Gimme Some Raptor News: Vince Carter saves everything

In honor of the NBA visiting Toronto for the city’s first All-Star Game, we’ve decided to look back on some of the more engaging moments in the team’s up and down (but turning up!) history.

The abrupt end to Damon Stoudamire and Isiah Thomas’ turn in Toronto was so upsetting, that the team’s new ownership group and general manager had to act decisively in order to save face.

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Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment purchased the Raptors in full the day prior to the deal that sent the former Rookie of the Year to Portland for a package including Kenny Anderson and an unheralded rookie in Alvin Williams. Faced with yet another player that didn’t want to be there, GM Glen Grunwald shipped Anderson to Boston for a package including Chauncey Billups and future trade considerations.

Then, faced with both a tough lottery choice in what looked like a loaded draft, and the prospect of an NBA work (and transaction) stoppage that could drag on for months, Grunwald had to make June work for a young franchise that was beginning to appear like a laughingstock.

He started by dealing picks earned in the Stoudamire trade to Houston for stalwart center Kevin Willis. Willis was due to turn 36 by the time the next season started, but the ability to pass on Bryce Drew and Mirsad Turkcan (whom Houston eventually took) or Al Harrington and Rashard Lewis (who eventually turned out to be the best players on the board) didn’t matter to Grunweld. He needed stability down low and Willis (after a few years spelling Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley while minding his minutes) gave him needed scoring and rebounding.

On draft night, Grunwald pulled off another shocker. He traded 24-year old Marcus Camby, already the NBA’s leading shot blocker, for Charles Oakley. Oakley would turn 35 before the next season started and averaged just nine points and nine rebounds the in New York in 1997-98, while Camby would go on to play 15 more years. Didn’t matter. Toronto needed some specks of gray.

Earlier that night, however, Grunwald really nailed one. He arranged for a cash-saving draft night trade with Golden State that would land the Raptors the electric Vince Carter – a swingman that, unlike last year’s rookie in Tracy McGrady, would be ready to contribute right away.

Unfortunately, “right away” wouldn’t happen for another seven months, but in just a few weeks Grunwald had lent gravitas and a knockout draft pick to a team that suffered through an embarrassing 1997-98 season. Once the NBA’s lockout ended, Grunwald turned Billups into an expected 1999 lottery pick, banking on Alvin Williams to lead the show in his second season, with versatile guards Dee Brown and Doug Christie helping with ball-handling duties.

Opening night saw the Raptors beat Boston and that scoundrel Kenny Anderson, and coach Butch Carter led Toronto to its first respectable season – a 23-27 turn in the lockout shortened year. Carter, after sagging behind Paul Pierce in the race during the season’s first two weeks, went on to become Toronto’s second Rookie of the Year.

Blessed with a top five pick from the Billups deal, Grunwald decided to double-down on the Old Movement, dealing high schooler draftee Jonathan Bender to Indiana for Antonio Davis, who would be 31 on opening night (he also kind of blew it by picking Aleksandar Radojevic with Toronto’s own pick at 13; the center would play just 24 minutes with the Raptors and remains one of the great lottery busts in NBA history).

The 1999-00 mission was clear. With Carter and an emerging Tracy McGrady leading the way, the Raptors needed to make the playoffs in order to shake the stigma that still lingered following the Isiah Thomas years. Vince Carter stepped up to the plate, making the All-Star team, winning the Slam Dunk Contest with the best performance the competition had ever seen, while averaging 25.7 points in only his second year.

Toronto made the postseason. Then things had to all Raptor-y again.

Butch Carter, who coached a Raptor team in the latter half of 1997-98 that featured Camby, prior to Marcus’ trade, decided to file a lawsuit against Camby after the now-New York Knick big man called Carter a “liar” in reaction to a much-derided book Carter published accusing soon-to-be-deposed Indiana University coach Bob Knight of racist remarks.

The Raptors’ first playoff opponent? Camby’s Knicks, defending their Eastern Conference crown. The filing came two days before the series started. Carter dropped the lawsuit a day after Game 1, but it didn’t matter: New York swept the Raptors. Geez, guy.

It was about to go pear-shaped again. Maybe it already had. Yet again, the Raptors were staring down the ramifications of those old rookie contracts. McGrady could leave that summer as a free agent  , Carter (after watching his cousin go elsewhere) could do as much in 2002. Again behind the eight ball, Grunwald went to work.

Carter was out. The draft brought in Morris Peterson – steady, ready to help right away. When the offseason hit, the team was able to sign Lenny Wilkens as head coach, the league’s leader in all-time coaching wins at the time. Mark Jackson, who just a month earlier was on national TV starting at point guard at the NBA Finals, was brought in as a free agent. Stable. Stable. Stable.

Then McGrady split. To Orlando, after not really giving the Raptors much of a chance. We’re teetering, yet again.

Vince Carter steadied the ship, though. Amidst a growing NBA rumor culture that was both internet (my bad) and newspaper-based, he kept the Raptors contending in an East that was obsessed with the rise of Allen Iverson’s 76ers. VC outpaced both MVP Iverson and league-leading scorer Jerry Stackhouse when it came to efficient offensive play while dropping 27 a game, as Peterson contended for Rookie of the Year. Kevin Willis was dealt for the explosive Keon Clark midseason. Jackson didn’t work out, he was dealt back to the Knicks at the trade deadlie, but Alvin Williams’ re-emergence as starting point guard did.

The Raptors won 47 games and set to take on Jackson’s Knicks – Camby’s Knicks – in the first round. Most predicted the old guard would prevail, but Toronto took it in five with the deciding game coming in New York (now working through their own scandal). Then the Raptors pushed the top-seeded Sixers to the brink in the second round before falling in seven games.

An ugly seventh game, made even uglier by media criticism sent Vince Carter’s way as he attended his college graduation in North Carolina (as a promise to his mother) the morning of the contest before taking a private jet back to Philly with his team’s blessing. And, because sports make things so easy for sportswriters, Carter shot just 6-18 (Iverson also clanged 19 of 27 shots; he didn’t attend anything on that Sunday morning) and missed the potential game-winner at the buzzer:

Raptors gonna Raptor, right? Not this time.

Orlando coach Doc Rivers knocked at free agent Antonio Davis’ door at midnight as the offseason started, promising the All-Star a chance to work in sunny Florida alongside McGrady and Grant Hill. Davis declined, and re-signed with Toronto. So did Alvin Williams. So did Jerome Williams, by then a Swiss Army Knife of a player in the Raptor rotation.

And, in August, Vince Carter ended all the New York/Los Angeles/Chicago/anywhere but Toronto speculation and signed a contract extension through 2008 to remain a Toronto Raptor. All the columnists had to find new fodder.

A day later? Future Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon pushed for a sign and trade to come to Toronto. This was a two-time champion, a legend, choosing the Raptors over a team featuring the NBA’s Rookie of the Year from just a season before.

All because Vince Carter, of all people, held it together.

(Glen Grunwald helped, too.)

Previously:

Part I: The Ballad of Isiah and Damon.

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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops