Raptors championship legacy still lives on, but fading after Gasol's retirement

HOUSTON — The clock never stops in professional sports. Time marches forward, heartlessly. The very best can keep it at bay for a decade, sometimes more.

But eventually, it’s time to call time. It was Marc Gasol’s turn on Wednesday as the Spanish national team star, 13-year NBA veteran and stabilizing force for a season-and-a-half in Toronto, where he was the critical finishing piece that helped the Raptors win the 2019 NBA title, announced his retirement.

Adding the former defensive player of the year and a two-time all-NBA selection at the trade deadline five years ago proved transformational.

“The main things he brought us, I thought, was a sense of who we thought we could become,” former Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said a few years ago about the big centre who played his final NBA season with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020-21 before closing out his 20-year career playing in Spain for Basquet Girona, the club he founded and owns. “I think after we had him for a few games we were like, ‘Woah. This guy is good, he’s smart, he can pass.’ Everybody was like, ‘Man, we’re better and we can become really good.’ That’s a big thing to contribute to a team.”

Gasol announced his decision with a post on social media, with the theme, "What’s next?"

"What happened?" and "Where did the time go?" are questions it’s hard to avoid around the Raptors of late.

Gasol was the first member of the Raptors championship team to formally retire, but the announcements could begin coming in rapid order. Serge Ibaka is no longer in the NBA and is playing in Germany. For how much longer, who knows? Danny Green was waived by the Philadelphia 76ers and has yet to resurface.

Just the other day, Kyle Lowry, who will always be most closely associated with the Raptors' greatest era, was traded rather unceremoniously by the Miami Heat. In his 18^th season and in the last year of his contract while six weeks shy of his 38^th birthday, friends around wondered if this could suddenly be the end of the road for the six-time all-star and the Raptors' franchise leader in assists, steals, three-pointers made and playoff games won.

He hasn’t left Miami as he waits for the rebuilding Hornets to try to find a team with playoff or championship aspirations that has the ability to match Lowry’s $29-million salary and willing to surrender a positive asset of some sort — a draft pick of some kind, or maybe a young player. Failing that — and there isn’t a lot of optimism on that front — the likelihood is that Lowry will be bought out of the end of his contract, making him free to sign with a team on veteran minimum contract.

Given he averaged nearly 11 points off the game and shot 42.3 per cent from three playing 29 minutes a game off the bench for the Heat in the NBA Finals last June, it’s hard to imagine some team won’t try to bring him on board.

But as those who know him best allow, it will be important for Lowry to convince any prospective teams that he’ll gladly accept whatever role is offered. Lowry’s stubbornness is his trademark, and his unrelenting will is a big reason he’ll get consideration as a Hall of Fame candidate when he does retire, but playing out his last chapter as a veteran player comfortable on the margins will take an adjustment.

There is less room for "Kyle being Kyle" moments as the 10^th man on a team trying win a playoff round or two than as the straw that stirs the drink on one of the best rosters in the NBA, as was Lowry’s role for so many years in Toronto. He couldn’t quite completely adapt to his change of status in Miami, and the Heat were happy to try out a different flavour after two-plus seasons.

But whether Lowry does adjust and sticks it out as a wise holdhead playing for the veteran minimum — something he didn’t want to do when we spoke about it earlier this season — or is able to find a meaningful role and one more contract after this season, it’s pretty clear that after a spectacular run for an unheralded late first-round pick, Lowry’s NBA days are numbered.

The younger members of the Raptors championship core are still going strong, but they’re not kids anymore. Norm Powell and Kawhi Leonard — 30 and 32 respectively — are in a good position to add another championship ring to their collections as members of the surging Los Angeles Clippers.

Fred VanVleet, who turns 30 next month, is earning rave reviews as a stabilizing veteran presence with the up-and-coming Houston Rockets.

Pascal Siakam, who turns 30 in April, was sought out by the Indiana Pacers in a recent trade to be a difference-making piece on a young Indiana Pacers team that has ambitions of doing things in the Eastern Conference.

So, the Raptors' championship legacy lives on. But it moved just a little further into the rearview with the news of Gasol’s retirement. The big Spaniard will also be most closely identified with the Memphis Grizzlies, where he thrived for 10 seasons before the Raptors identified him as the single piece they needed to have to unlock their ultimate potential, offensively and defensively. It was a bold move for Raptors president Masai Ujiri, but it paid off hugely.

Gasol’s vast basketball IQ rounded out a team that was full of tough competitors who could adjust game plans in real-time, the perfect expression for the creativity of Nurse. It was the signature of that entire team, a group that made up for what they may have lacked in athleticism or flash with brains, toughness and spirit.

It was a beautiful, special thing to see while it lasted, and as record numbers of Canadian basketball fans and championship parade-goers proved, people couldn’t get enough of it.

That hot day in June will be Gasol’s heritage moment: all seven feet and nearly 300 pounds of him, fueled by an endless supply of champagne, pumping the crowd up like a manic DJ and the world’s biggest outdoor rave.

"Marc has a special place in the hearts and memories of Toronto and of Canada,” Ujiri said in a statement released by the team. “He’s a champion on the court, where his unbelievable vision and masterful defence were key parts of our run to the 2019 title. He’s a champion in life too, with important contributions to communities around the world through the Gasol Foundation. He’s a three-time All-Star, first team All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year, two-time Olympic silver medalist and, I believe, undisputed winner of best performance in the history of championship parades.”

Gasol’s game was old before he ever was — all cunning and old-man strength. But, finally, after 20 years as a professional, it was time to retire the competitive flame that always burned brightly.

He is the first of the Raptors special era to move on to "What’s next?" but not the last. We were lucky to have them all in one place at their best, achieving great things.