If you want bitterness, you won’t get that from Dwane Casey. Anger? Sorrow? Envy? Won’t get any of that, either. The Toronto Raptors won the NBA championship (You’re almost obligated to repeat it every time it’s mentioned, because it still feels like a dream. The Toronto Raptors won the NBA championship!) the year after dismissing Casey but his reaction to that achievement, at least publicly, has been the opposite of what you’d expect … from anyone except Casey.



Casey lives on the high road, which makes it easy for him to take it whenever moments of controversy or possible conflict arise. So, when he watched the decisive Game 6 of the NBA Finals at the Malibu home of Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores last June, Casey expressed happiness in seeing his former organization, his former city, celebrate what never seemed possible. The victory over the injury-ravaged Golden State Warriors wasn’t a condemnation. To Casey, it was...