OAKLAND, Calif. — For six games, Fred VanVleet was tasked with the most difficult defensive assignment of his life: Attach himself to one of the N.B.A.’s greatest scorers as the Toronto Raptors pursued a piece of history. So, for six games, VanVleet chased Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors. Six games of back cuts and pull-up jumpers and crossover dribbles and punishing screens.

“A million screens,” VanVleet said.

It was like wading into choppy waters and bracing for wave after wave.

But late Thursday night, as the Raptors began to celebrate their first championship after closing out the Warriors with a 114-110 victory in Game 6 of the N.B.A. finals, VanVleet wore a Champagne-soaked T-shirt and a stitched-up gash under his right eye as he reflected on helping topple the league’s most majestic team. The Raptors, he said, were not conventional champions.

“It’s not the glam stars,” VanVleet said, adding: “We got guys who had to get it the long way, who had to get it out of the mud, who had to get it against the grain. And we got a team full of them coming from all different places, all walks of life, all different life stories to get to this point. But we got some talent — we got some talent for sure.”