The Founding of LeBronto

[@anthonybrown1830]

What I remember about the rise of LeBronto is... is how quiet it was…During the waning hours of the Eastern Conference Finals..twitter was discreetly trolling Raptors fans about how this was going to be a sweep and Lebron was going to once again destroy us without trying.... Going into the Arena in Toronto with thousands of Canadians weirdly.. … It was a silent trip. We all knew what was about to happen, what we were about to do…. What was going to ultimately happen… Did we have any doubts? Any private, traitorous thoughts of being Lebron fans?….Perhaps, but no one said a word….Not on the flights to the upper sections, not when every contested Lebron James jumpshot came down, and not when he laughed and smiled during possessions… Not a word… it truly felt as if a God was punishing us … as if Thanos has came…. not a WORD… Journal Entry PTSD - Toronto Fan 2018..

[@Destryder1]

501st Legion reference? Lebron ownd us forsure but you gotta consider that maybe he was on the juice because holy fu, it was insane seeing our team bow down to that guy

[@anthonybrown1830]

@@Destryder1 yes 501st journal Star Wars reference 😭

[@Destryder1]

@@anthonybrown1830 that's GOATed but noo there was no traitor thoughts. I was confident that year 😢 losing feels worse than winning feels good

[@Eclisper]

lebron got people making whole journal entries 😭

[@TanoookiMario377]

LeThanos

[@nofu373]

Lebronto really is an interesting case study. Even though they've won a championship, those years will forever loom over them.

[@Braylon1997]

Exactly and when LeBron left the Easter conference that was their best chance to win a ring and they did just that

[@joes.2331]

to be fair though, it a lot better for a city to be torched by literally a top 2 GOAT then not. Those raptors teams never had true grit culture until Kawhi came and did just that using his quiet nature. He let his game speak for itself and they won bc of that. If they never made that trade, a Derozan-led team would have went 6 games with Orlando and then lost in 5 or 6 in that Philly series guaranteed.

[@ClareAmel]

@@joes.2331It was an ultimately risky gambit too. That Kawhi trade was nearly not enough against Philly, and of course the threat of Golden State was still looming. Everything managed to work out, though

[@MrAgainstallodds78]

It’s looming over them? Lol the only ones it’s looming over is struggle KZbin channels like this lol

[@mikevismyelement]

Disagree there.

[@SaulLopez]

For the Raptors, LeBron leaving the East Has to be top 3 franchise moments

[@dunnowy123]

I feel like some of us would've liked to see Kawhi vs. Lebron, but that's getting cocky. We're happy he left and we got the chip haha.

[@MistahJay7]

Not just the Raptors. The Entire East

[@kaustubhtandon8131]

Savage 😂

[@LarryBrown-ek4if]

Lebron wouldn't beat the kawhi raptors because that's the only good team he face in the east in his career outside side of Boston even then they were the same age as lebron today so 🤷🏾‍♂️

[@FlexLuther123]

@@LarryBrown-ek4iffluke ring. If lebron had injury lucky that great he’d have 7 rings 😂. Calm ur tits

[@Braylon1997]

LeBron was beating Toronto so bad that he even coached the team 😂😂

[@Chef_curry_30.]

Lecoach

[@MusicLover-my6fo]

It had to have been a really difficult thing to be Demar Derozan during the Lebronto era. He leads his team to the best record in franchise history and the GM tells him that he's not going to get traded, just to get sent out of Canada to Texas just to watch the player that was only there for one year do what he couldn't do in three. That's tough.

[@lorenzocruz282]

That's what he gets for playing like a btch come playoff time

[@joaobrito2653]

Kawhi never had to beat Lebron though so he didn’t quite to what derozan couldn’t.

[@Scurvybubble242]

​@@joaobrito26532014 finals?

