Thirty years ago, NBA basketball returned to Toronto after a long hiatus. Predictably, it began as it begins with all expansion franchises, with a lot of losing and an unclear sense of direction. The franchise changed profoundly along with the rest of the world though as the 20th century became the 21st. There was the opening of the then Air Canada Centre. And there was also the man who would become known as “Air Canada”.
The Raptors had a high draft pick again as losing teams often do. With this 4th overall pick, they selected Antawn Jamison. Almost immediately after, came the trade that would change the franchise forever. The Golden State Warriors had picked a high flying kid out of North Carolina. The Raptors wanted him, and so they traded for him. His name: Vince Carter.
Over the next six years, the trade would prove one of the most brilliant in franchise history. Jamison was a very good player to be sure, but Carter proved a star. From his deft ball-handling to some of the most explosive dunks the NBA has ever seen, Carter added a true stud to a team that was looking at turning the corner into a contender. From young talent like now fellow Hall of Famer Tracey McGrady to veterans like Mugsy Bogues and Charles Oakley, the Raptors were on the verge of actually being good. As Carter adapted to the NBA, they became just that. By 2000, the Raptors were a playoff team, losing a hardfought series against the Knicks. The following year, they would beat that same Knicks team to win their first ever playoff series. It was the team coming of age. Now coming of age as a team also means experiencing playoff heartbreak.
Playoff heartbreak’s a bit like that first love gone awry, and the Carter story’s no different in this regard. Yes, the Raptors made the playoffs again in 2002, but a quick playoff exit was a sign of things to come, both for Carter and for the Raptors, who would not win another playoff series for over a decade. The team’s fortunes would decline from 2003-2004 with the relationship between Carter and the Raptors declining accordingly. We all know how that ended; a fractious and ignominious breakup that neither the club nor Carter came out looking good from. He didn't handle the whole thing as maturely as he could have. The team maybe didn’t either. As happens often in a first love, immaturity and the inability to adequately address conflict broke the relationship.
And yet, as often happens with first loves, time allows for enough healing such that the happy memories can take precedence over the messy breakup. No, in our story there was no grand reconciliation; at least not of that type. Carter never did play for the Raptors again, even as there were multiple changes in the front office. He was also booed mercilessly in those first years after his less than amicable exit from the club. You could argue that was his doing. Notwithstanding though, he was still the franchise’s first icon, and as the team’s fortunes finally began to turn, so did the attitude towards Carter. The fanbase had rightly felt hurt and betrayed, but ten years later as the Memphis Grizzlies rolled into town with Carter in tow, it was time to turn the page.
Perhaps the fact that the Raptors were finally becoming a winning team again had something to do with it. The dark ages had been dark, but the Raptors were finally coming out of it. Rather than the boos that Carter had come to expect, there was some applause as he was introduced, and then a little more, and then a little more, until some began to stand, and then more, and still more. What followed was a magical crescendo of cathartic applause for everyone involved. The hatchet was finally buried at last. Whatever the circumstances of his departure, Vince Carter was still the first star the Raptors ever had. No, he would never play here again, but finally, he could be appreciated for what he was, a franchise icon.
Five years later, the Raptors would do the unthinkable, become NBA champions. It was poetic in many ways. Against those same 76ers that Vince Carter just barely could not put away, and also in the 2nd round, Kawhi Leonard fired off a buzzer beater; bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, IN! The demons of eighteen years; gone just like that. The Raptors would proceed to erase a 2-0 series deficit against Milwaukee and close out Golden State at the peak of their dynasty in six games bringing NBA glory to The Six.
He didn’t play on that team, but Vince Carter did get to be a part of it, appearing on TV panels during the NBA finals. At Jurassic Park, his name was being greeted with cheers again. A new generation of stars led by Kyle Lowry had finished what he started, and fans understood it as such. In those early days, there needed to be someone who could capture Toronto’s imagination, that could make basketball cool in Toronto. Just as importantly, there needed to be that flashy star to convince the league office that Toronto was a viable long-term NBA city. Carter fulfilled that role, and while it wasn’t “together forever” between him and Toronto, those six years together were still a fundamental building block for the franchise’s eventual championship, and his own Hall Of Fame career.
The number fifteen deserves to be up there in the end. However tumultuous the relationship was for a time, the cultural impact of Vince Carter on this city, and this country for that matter, is enormous. A whole generation of Canadian basketball talent grew up on “half man, half amazing” being on TV every night. Initial skepticism about Toronto as a basketball town was quashed definitively in one imperious night at the Dunk Contest, forever. Most importantly of all, Carter’s choice to go into the hall as a Raptor means the team logo now inhabits the most important bit of real estate in the sport, forever. It’s another feather in the cap for a franchise that’s finally come of age. Happy 30th Raptors fans.
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