Mike Ulmer has worked for seven news organizations including the National Post and, most recently, the Toronto Sun. Mike has written about the Toronto sports scene for more than 10 years and has penned several books on sports and culture.



May 5, 2007

(TORONTO) -- So where are the Toronto Raptors right now?

Remember the final scene in Rocky I.

The fight is over, the music is swelling, Rocky has battled Apollo Creed for 15 rounds and the ring announcer in the background proclaims Creed is still The Champ. The music keeps on soaring. No one even pays attention, so great has been the battle and the valley crossed.

That’s where the Raptors are now. Right there. Losers in name only.

Saturday, the Raptors cleaned out their lockers and played meet the press for the final time on the heels of Friday’s agonizing 98-97 road loss to the New Jersey Nets.

Everything started to click for Chris Bosh in the fourth quarter of Game 6. (Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images)

After sporadic play in the first two games, the Raps were blown out of Games 3 and 4 in New Jersey and then, after coach Sam Mitchell juggled his lineup and the club took another gulp of air, the Raps did the unexpected, beating New Jersey in Game 5.

Then came the unthinkable, a shootout in Jersey that ended only when Jose Calderon put a pass a foot too short for a Chris Bosh dunk

By then, Calderon and T.J. Ford had returned from injuries to score 36 points. Morris Peterson, an afterthought through the middle of the season contributed 17 more as well as fine defensive work on Vince Carter.

The pillar of the franchise, Chris Bosh, delivered 23 points and rookie Andrea Bargnani, who may emerge as an even more formidable scorer than Bosh, added 17.

How did they get here?

The Raptors were little more than curiosities when the season started, a team with 27 wins the season previous and a roster remade with an Italian rookie and players unknown in NBA circles who had played in Israel, Spain, Italy and elsewhere.

The Season:
The Raptors walked into an uninviting scenario. They were blowing up their lineup and importing players who would need time to grow accustomed to each other, all the while negotiating a wicked early schedule.

The Raptors lost all four games on a West Coast road trip and started 2-8.

“To me, when we came back from the West Coast 2-8, everybody said we were done, we couldn’t beat Cleveland,” said Coach Sam Mitchell.

Instead, Chris Bosh scored 25 points and the Raptors dropped the Cavs 95-87.

Mitchell found hope in another win.

“We got drilled pretty good in Miami and coming back on the back to back, when Orlando was playing as well as anyone in the East, we went into that building and won (91-84 on Dec. 13). No matter how bad things got, that showed what we were capable of.”

For once, the breaks were following Toronto. With the third-quarter buzzer a second away, Bosh put up a 55-foot swish against the Wizards, Jan. 31. It was that kind of season.

“Thinks like that happened all year,” Bosh said. “I could remember the year before, things like that happened to the other team. That just shows how things really turned around for us.”

The Raptors beat Washington 119-109. The win capped a 10-5 January. They were now a .500 team and they would add 20 wins to their previous total.

Along the way they would fashion a tandem at point guard widely considered among the NBA’s best.

Ford brought a noticeably better shooting touch, averaged 14 points a game and easily outran defences.

Calderon, only mildly impressive as a rookie, delivered a spectacular second season and boosted his field-goal percentage from .423 to .521. Jorge Garbajosa and Anthony Parker became glue players. Bargnani hit for 15 or more points in 22 games and Bosh averaged 22.6 points and 10.7 rebounds. The turnaround was so significant, Mitchell was named Coach of the Year.

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