football
  • Hockey
  • NCAA
  • Baseball
  • Tennis
No Result
View All Result
Lead In Sports
No Result
View All Result
Home Basketball

How Raptors’ Team Leadership Won an NBA Title

The Op Ed by The Op Ed
April 2, 2021
in Basketball
0 0
0
basketball, spalding, ball

Photo by tookapic on Pixabay

Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Pinterest

It all starts at the top. Some have said that there are no such things as bad teams. There are only bad leaders. That may be true. The 2018-19 Toronto Raptors had some outstanding leadership and it came from the very top.

After the 2017-18 season, Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri made an extremely difficult decision. Toronto had made the playoffs five seasons in a row under head coach Dwane Casey. The Raptors were coming off a second consecutive loss to Cleveland in the Eastern Conference semifinals. In each case, Toronto was swept by the Cavaliers 4-0.

Casey had even won the NBA’s Coach of the Year in 2018, but for Ujiri the time had come to make a change. The Toronto GM made the difficult decision to fire Casey and look for a new head coach. The Raptors found their new guy on the team’s current coaching staff – Nick Nurse. Nurse led the Raptors back to the postseason in 2019-20 where the team lost to Boston 4-3 in the conference semifinals. Nurse was awarded the NBA Coach of the Year in 2020.

Leadership Lesson: Leaders must make difficult – and often unpopular – decisions in an effort to make the team go from good to great.

The Raptors had a quality roster and in the offseason brought in one of the game’s best players in Kawhi Leonard. Leonard is a phenomenal two-way player and with him, Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, and Kyle Lowry, the Raptors had a starting five that was as good as any in the league.

The team also had solid role players in Serge Ibaka, Danny Green, and Norm Powell. Each of these players played their role to perfection and often became the focal point of either the team’s offense or defense on a given night.

            The great leaders know exactly how to motivate and empower a team to achieve

            individual success that translates eventually into team success.

Toronto won Games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals at Golden State. The Raptors took a 3-1 back home to Toronto for Game 5. The team understood that they hadn’t won anything just yet. Nurse helped them not look too far ahead. Toronto lost Game 5 to a Warriors team that was playing in its fifth straight NBA Finals.

The series went back to Oakland for Game 6 where the Raptors would win the game and, along with it, the franchise’s first NBA title. With the victory came a great lesson in leadership.

            Leaders recognize the power of remaining composed when under stress.

            Avoid the temptation to get too high after a win and too low after a loss.

basketball, sport, ball
Photo by tortugadatacorp on Pixabay
Tags: Raptors leaders
The Op Ed

The Op Ed

Next Post
cartoon, painting, fantasy

Kobe Bryant: Legend and Leader

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
pro basketball team, huddle, basketball players

Michael Jordan – winning sick

April 2, 2021

Leadership and humility

February 26, 2021
pro basketball team, huddle, basketball players

The Phil Jackson School of Leadership

April 2, 2021
cartoon, painting, fantasy

Kobe Bryant: Legend and Leader

April 2, 2021
pro basketball team, huddle, basketball players

Leadership in Team Sports at the Highest Level

6
hockey team, hockey game, ice skating rink

Leading by example

4
hockey, slavia, skater

Motivation – key leadership element

3

Leadership and humility

2
pro basketball team, huddle, basketball players

The Phil Jackson School of Leadership

April 2, 2021
pro basketball team, huddle, basketball players

Michael Jordan – winning sick

April 2, 2021
cartoon, painting, fantasy

Kobe Bryant: Legend and Leader

April 2, 2021
basketball, spalding, ball

How Raptors’ Team Leadership Won an NBA Title

April 2, 2021

Recommended

pro basketball team, huddle, basketball players

The Phil Jackson School of Leadership

April 2, 2021
pro basketball team, huddle, basketball players

Michael Jordan – winning sick

April 2, 2021
cartoon, painting, fantasy

Kobe Bryant: Legend and Leader

April 2, 2021
basketball, spalding, ball

How Raptors’ Team Leadership Won an NBA Title

April 2, 2021

About Us

We bring you the best Premium WordPress Themes that perfect for news, magazine, personal blog, etc. Check our landing page for details.

Read more

Categories

  • Baseball
  • Basketball
  • Football
  • Hockey
  • NCAA
  • Tennis
  • Uncategorized

Tags

99 Champions League football GOATS Hockey Leadership MMA motivation MotoGP 2017 NCAA Premier League QB Raptors leaders Super Bowl Tennis Champion The great one The Presidents Cup UFC US Sports Valentino Rossi winning Winning by believing Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Recent News

pro basketball team, huddle, basketball players

The Phil Jackson School of Leadership

April 2, 2021
pro basketball team, huddle, basketball players

Michael Jordan – winning sick

April 2, 2021

© 2021 Lead In Sports. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Basketball
  • Football
  • Hockey
  • NCAA
  • Baseball
  • Tennis

© 2021 Lead In Sports. All rights reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In