Kawhi Leonard's magical shot for Raptors was six years ago

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The Toronto Raptors have a shot at one of the biggest moments in franchise history Monday.

Fittingly, that chance comes six years to the day after the biggest shot in Raptors history was made by Kawhi Leonard.

Toronto has a 7.5% chance to move up at the NBA’s draft lottery in Chicago to get the opportunity to draft Duke phenom Cooper Flagg. One of the players Flagg has been compared to for his ability to do a little bit of everything on the court, including dominate defensively, is Leonard.

Six years ago, Leonard — acquired in a blockbuster trade with the San Antonio Spurs the previous summer — was running over opponents and had given the Sixers everything they could handle heading into Game 7 of the second round at Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto.

But Leonard hadn’t quite looked like his usual self (he was on the way to scoring the most points in a playoff series since Michael Jordan in 1993) as the huge game came right down to the wire. He had missed a pivotal free throw to give Philadelphia a chance to get to overtime.

Fans in the building were nervous, but hopeful. Toronto only had once advanced to the conference final since its 1995 inception and had memorably fallen just short back in 2001, when superstar Vince Carter’s shot at the buzzer against Philadelphia had clanked off the rim.

This time it was a tie game, which made sense given the razor-thin margins throughout the tight series. Leonard’s free-throw miss had given Jimmy Butler the opportunity to square things before the drama truly unfolded.

Marc Gasol, a huge late-season acquisition for Toronto who had helped neutralize star Sixers centre Joel Embiid, inbounded the ball to Leonard. Looking unbothered, Leonard got away from standout defender Ben Simmons and then the gigantic Embiid to get off a shot just before the horn sounded.

Everyone held their breath as the ball bounded into the rim and bounced.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four times, before gently falling through the hoop.

It felt like an entire arena exhaling at the same time and then screaming in rapturous joy. The Sixers couldn’t believe it. Neither could the Raptors.

“I think at first a lot of us were like, ‘Ah, it doesn’t look too good. Then it got one bounce and it was like, ‘OK.’ And then the second bounce it was ‘Oh s***, we might have a chance here,'” Raptors guard Danny Green had said in the locker room after the game.

“It probably bounced four or five times. It seemed like it was 30 seconds, but probably took all of point-eight seconds,” Green said. “But once it went in I think everyone was just ridiculously excited. The whole building. I think they’re still yelling out there.”

As Pascal Siakam said: “It was like, we finally got the little bounce. I was watching it just like, ah, hit the rim, then I saw Serge (Ibaka) trying to jump to get the rebound and then my heart, I was like, ‘Serge don’t jump. Relax, relax,'” Siakam said.

“Because the ball kept bouncing and it was crazy. I’m just there watching it and I’m just there like, ‘ah, oh.’So a lot of emotion going on, but definitely a great moment to be a part of.”

Ibaka would later say he would have had to retire if he accidentally had goaltended the shot.

Asked about the moment a couple of years later by Postmedia, Raptors television play-by-play voice Matt Devlin said one thing stood out in the aftermath of the moment.

“The building. The eruption in that building,” Devlin said.

While Toronto would go on the stage an equally stunning comeback against the Milwaukee Bucks to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time and then topple the dynastic Golden State Warriors for the title, many still think the Sixers provided the most stern test along the way.

“Philadelphia, to me, was really their toughest opponent (of the run),” Devlin told Postmedia two years later.

And nothing was tougher than the shot.

“You’re fading, handed off from Simmons to Joel Embiid (defending you). The intensity, and then the crowd reaction and the jubilation is what stands out to me,” Devlin said.

As another anniversary rolls by, the shot and what followed still remain fresh. An iconic moment not only for the Raptors and Leonard, but for the NBA as a whole.