We finally reach a season on our current NBA Tuesday miniseries that did not see LeBron James playing in the NBA Finals. Shocker! The weary guy probably needed a rest, anyway, from eight straight spring runs deep in the postseason. But we digress: a new league champion was crowned for the first time in 8 years, and that was news in itself. The fact the team resided in Canada and was a 1990s expansion team also were pretty amazing facts for the NBA to offer its fans. Wow!

2019 NBA FINALS MVP: Kawhi Leonard, SF, Toronto (original, confirmed)

The Toronto Raptors—yes, you read that right—beat the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors in six games to win the NBA crown. Raptors small forward Kawhi Leonard, who won the Finals MVP in 2014 with the San Antonio Spurs, took home the hardware for a second time after posting the following statistical line: 28.5 ppg, 9.8 rpg, 4.2 apg, 2.0 spg, and 1.2 bpg in 40.5 mpg. He led his team in minutes, points, rebounds, and steals.

Outscoring the Warriors by almost 6 ppg, Toronto took a 3-1 series lead before dropping Game 5 at home by a single point. Then, defying the odds, the Raptors won Game 6 on the road to claim the championship. Toronto came from behind in the fourth quarter of that deciding contest, mostly due to point guard Kyle Lowry (26 points, 10 assists) and power forward Pascal Siakam (26 points, 10 rebounds). Siakam was a true force in this series, also topping 40-plus mpg, but we’re confirming Leonard’s vote win.

2019 NBA DPOY: Rudy Gobert, C, Utah (original); Andre Drummond, C, Detroit (revised)

We only have three candidates for this award: Detroit Pistons center Andre Drummond (5.86 WS), Utah Jazz C Rudy Gobert (5.70), and Milwaukee Bucks PF Giannis Antetokounmpo (5.50). Drummond was our pick in 2016 and 2018, while Gobert was our pick in 2017. Gobert won the vote this time out, as he did in 2018 as well. All three teams made the postseason, but Detroit’s two-game playoff cushion was the smallest, by far, so Drummond is going to take home another piece of hardware from us.

Somehow, he didn’t even finish in the Top 10 voting, which is asinine. His stats—10.2 drpg, 1.7 spg, and 1.7 bpg—helped the Pistons post the fourth-best scoring defense numbers in the Eastern Conference, as Detroit was outscored on the season as it played to a 41-41 record. Drummond also topped the league in overall rebounding (15.6) for the third time in his career. Even though he never lead the NBA in defensive rebounds, his overall dominance of the key certainly warrants this nod … again.