A man without a driver’s license and without a tooth stood in the way of a historic NBA team’s date with destiny.
Like a hockey defenseman whose face is familiar with the warm embrace of a puck, Julian Strawther played through it. It was the fourth quarter of Game 6, and he had received contact to the head, sending his right incisor flying across the floor. Fortunately, it was a fake. When Strawther lost his baby tooth in that spot, the replacement never grew in. He keeps a prosthetic in the gap.
By the time his work was done, the pearly white was back in place.