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Everyone's making the same Toronto Raptors joke about Buffalo Bills

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Jan 27 2025, 3:31 pm
Everyone's making the same Toronto Raptors joke about Buffalo Bills
Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Images

The Toronto Raptors weren’t playing on Sunday, but they still found a way to remain relevant on one of the biggest days in the sports calendar.

There was just one NBA game in action yesterday, with most of the sporting world focused on the NFL’s Championship Sunday, with the winners of the AFC and NFC title games advancing to the February 9 Super Bowl.

In the first game of the day, the Philadelphia Eagles routed their NFC East rival Washington Commanders 55-23, returning to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years, and the third time in eight years.

In the AFC title matchup, the Kansas City Chiefs narrowly escaped the Buffalo Bills by a 32-29 score to head to their third straight Super Bowl appearance and fifth in the last six seasons.

After four straight Super Bowl losses in the early 1990s, Bills fans are still hoping for a return to the big dance. While the Josh Allen-led Bills are 4-1 in the regular season against Kansas City, they’ve never been able to come out on top in the playoffs, having suffered season-ending losses to the Chiefs in four of the last five postseasons, with three of the defeats being by six points or less.

Enter the Raptors in the discourse.

As you likely remember, the Raptors had trouble in the playoffs with a certain LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers team, getting knocked out of the playoffs by them in 2016, 2017, and 2018. While the first one of those losses came in the Eastern Conference Finals, it seemed inevitable Toronto would never be able to taste success while competing against James.

The saga earned the nickname “LeBronto,” a playful jab at how James seemed to make the city his own.

And for Raptors and Bills fans — many of them the same people — those memories came flashing back Sunday, with several people making the comparison on social media after the latest Chiefs win.

For the Bills, it’s not the exact same scenario, but it’s pretty similar: an all-time great seems to always stand in the way of a consistent playoff contender trying to get over the hump.

For Toronto, overcoming “LeBronto” happened by trading DeMar DeRozan in a package for Kawhi Leonard, and winning the NBA title the next year. James didn’t factor into the equation on Toronto’s title run, as he signed with the Western Conference’s Los Angeles Lakers and missed the playoffs in his first season in California.

Of course, that’s not as likely to happen to the Bills in this instance, where their arch-rival suddenly switches conferences.

Mahomes is currently signed through 2031 and has no real incentive to request a trade out of Kansas City in the coming few seasons. Assuming he stays relatively healthy, he seems well on his way to being a competitive force in the NFL for the next decade-plus and remains the measuring stick around the league.

The Bills can only hope to avoid the Chiefs next time they make the playoffs, hope that Kansas City has an off year, or finally get the playoff magic going in their favour.

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