April 21, 2005

RAPTORS FAIL FINAL TEST TO CULMINATE ANOTHER FAILED SEASON 

      It was finally time for vindication.  The return of the far from prodigal son for a late season contest that, with a victory, could satisfy the desires and the wishes of their very vocal and very vengeful home town fans.   Once again, however, when faced with a must-win game the Toronto Raptors proved how soft and vulnerable they are as a team by not only handing the New Jersey Nets a crucial victory but also allowing Vince Carter his own retribution with a monster offensive output.  Toronto fans wanted to vocalize and verbalize their hurt and their disdain for their former hero and desperately wanted a victory but the home club failed them, the final setback in a season filled with failed tests.  

      When Carter admitted that he had loafed through some of his games as a Raptor it cut Toronto’s basketball fans straight to the heart.  Carter had been handed the keys, not to the city, but to the country, and instead of embracing the love and pronouncing a desire to push his club back to the playoffs he hid behind his handlers and his mother before finally announcing his wish to be traded.  This was a man who controlled the goings-on for this franchise since he flashed into town, and it was his wish to have his buddies—Antonio Davis, Alvin Williams and Jerome Williams—signed to long-term contracts before he would sign on for the future.  Now this club is hamstrung by the contracts it handed out during that summer of love, and instead of helping the club get through these difficult times he just wanted to run.  It was his final act of childishness in a career filled with childish acts.

       Carter, in effect, ruined this franchise.  So desirous was the organization, and its fans, to have Carter sign a long-term deal that the club was forced into signing players for much higher than their market value.  These contracts limited the abilities of the organization to bring in quality talent and, when those players lost their effectiveness the franchise hit bottom.  Toronto fans have every right to feel abused by Carter—especially since his production has risen higher than it has in years since the trade to the Meadowlands.  Carter should be, and will be, vilified by Toronto fans for the remainder of his career. 

       This is why it was so important to the fans that the Raptors beat the Nets that night, and effectively eliminate any chance Carter’s team had of making the playoffs.  There is no way that Carter deserves to be in the playoffs.  He was traded just two days after a report came out that he had given one of the Raptor plays to the Sonic bench during an early season contest in Seattle.  It is not coincidental that the deal came out shortly after that report—Carter had officially become a cancer on the club and needed to go.  The Jersey trade was the best trade at the time.  A better one likely would have arisen in time, but the Raptors felt that they could not wait any longer.  In effect Carter had ruined the club with his childish antics and his soft play (isn’t it surprising that a player with a recent history of injuries didn’t miss a game in Jersey) while with the Raptors and then ensured the continuation of failure in Toronto with his quick and scandalous exit. 

      Toronto wanted blood.  They wanted to see Carter struggle and the Nets lose.  They saw neither, and for that the Raptor players should be apologetic.  They let their fans down, again.