Vinsanity Era (1998-2002)

The 1998 NBA Draft spoke to a noteworthy defining moment in franchise history. On account of the earlier season's 16– 66 record, the team once again took part in the NBA Draft lottery, a framework intended to offer the association's most exceedingly terrible teams the best opportunity at top draft prospects. New general manager Glen Grunwald exploited the circumstance: After the Raptors received the fourth overall pick in the NBA Draft lottery, he traded it to Golden State Warriors for the fifth pick, netting University of North Carolina swingman Vince Carter for the Raptors. Carter had been a scoring sensation in school, and his tenderfoot crusade overwhelmed the NBA. Carter was named the NBA's Rookie of the Month twice and Player of the Week once — the first Raptor to have the honor. Like Stoudamire before him, Carter proceeded to progress toward becoming Rookie of the Year, averaging a team-high 18.3 points per game and electrifying fans with his variety of gravity-defying dunks, making him a fan most loved in Toronto and around the team.

In the 1998-99 season, the Raptors went on to win 46 percent of their games in what was an abbreviated season, because of a NBA work lockout that stretched out past the beginning of the customary season. Carter was a major piece of this improvement, yet Grunwald's different choices, incorporating getting veterans Charles Oakley and Kevin Willis, likewise paid enormous profits, and new mentor Butch Carter stirred the troops. After their last match, Carter took the microphone and spoke to the fans, ensuring they would reach the playoffs the following season.

Preceding the beginning of the 1999– 2000 season, Grunwald obtained future All-Star Antonio Davis to help round out the club's starting lineup. He also kept on adding to Toronto's depth with veteran NBA players like Muggsy Bogues and Dell Curry.

While Carter was the star of the team, his cousin Tracy "T-Mac" McGrady additionally began to become famous on the court. McGrady had been drafted out of secondary school by Isiah Thomas and the Raptors in the 1997 NBA Draft and, similar to his cousin, was an athletic swingman with an amazing all-around game.

The team's guarantee was exhibited at the season's All-Star game, where Carter turned into the first Raptor to show up in and start an NBA All-Star game and amassed the second-most fan votes in NBA history up to that point. He additionally rivaled cousin T-Mac in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, in which he wrecked the challenge, playing out an assortment of never before seen dunks.

Other than Carter's height into NBA superstardom, the season denoted various different achievements for the team, from being exhibited out of the blue on U.S. TV to playing in the recently built Air Canada Center and abandoning the huge bounds of SkyDome. Most huge, however, was the Raptors' first appearance in the playoffs, despite the fact that they lost to the more-experienced New York Knicks in three straight games.

The team made the playoffs again the following two seasons. The Raptors moved beyond the first round in the 2000– 01 season before tumbling to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals in an epic fight among Carter and another NBA whiz, point guard Allen Iverson. The arrangement was a heavy duel among Carter and Iverson, with the two teams tied at three wins, requiring a seventh and last game to choose the arrangement. Unfortunately , the Raptors turned out on the losing side in a close match (88– 87), and Carter went under criticism for his execution and for his choice to go to his school graduation service in North Carolina that morning. In spite of the fact that Carter had again led Toronto in the game, he didn't score as much as in past games and his potential game-winning shot at the buzzer hit the edge. The Raptors never propelled that far again in the Carter time.

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/toronto-raptors