Based in Woodstock, ON, Isaiah Belleth has served as a sales advisor with Sport Chek since 2017. When he is not engaging with customers and managing inventory at Sport Chek, Isaiah Belleth enjoys following Toronto Raptors basketball.
In 2019, the Toronto Raptors became the first National Basketball Association (NBA) team based outside of the United States to win the NBA Finals. Prior to the 2018-2019 NBA season, the Raptors had made five consecutive playoff appearances, including a run to the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals. Despite this consistency, team leadership decided a new approach was needed if the franchise wanted to secure its first finals berth and championship. Dwayne Casey, head coach since 2012, was removed in favor of Nick Nurse, while All Star guard Demar DeRozan was traded for San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard, MVP of the 2014 NBA Finals.
The moves proved beneficial. Toronto’s 58 regular season wins were actually one fewer than the season before, but the win total remains the second highest in franchise history. Leonard enjoyed a productive season but put up truly impressive numbers once the post-season began.
After a convincing 4-1 opening round against the Orlando Magic, the Raptors were pushed to seven games in the second round by Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers. Leonard responded in true MVP fashion, scoring 41 points in a 92-90 Game 7 victory. The Raptors then claimed back-to-back six-game series against the Milwaukee Bucks and Golden State Warriors.
Leonard was named Finals MVP once again after leading the Raptors past the Warriors, joining LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players to earn the achievement with two different teams.
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