[@tredagoat14]

Man watching that in real time I understand why Demar can out and said him being traded hurt him a lot but it was needed. I never once thought the Raptors could beat LeBron but I thought it’ll go 6 maybe maybe 7 but after that game 3 lost…everyone knew it was over

[@evoguapo4481]

@@tredagoat14we did go 6 w them idk why u jus talk out ur ass. Look up 2016

[@dunnowy123]

I was there dude...GAME 1, Toronto. I can still remember the energy and the excitement as the game started and it looked like we were in control. And to this day, I still remember the anxiety every time the Cavs inched closer and closer. When JV missed the lay up and sent it into OT, we knew it was over. That missed bucket was the ONLY chance we had to make this a series. It's like collectively, we all realized that the series was over after 1 game, and to be fair, the Raptors played like that too. As embarrassing as it was, the Raptors let Lebron get in their head and I've never seen anything quite like it since. Toronto exploded when it was announced he was leaving the East and lo and behold, we won in 2019. It's almost as if a curse had been lifted

[@sonny4978]

That's aura

[@casualenjoyer5420]

Letting Lebron at least split the away games to start the series was a death knell because at best they'd be down 3-1 by the time they got back to Toronto. You had to basically be perfect at home to beat Lebron in an Eastern Conf. Playoff series back then

[@ryankayombya7576]

​@@casualenjoyer5420lol that's what people said about the Celtics the next round and they lost in 7. The only way was getting a 3-0 lead like the KD Warriors cause even a 3-1 lead wasnt safe....

[@Destryder1]

Man. That first quarter got me thinking we were going all the way that year as a Raptors fan.

[@willsmith5595]

The Lebron infinity war trailer was indeed the best result of the Lebronto era. Glad you guys included that

[@valeed03]

As someone who lives in Canada and is a die hard lebron fan, this whole era made me extremely conflicted 😂

[@minatothegod3069]

Dam 😂

[@MistahJay7]

Same Toronto's my hometown team but Brons my fav player but the thing is Toronto was pissing me off for getting swept to the wizards in 2015. So LeBron coming and wrecking them was actually very therapeutic. Especially 2018 lol sometimes you need a good beat down and it paid off.

[@xtucs]

Would of been the weirdest time to be a raptors fan but a lbj fan

[@nav9867]

😂😂wow

[@Agp2233]

True Story: During game 3 in 2018, I was watching on a 10-second delay and ESPN sent me an alert saying the game was going into overtime. Lebron then proceeds to drive down the floor, we know what comes next, and I never got an explanation. Thanks ESPN!

[@cjvaye99]

😂😂

[@melanatedgod5337]

😂😂😂😂

[@jamesh7469]

LeBronto really relates a lot to your NBA rivalries video. The lack of grouped divisions in the NBA means that these type of repeat playoff matchups aren't nearly as common. A lot of drama and rivalry comes out of the NFL division setup

[@Regular_1k]

This is easily one of the best sports channels out right now. Been watching for 4 months and every vid has been 🔥

[@CozyRealm]

Those fades were so crazy that next 2K that’s all his AI would try to do and it rarely went in 😂

[@jeremylugo5206]

LeBron took their souls after he hit that running floater going left against Toronto in the playoffs in 2018. that was the nail in the coffin 😭 also, loved the intro 😂

[@ThatSephKid]

Not to mention during that series (it could’ve been after the sweep) DeRozan said in the post game press conference that there’s nothing they could do cause he’s so good. Something along the lines of that. I mean he’s not wrong, but you don’t say that in the middle of the series 😭

[@RealTomahawk7]

LeBron broke the Raptors so bad that he got the reigning coach of the year fired and, arguably, one of the best, if not most loyal player the franchise has ever known. And won the chip the same year LeBron swapped conferences.

The Raptors didnt have any hall of famers til kawhi came

[@parkerchaddock2770]

Hearing yall got a sponsor made me really happy. Means yall are moving up!

[@signifiednose7499]

Thank you for making this video. This might be my favorite story in sports ever. As a Bills fan this is slowly starting to remind me of our rivalry with the Chiefs.

[@ucheifedigbo8272]

But unlike our neighbors to the northwest, we ain’t winning shit 😭

[@nonamewillbegiven]

@@signifiednose7499 be quiet Bron stan

[@bl4ckuchiha]

One of my favorite moments of this era was when LeBron casually spins the ball in front of Ibaka and still hit the three in his face😭

[@Gmnoah]

Lefuckyou three LOL

[@ReezyXCo]

LeThanos is CRAZY. 😂😂😂

[@Gandalf_the_Gold]

Y’all make some of the absolute best nba content and y’all are so fun too listen too while being informative and sending me down memory lane

[@thechosen1617]

I remember, Watchung lebron hit that fading floater game winner, then going to the gym to practice that shot for weeks until I got it down. So unguardable

[@RafitoOoO]

LeThanos memes were the shit back then. Dread it, run from it, LeBron arrives all the same.

