One of the more popular things I did over at AltRaps was do a knock-out style tournament comprised of former and current players. Some results were surprising and some matchups brought out some interesting discussion. Plus, it was a great way to get through the dog days of summer.
I did it a few years ago, so it’s time to revisit it and see what you have to say. The matchups are random and the players I chose came from our player listing. I literally put the players into a hat and drew them out, placing them in a matchup as they came out.
Voting will be done via our online RR poll and will last 48 hours or shorter if it’s a blow out. It’s up to you how to define “best”: favourite, statistics, looking, least likely to beat us when he comes back to play against us…whatever.
Feel free to use the comment section to plead your case for your choice or trash talk against the other guy, just keep it somewhat civil.
We will put a tournament style grid up, but for now here are the first round matchups:
Alvin Williams – Dee Brown
Walt Williams – Anthony Parker
Joey Graham – Damon Stoudamire
Oliver Miller – Jalen Rose
Zan Tabak – Tracy Murray
TJ Ford – Vince Carter
Jose Calderon – Dell Curry
Kevin Willis – Doug Christie
Charles Oakley – Donyell Marshall
Jerome Williams – Jorge Garbajosa
Andrea Bargnani – Matt Bonner
Carlos Rogers – Morris Peterson
Keon Clark – Tracy McGrady
Jason Kapono – Chris Bosh
Rasho Nesterovic – Marcus Camby
Antonio Davis – Jamario Moon
49 Raps
FAIL
That the first thing your momma said to you?
No, its your shitty article. One sided comparisons on whose the favorite. Better luck next time.
give the guy a break, at least it’s something to talk about when there’s no other raptor news going on
one sided comparisons….on something voted on by readers?
Wow.
Plus, I’d hardly say this is an article. A post, at best. How can you fail twice in 2 sentences? Guess it’s a flashback to your remedial times in school.
Humidity does strange things to people.
Your mom. its a rap.
The first round of the NCAA tournament has a lot of mismatches too. It’s how tournaments work.
Keon Clarke n tmac. Both can rebound, shot block, drive, bang, jump, pass, dribble.
VC vs. TJ! I like it. Who complained better and louder? Whose screams of agony were most pained and who stayed down longest?
It’s a long off season isn’t it?
you know it.
BONNER wins because he is the only Raptor to ever try and become a Canadian citizen. game over!
Best Raptor ever so far= Vince Cater.
I hate him but statistcally hes the bes.
and fan fare(back in the day) = Vince we all loved him….he was popular all over the WORLD-india-USA-Japan.
Fan favourite= JYD or Mo pete
Oakley has this locked down, hands down.
that why it says its up to us to “define best”. There is no way I would personally take Vince and Jalen Rose for that matter. Yet the Big O will get votes from me!
Oliver Miller?!?! lol
the Big O sucked… don’t get me wrong, but he always put a smile on my face with his nonsense. (although was a suprising good shot blocker for being a short yet overweight center)
We’re keeping it fun in the summertime sun! :D
And we’ll all be sunburnt or bronzed by the time the Best Raptor Ever is chosen! lol
Obviously it’s Doug Christie, I don’t know why we’re even having this discussion.
I don’t even know where the comparisons are seriously,
this is an EASY question if you ask me.
Doesn’t take an nba scout to know that rafa araujo should be the winner.
Oh damn… best raptor ever?
Nice idea Alt, regardless of hating-on comments. (MACMAC)
Matt Bonner and Anthony Parker all the way no way i am voting against either one of those two.
Interesting concept, although given the poor talent pool to select from, I wonder if the opposite question might not have yielded a more fruitful and thought provoking discussion. Head-to-head, who was the worst Raptor ever? Now there is a debate. For my money, its Kenny Anderson…or Clifford Rozier…Sharone Wright…Derrick Martin maybe?
If we’re doing worst we have to keep to starting 5 or something, we can’t just be throwing in 10 day contract guys that stuck around for a year or 2.
Also Dee Brown, Zan Tabak and Matt Bonner but no Alvin Robertson??? madness.
If we were doing worst, it’d have to be Yogi. Not for personal reasons but strictly on the $$$/production ratio.
Where’s Derrick Martin, strictly for the fact of keeping the 3pt streak alive? Not that I’d vote for him…
It’s sad Carlos Rogers won’t make it out of the first round. He’d get my vote over just about everyone but I gotta vote Mo Pete all the way.
Agreed. Mo Pete deserves it for his highlight reel alone.
Agreed..there are a few guys that I’m disappointed aren’t here, but had to keep it down to a manageable number, otherwise we’d be doing this for months. I literally had everybody that played 2 or more seasons and drew them.
Mike D, we considered doing the worst Raptor ever, but decided to keep it (um) positive and, as Rub points out, it’s a bit harder to draw the line. I mean, Radojevic or Bateer anybody?
Understood, though the chance to select Michael Bradley or Yogi Stewart would have been cathartic.
If I had my way, Keon Clark would win the worst-ever crown every year.
seriously Keon? Of all the crappy Raps we have had you take our starting C/PF (depending on how you want to define him) on the team that went to the 2nd round.
You may need to watch some of those games again… Keon is no where near the worst-ever. (hell I’d put him at one of the top 5 or 6 bigs we’ve had)
He was my personal Vince Carter. Just something about him I couldn’t stand. Nobody was happier than I when he frittered away his career and admitted he never played a game sober. The guy is trash to me.
- Dee Brown had more talent than Alvin
- Walt Williams had more talent than Anthony Parker but AP was more consistent(except at the free throw line in crunch time)
- Damon Stoudamire vs Joey? Are you kidding me?
- Jalen beats the Pillsbury dough boy any day
- Zan Tabak was wack! Tracy Murray!
