A handful of years ago, when Raptors head coach Dwane Casey was an assistant coach on a championship team in Dallas, he found himself visiting the office of a basketball enthusiast.
The office was oval. The enthusiast was Barack Obama, a notoriously quick-triggered shooting guard otherwise known as the most powerful human being on the planet.
During that meeting Casey got close enough to the presidential desk to know that Obama keeps a plaque there emblazoned with a mantra.
“Hard Things Are Hard,” is what it said.
Casey was reminded of Obama’s slogan in an encouraging text from his old friend and colleague Rick Carlisle, the Dallas coach, after the Raptors lost Game 1 of their first-round playoff series with the Indiana Pacers.