[@cordo.]

i love how u always put the dates in the top right, my fav thing abt this channel, very unique

[@christopherbastien1120]

Man… i wish you added post game interview with Derozan. When he said “if we had lebron we would win too” . You know he wasn’t the guy after that

[@Jalenlane93]

Facts. That's why he got traded, and Lowry didn't.

[@MistahJay7]

LeBron still owns the East and this series was his Finale to the reign of Terror

[@felipecouto1102]

Those Stephen Curry with the Trailblazers jumpscares are getting to me lmao

[@magickings9824]

I love this content so much, truly an underrated channel. Keep up the good work!

[@jgreenberg]

I distinctly remember standing on the platform at Union Station after Lebronto contemplating how hard it would be for Go Train staff to clean me off the front of the train.

[@23joseospina]

congrats on the first sponsor, so proud

[@juliocesargarciafernandez4995]

Lebronto, LeRaptor Dad, my favorite playoff moments , you name it , he did it to toronto.

[@hurricanetzh]

2018 game 3 lebron's game winning floater was definitely an “in the zone” shot, he definitely messed around and still hit the game winning shot

[@WillyP313]

Favourite Lebronto moment was when he moved to the west

[@Saintjrge]

Ya got a sponsor?? Happy for you guys. Been here since the beginning

[@Daviday330]

congrats on the sponsor also this video is very informal to me cuz im a raptors fan but only recently got into the nba

[@cosmix1]

LeBronto was Mark Jones' finest invention

[@brybanz2085]

babe wake up, synthetic sports dropped a new video

[@nicksirju8717]

They still laugh at us for this. So Canada, it's your turn to laugh at USA for losing to Dillon Brooks.

[@kingofchonchos1998]

Honestly, obviously it was a given that any team that came across lebron would lose and it’s a testament to the city that no one could eliminate us but then once we got the ball rolling

[@staidenofanarchy]

Glad to see yall get a sponsor, youre basically my comfort channel at this point

[@1hardyparty]

Lebron was crazy AF that year in the playoffs.

[@mr.s845]

You guys NEED to do a 1h+ retrospective on the 2016 finals

[@samuelschmitt853]

Yes!

[@cjvaye99]

hell yes!!

[@shawnzorf]

Our boys got a sponsorship! Keep up with the great content!

[@miguelleija1441]

And the fucking interview where derozan said "ill pay you if you can find someone to stop lebron"

[@ChrisWilliams-ur7fn]

No further evidence of a player breaking an entire team than that 😂 And KG said they broke LeBron. When they had a squad and LeBron didn't, meanwhile when LBJ got a squad they ain't do shit but talk about they wish they were younger lol This is breaking a team

[@wdvsjsugshsys5653]

The 2019 Raptors championship was great but if LeBron stayed in the east and they somehow beat him that year in the playoffs it probably wouldn’t erased all them years he dominated them

[@wolverineminer]

You didnt even mention "2 points isn't 2 points. I'll explain later."

[@ChrisWilliams-ur7fn]

"I been in a lot of dire situations in my career. This ain't one of them." LeBron had a lot of bars for the Raptors lol

[@Jprezzgottherightopinionz]

What’s crazy is that a lot of people liked to downplay the raptors from 2016-2018. They had really good teams. Lebron just stomped all over them. He ruled over a whole city, scratch that, A WHOLE ASS COUNTRY for a solid 3 yrs straight. And Demar Derozans response was “if we had Lebron, we would have won.” And people try to say players didn’t fear Lebron🤣 CANADA FEARED LEBRON

[@MrAgainstallodds78]

That’s a why the raptors got rid of him and that idiot Dwane Casey

[@M-Cherian]

My favourite memory of LeBronto is that the Raptors took it all the following year.

