Every sports team has a defining moment. A moment in time that you point to and say, ‘that’s when they arrived.’
Some of those moments are etched into our memories.
Like when Toronto Blue Jays star second baseman Roberto Alomar hit a game-tying, two-run home run off Oakland A’s closer Dennis Eckersley in the top of the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 1992 ALCS. The Jays won the game in extra innings to take a 3-1 series lead and ultimately went on to win their first World Series. Others will say the Jays’ moment of arrival came when Mike Timlin tossed the ball to Joe Carter for the final out of the ’92 World Series.
The Toronto Raptors have arguably already had their defining moment.
It was at the 2000 NBA All-Star Game when a 23-year-old Vince Carter, in just his second season in the league, brought basketball fans to their feet with what still stands to this day as the most electrifying performance in the history of the mid-season jam fest.
Many people point to that event as the Raptors’ defining moment. The Raps had arrived.
Nineteen years (boy, where has the time gone?) after Carter — who was drafted by Golden State and then quickly traded to Toronto — won the slam dunk contest in scintillating fashion at Oracle Arena in Oakland (the home of the Warriors) the Raptors hosted the two-time defending champions in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
It was the first time the championship series has been played in Canada.
And after Toronto’s 118-109 series opening win, the Raptors are just three more victories away from creating the franchise’s new defining moment.
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