After a team wins the NBA championship, the club gets its own unique Larry O’Brien Trophy to keep, complete with a case and a key.Between touring it around Toronto during their NBA Championship parade last June, and shining it up for Tuesday’s opening-night ring ceremony, the Raptors have shown the Larry O’Brien Trophy a good time all over the world.
He welcomed the kids to take photos. They stood up close to the famous two-foot trophy of a basketball on the rim of a net, made of sterling silver with 24-karat gold overlay. He gave the youngsters backpacks and school supplies. Serge Ibaka drew a crowd in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, when he brought it home. His Instagram shows him sharing it with a large group of kids. It also shows him sharing a moment for himself. The NBA star, who now has his own cooking show, sat by himself eating a meal with the trophy at his side, in the same restaurant where he used to beg for leftovers as a boy as the third youngest in a family of 18 kids whose mother died and whose father had been imprisoned.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse took the trophy to America’s Midwest. His time included a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field, where he sangwhile wearing Harry Caray glasses and a Cubs jersey, in honour of his favourite boyhood baseball team. He and his coaching staff shared an evening with Cubs manager Joe Maddon and the trophy.
A Raptors staff member flew the trophy to meet general manager Bobby Webster in Hawaii for part of his 10-day vacation back home. Webster popped by his high school in Honolulu with it on the first day of their new school year. He brought it to Kailua District Park, where several old friends and teammates came back to the place where they played hoops growing up. The trophy went to Webster’s family dinners and to the beach.
Norman Powell took the trophy to his high school in San Diego. He said it provided moments of reflection on how he has grown and matured. The principal spoke – telling stories of when she had been Powell’s math teacher and how hard-headed he had been as a freshman. Powell also spoke to the school’s football team. It made him think back to when he had quit football because the quarterback wasn’t passing to him enough.