[@kamicloudss]

After bron left the East and they traded a star 😂

[@lumpyrex007]

Kawhi could have beat LeBron

[@KriticalKraken]

​@@lumpyrex007no, he couldn't have

[@MrAgainstallodds78]

@@KriticalKrakenhe did before and he’d do it again

[@nbarealtalker]

Lifetime Raps fan here. LeGM eternally has our number. We never had a chance in hell against Cleveland but if you want a masterclass in how obvious it is the NBA tries to dictate outcomes, watch game 6 in 2016 when we met them in the conference finals. Again, we were never gonna beat them, but it was incredibly obvious the NBA was like “no game 7 on this one.”

[@joaobrito2653]

What Lebron did in this entire playoff run is just ridiculous. He took a team that had no business even being in the playoffs all the way to the finals

[@brandonguzman90]

Babe wake up synthetic sports posted and they got a sponser majer W

[@LilsAF1]

It’s Here! IT’S FINALLY HERE!

[@joshuarenouf4328]

Love the watching your vids well edited and just easy to watch !

[@Kirubhas_Shankar]

Who's watching this while Bron is on the receiving end of NikoLA

[@lilrabies123]

it’s a good day when synthetic sports posts

[@spider-man120]

I think this Lebronto, and Steph owning the rockets is insane man.

[@muvzyhoops]

this one hits deep for me.. especially cause im from toronto 😥

[@iliasVoolgaris]

Fact that they were absolutely dominated for 3 years and then when the dude left the East they immediately won the title is hilarious

[@The__Wanderer.]

The only thing I could think of when y'all started talking about the Cavs 2018 trade deadline was the Game of Zones Episode.

[@jaylock9twenty5]

You left out the part where Lebron was literally telling a Raptors player where he needs to line up

[@jacecarey6753]

as a raptors fan this video gives me war flashbacks man. pain.

[@Joswag]

Brady vs Bills Mahomes vs Broncos MJ vs Knicks And Lebron vs Toronto Matchups where the outcome is inevitable

[@thekidfromcleveland3944]

Nah MJ vs Cavs. Knicks put up fight in most of their matches......and never let him drop 69

[@jaylock9twenty5]

Curry vs Blazers

[@datsweggybruh8775]

You guys missed a lot on the Raptors side: -we not only got Ibaka at the 2017 deadline, but we got PJ Tucker for two second round picks to be our “LeBron stopper.” Funny thing is it didn’t stop him. -the next year we did a whole culture reset. Straight out of Masai’s mouth. Revamped offence, more 3s, instead of the defensive route of pj tucker we got cj miles, even demar started shooting 3s. -also after bosh left and we were trash, we traded for Rudy gay which kinda helped but we were kinda mid. Demar and Rudy didnt co exist well. After that colangelo stepped down and brought in masai ujiri. He cleaned house and fleeced the knicks by giving them bargnani for picks, and traded Rudy to the kings for a bunch of role players like Patrick Patterson and greivis Vasquez who helped turn our season around to win 48 games. It was the turning point for the franchise where we won 50 plus for 6 straight seasons. So if you’re gonna talk all about the cavs side then at least do your homework to cover our side too, thanks.

[@ImakeSkits-bz6bj]

In the future we're probably gonna have something like Giannis ruling Toronto it's probably being called Greekto

[@GeorgeSolis-qp5gw]

Best video yet!!!!

[@ShadowThe771]

Can still remember how for 3 years, one single player absolutely dominated a single team and when he left, they were able to find true success. That and trading for Kawhi Leonard.

[@stevenlopez1255]

Ngl when I watched this series I kept asking myself “damn he really might be the greatest of all time”. 2018 Bron was different

[@matts8012]

There were no favorite moments. I'm a Rockford native so I was cheering on FVV and gang. It's the longest time I've stared in disbelief in my life.

[@veryraremari]

NEEDED this video lmao

[@K81Patel]

Raptors fan here Nice video Lebron had our number. He also had Boston's number. I think Toronto will win another championship before Cavs win one or Celtics win one (even though I'm aware Celtics are scratching at the surface/knocking on the door right now but trading Smart was a bad bad decision and Celtics fans know it !! 😂😂)

[@kingston4313]

2016-2018 lebron was terrifying

[@yacinetaibi5835]

I remember people were reporting videos of game 2 for bullying 😂

[@RainSennin_ismyAlt]

Game 1 going into overtime in 2018 was pretty much the beginning of the end for the Raptors

[@urbaindelva7869]

VanVleet missing the open 3, then DeRozan, CJ Miles (I think), and Valanciunas all missing BUNNIES at the rim? That was SAD.

