Fred VanVleet Reveals Serge Ibaka's Famous Speech to Raptors When Down 0-2 to Bucks

The 2019 Toronto Raptors were a special group. The team had a tremendous amount of chemistry, and out of nowhere won the NBA Championship with the best rental in history, Kawhi Leonard.

When the team was down 0-2 against the Milwaukee Bucks, they suddenly won 4 straight games and sent the Bucks home. That accomplishment didn't happen without a little bit of motivation, some of which Serge Ibaka provided. Raptors reporter Eric Koreen revealed a famous speech Serge Ibaka gave to the Raptors when the team was down.

"It didn't mean anything at the time because Serge is always talking," Fred Vanvleet said to Koreen. "He's always got a story. He's always got some motivational speech, and he doesn't know how to finish his speeches. So he just rambles on for a while. At the time it didn't mean anything. And then once we won, we could look back and say, 'Damn, Serge did tell us when we were down 0-2'. You look back and say, 'Damn, he was a genius the whole time and nobody was listening.' It was great, man. It was great for him to share his experiences."

The funniest part of the story was the fact that Serge told his Raptor teammates about the time he was down 0-2 against Kawhi Leonard's Spurs, and came back to beat them.

"It made it funny because Kawhi was in the room, and (Serge) was telling us about when they came back to beat Kawhi and Danny," VanVleet said. "It was a good, light-hearted moment after we were feeling crappy about being down 0-2. We ended up climbing out of the hole, and a big part of that was him, obviously."

The Toronto Raptors ultimately won the championship that year, so that's why the team will always be to look back at those memories fondly. Fast forward to two years later, both Serge Ibaka and Kawhi Leonard are trying to accomplish that same goal with the Clippers. LA had an amazing chance last season, but ultimately fell short to injuries.

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