Raptors Reflect on Serge Ibaka's Iconic Speech During the 2019 Eastern Conference

Down 0-2 to the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2019 Eastern Conference semifinals, the Toronto Raptors were facing NBA extinction. This wasn’t anything new for the Raptors. They’d fallen behind 0-2 in each of their last four trips to the playoffs, usually en route to a sweep and usually at the hands of LeBron James. To that point, only 26 teams in NBA history had overcome a 0-2 deficit and no team had ever climbed out of 0-3. One more loss and the Raptors were done.

Sometimes there are moments in life that feel totally meaningless when they happen only to become turning points after the fact.

When then-Raptors forward Serge Ibaka asked to speak to the team for a moment prior to Game 3 of that Bucks series it wasn’t anything unusual. He was a non-stop talker.

“He’s always got a story,” said Fred VanVleet. “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.”

This time was no different. Ibaka — who makes his return to Toronto on Friday night with the Los Angeles Clippers — told the story about his 2014 Oklahoma City Thunder who fell behind 0-2 to the San Antonio Spurs only to win four straight and clinch a spot in the NBA Finals. It wasn’t motivational in the moment, VanVleet said Thursday, it was comical.

“Kawhi [Leonard] was in the room and he was telling us about when they came back to beat Kawhi and Danny [Green],” VanVleet laughed. “It was a good, light-hearted moment after we were feeling crappy.”

Had the Raptors returned home to Toronto and lost the next two games, the speech would have meant nothing. It would have been like Herb Brooks telling his 1980 United States Men’s Olympic hockey team that they could hand with the Soviets only for the Russians to trounce them on the ice. Do you believe in miracles? Nope.

Isn’t that how most underdog stories end?

“Then once we won, we could look back and say… ‘damn, he was a genius the whole time and nobody was listening,’” VanVleet joked.

“It was a hell of a moment,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse added. “It's a hell of a leadership moment and a hell of a moment for our team.”

But for as much as Ibaka did off the court for that team, it was his impact on the court that turned the Raptors from a very good team into the league’s best. Heck, he was 15-point per game big who came off the bench for Toronto.

“I throw him in the list of special players that we had,” Nurse said. “When Serge got going and was in his A-game element, man, we hardly ever lost. He would make shots, block shots, run hard, he became a really good leader in the locker room, he was a little bit fanatical about game prep, going over the film, taking it out to the floor, making sure all the players knew their assignments.”

In the two years since Ibaka departed for Los Angeles, the Raptors are yet to replace his impact. Their failed attempt to re-sign him and Marc Gasol forced Toronto to go dumpster diving for Aron Baynes and Alex Len. It didn’t work.

“We definitely miss him,” VanVleet said. “He was a pleasure to play with and was a great teammate and friend, a big, big part of what we did here.”

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