- Vince! over Me-J
- Dell Curry was too late into his career. Jose, Jose, Jose, Jose!
- Doug Christie hands down over Kevin Willis. Kevin was like Bruce in the Sixth Sense: Should have been a retiree but didn’t realize it.
- Loved how Donyell could light it up from 3, but Oak was the old grizzled veteran that transcended statistics.
- Jorge was overrated. JYD all the way!
- Andrea Bargnani is better and will forever be better than the Red Rocket.
- MoPete over Carlos Rogers in a landslide. Liked Carlos though.
- Lol. Keon Clark vs T-Mac. Talk about mis-matches.
- Gotta love the Bosh/Kapono matchup. Kapono was obviously better… at shooting threes. Too bad he never shot them and Bosh shot too many. They must have slipped into each other’s bodies in a sceance or something.
- Cambie had so much potential that he did not live up to in Toronto. Rasho takes it by a hair.
- AD over JAMARIOOO(Mitchell accent)
AltRaps you are kinda late on this we did this on RealGm and I think everyone knows the outcome of this it will be a Bosh vs Carter debate and Carter is going to win no matter what.
First time I did it was 5 years ago, so who jacked who?
In any event, different readers, different time. For the record, Carter didn’t make it to the final round the last 2 years I did it.
Also, in future, don’t say RealGM and AltRaps in the same sentence. :)
Vince Carter’s success with the Raps (not individual accomplishments) was entirely due to the veteran leadership of Charles Oakley and Antonio Davis.
The year following Oakley’s departure, 2001-02, the Raps made the playoffs by going 12-2 down the stretch on the shoulders of Antonio Davis… after VC had decided he couldn’t finish the season due to an injury no other NBA player had ever had (jumper’s knee?!?!)
2002-03, VC only played 43 games. Than in 2003-04, he openly gave up (he quit) on the team in order to force a trade 5 weeks into the season.
That’s the short history on VC’s Raptors legacy.
jumper’s knee has been around since 1973 and I’d say that it was as much the team shutting him down to preserve their commodity than him himself.
Otherwise, I agree (although only partially with the “openly gave up” assertion.
He fully “gave up” …anything to the contrary is hogwash.
VC will forever be ingrained in our minds as the punk that quit on his team. What a waste of talent. Good ridance, watch him fall on his face in Orlando……what a douchebag.
I think people are deciding on this too literally – the ‘best’ Raptor. It’s not necessarily the best talent, or who was the nicest guy, or who was the fan favourite. It’s a combination of all of those things and more.
Really, I believe this is just opinions – “who do you like better?” That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it makes it more interesting because there’s no clear-cut answer.
Today, Alvin Williams destroyed Dee Brown. I think I’ll take AP tomorrow…
This is a fun little post. It beats the hell of going to other sites and haveing to see nothing new. Thanks for keeping the summer reading “fresh” on this site.
BC, make a trade or sign someone already! I’m getting bored.
Ask and you shall receive.
the greatest raptor based on stats is the hated vince carter. i hate him for quitting on the team and then killing us when we play him. he put t-dot on the basketball map when he won the slamdunk contest back in 2000. he was the raptors’ perennial all-star, even led in votes at one point. he is really good, and could have been our kobe. but so far, is nothing but a perennial loser just like his damned cousin t-back, who also ditched us. he is now on a contending team and the magic might possibly be our main rival.
damon stoudemire would be # 2. the team’s first franchise player. too bad he quit on us and ended up ruining his life with the jailblazers in portland.
btw, how was hakeem olajuwon when he played for us? i know he had his worst season statistically but did he help our team with his veteran presence or was he like alonzo mourning who wanted nothing to do with the team? i just asked coz his contemporary patrick ewing signed with the magic and played there in his last days as an nba player, and is now an assitant coach there and key to the development of dwight. i’m just curious.
I would actually have to say, as Raptors, I would pick Keon over TMac. TMac was coming into his own in his final year (though was a distraction throughout the year and never showed any love for the team) while Keon would possibly rank as the top Raptors trade in Raps history.
I love the concept of the Best Raptors ever and the tournament style one v. one format. Some of the first round match-ups are lopsided but that is to be expected as this team has had a significant number of players go through the system since it’s inception. I think we’ll see the finals come down to players like AD, Oakman, VC, Bosh, Alvin and TMAC. But based on stats, popularity and presence in the NBA there is definitely no Raptor to date bigger than Vince (had TMAC stayed we may be speaking of him as greatest ever)….I hate to say it because of how he ended his time with the Raptors, but you have to give it to Vince for helping to put the Raptors on the NBA map. If Bosh stays with the Raps, I think this debate would be a lot different in 5 years time, you would be able to possibly argue that Bosh was/is the best ever Raptor, but you he might be challenged by the likes of Bargnani, Calderon, Turk, DeRozen….and whomever might come next!!!!
Now the really interesting debate would be who did more for the franchise in a front office capacity: BC vs. Isaiah vs. Grunwald?
Wow, Alvin is destroying Dee Brown, 96% to 4%, not that I’m too surprised. The thing with greatest Raptor, is that it means being a Raptor and working with the team and sticking with the team, so doing something like requesting a trade definitely has to deduct from that.
I’m think Jose might actually make a run at final four, then again I’m a bit biased when it comes to pg, I see Damon, Bosh, Jose, and Davis as my predicted final four. Statistically I think Carter has been superior, and will personally vote for him, but I dont see him making it.
All jokes and personal bias aside, how can u even consider anyone other than VC as the greatest Raptor ever? U think we could even be talking about the Raps today if he didn’t come our way? Where exactly would the franchise have gone if we didn’t land him? Memphis perhaps!
Just wondering…where is Chauncey Billups? I’m almost sure he played w/ Tracey and Vince.