[@BlueDragon-ip6mg]

And some "Specialist" say nobody feared Lebron😂😂😂😂😂

[@SIGuy7480]

i got into the NBA when LeBronto was a thing. every year the Canadian sports media would declare that this was the year that they would go all the way and win. and every year they would get the shit kick out of them by LeBron. the Raptors ware overhyped every year and it made me hate them even as a Canadian

[@JJA8020]

There's an alternate universe where LeBron doesn't suffer the groin injury and leads the Lakers to the Finals to face the Raptors and I want to live in that universe just to see what would happen.

[@CrushWildman]

Not saying Lebron PLANNED the floater but coming from a guy who’s watched every year of Lebrons full season highlight tapes on KZbin he has hit that exact same floater different times if you comb through enough of his buckets you’ll find him taking that same shot from the same spot on just a different day using that exact floater

[@minatothegod3069]

Gotta make a vid on this whole playoff run

[@thomasas4288]

Damn A sponsor you’ve really made it

[@83ayodele]

We got a sponsor 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@clarencesarion4854]

Your first Raptors-centric video and y’all do us like this 😭

[@Jay-uu6ob]

Alrighty, how about an equal piece on the Raptors championship the next year? 😀

[@ManWamCam]

Ayyy got a sponsor let’s go 🔥

[@mememe131199]

Raptors also received a horse in that Ibaka trade.

[@lilyt..]

The intro was funny af

[@asero021584]

There was no excuse for that 2018 being swept. Casey didn't know how to adjust on the fly. Could've made that series more competitive.

[@ClareAmel]

LeBron is the prime minister of Canada

[@choopdabloon6315]

Bro look how young bronny is. This makes me feel so old😂

[@KornStar1996]

Would be curious to hear your opinions on your favorite calls in basketball.

[@shadowtoad95]

Wanna know my favorite part of 2018 Toronto VS Cleveland? I predicted the outcome before the series even started.

[@coreyl5843]

Have you guys done a Derrick Rose era video???

[@christopherpaxon4422]

Toronto called the Least amount of fouls for a home team EVER in an Eastern Conference series.😂😂😂

[@christopherpaxon4422]

You see highlights in this video where there should have been foul but NO CALLS 😂😂😂

[@ikingbandz96]

When the Raptors beat Miami I was pissed off because thats my team & I really wanted my guy Wade to duel with Bron since we never got Kobe Vs LeBron.

[@ceufrscio707]

12:00 Warriors: Are you sure about that?

[@Demik.]

Thank you!

[@alfrednaccarato2359]

In fairness, LeBron steamrolled every single team in the playoffs during those years, not just the Raptors.

[@pbyn153]

LeBron leaving the East gave the Raptors a chance for a ring - in which they got. But it pales in comparison to what LeBron did to Toronto for those years

[@djohnson1475]

Why don't you guys do Steph owning the blazers or just the ups and downs of dame and cj years

[@urbaindelva7869]

I can excuse the Raptors losing to the Cavs in 2016 and 2017 because they ultimately could not compete with those rosters, but 2018 was INEXCUSABLE. The Cavaliers were the weakest they had been since LeBron returned roster/talent-wise. LeBron was giving less effort on the defensive end; their defense as a whole had severely regressed from their championship year, and their offense was basically LeBron iso ball. The Raptors, however, were the #1 seed in the East, won a franchise record number of games, and were top 5 in both offensive and defensive rating. They had more youth, depth, length, size, athleticism, and they had some experience. Getting swept by a team that had your number in previous years when you FINALLY had damn near every advantage over them was just shameful.

[@borisklock1813]

I love how the 2018 Cavs get swept by the Warriors and have to go to 7 to beat both the Pacers and Celtics, clearly they were not a great team, but of course they sweep the Raptors because even though the Raptors had good teams for years, they just had no gameplan for beating the Cavs.

[@jmcook96]

was 2018 the year that DRose went missing for 3 hours