What’s a Toronto sports fan to do these days?
The Leafs are mediocre at best, and will be for what seems like a looong time. The Blue Jays are decent, but play in
the most stacked division in baseball, pretty much nullifying any
chance of postseason success. And the Argos? Who gives a damn about the
Argos? So who’s left? Ahh,
right, the Raptors. You know them: they play that game with the bouncy
ball and the pretty hardwood floors? It’s understandable if you
don’t remember them; they don’t really get that much
coverage in this hockey-mad city. To be honest, the Raptors have had a
turbulent 11 year history in the NBA. They’ve survived
mismanagement (see Babcock, Rob), ownership turmoil, and even suspected
sabotage by their own star players (I will always hate Vince
Carter’s face). Through it all, the Raptors have never achieved
the type of success they had hoped to upon entering the league aside
from a couple of playoff years, and have toiled in relative (to the
omnipresent Leafs) obscurity.
Things reached their lowest point in the
2005-2006 season when the Raptors started with
a horrendous 1-15 record. The team was rife with internal strife
between teammates, and public skepticism of management was high after
the lopsided trade of the Raptors’ biggest star ever, Vince
Carter, the year before. The Raptors had officially become a league
laughingstock.
This was the story up until February of 2006,
when the Raptors made a huge splash by hiring Bryan Colangelo
– reigning NBA Executive of the Year – to be president and
general manager of the team. In the preceding years, Colangelo had helped his father build the
league’s most exciting team, the Phoenix Suns, featuring star
Canadian point guard Steve Nash. Colangelo
came armed with his impeccable Italian suits, huge collared dress
shirts, and a plan for the Raptors. It was old news that Europe was
growing rapidly as a source of basketball talent, and challenging the
United States for basketball world domination (the Spanish national
team would go on to win the world championship in September). So why
not look to Europe for veteran players to fill out a young group
starved for experience?
By September, he had added nine (nine!) new
players to a 15 player roster, including multiple Euroleague
MVP Anthony Parker, and Jorge Garbajosa, a
starting member of the Spanish championship team.
Long story short, these ain’t
your daddy’s Raptors. They are a young, hungry, and very talented
group of players led by all-star Chris Bosh, a lanky 6’11”
forward who can score in pretty much any imaginable way, and his
childhood friend, the lightning quick point guard TJ Ford. With the
number one pick in the 2006 draft, seven foot Italian Andrea Bargnani, in tow, the Raptors are quickly becoming
a force to be reckoned with, and not just in the minds of their own
fans. Observers around the league are recognizing them too, with the
Raptors being ranked as highly as tenth in the league by some power
rankings (there are 30 teams in all). For a team used to the cellar,
any glimpse of the main floor is a big deal.
With a trip to the playoffs this spring
likely for the Raptors, this is a perfect time to tune in and see what
this team can do. They’re definitely on the rise, and the most
exciting and promising sports team this town has seen since Arsenio Hall was must see TV. Check them out now
before people like me accuse people like you of being bandwagon jumpers
in three years.
