In celebration of the Raptors' 1,000th game, allow me to present my Top Ten Raptor moments:

#10 - Watching Zan Tabak get the ball in the low post and pretend to be Hakeem Olajuwon. Always killed me seeing him try his assorted collection of horrible post moves that usually led to a turnover or the ball being flung at the side of the back board.

#9 - Speaking of Hakeem, my next favourite moment is Olajuwon's contract. 3-Year, $17.4 million for a creaky 38 year old centre? Check out his stats: 61 games played / 37 games started / 7.1 PPG & 6.0 RPG.
Good to see Vince Carter's as good a GM as he is a player.

#8 - Watching all the players flat-out refuse to play for the Raptors.

My personal favourites inlcude:

-BJ Armstrong (The Raptors first overall pick in the expansion draft, never showed up at training camp. Good times.)
-Kenny Anderson (Part of the convoluted Damon Stoudamire
trade back in '98.)
-Alonzo Mourning (Forget the Vince Carter trade, most Raptor fans will tell you that Rob Babcock's decision to buy out the remainder of Alonzo's contract for a reported $10 million
was the worst move he ever made.)

#7 - April 12, 1996. Acie Earl scores 40 pints against the Celtics. Just an incredible anomaly. Oh sure the team lost 136-108 but it was Acie freakin Earl!

#6 - The Toronto crowd booing the selection of Damon Stoudamire over oft-injured Ed O'Bannon. Clearly it would take some time before Raptor fans actually understood the game of basketball. O'Bannon played in a total of 128 games, scoring 5.0 PPG, and I still get asked every now and then about why a player is shooting a free throw.

#5 - The mishandling of Chauncey Billups. The future NBA Finals MVP played a grand total of 29 games for the Raps. He shot a career worst .349 from the field and averaged only 3.3 APG. Nice job Darrell Walker.

#4 - Sitting with media mogul and former 'Off The Record' producer Bob Mackowycz at Game Four of the Playoffs vs. the Knicks. We were only a couple rows from front court side seats, perfect taunting distance from Marcus Camby. Now, remember Camby had missed Game Three to be with his family after his mom and two sisters had been held hostage for eight hours by some nut job who knew the family. Was it wrong for
me to yell out "Hey, Marcus, the kidnappers called. They're holding your shot hostage"? Probably.

#3 - Oliver Miller. Miller proved that it isn't impossible to be obese and be a pro basketball player. Seriously, how you can be fat and play in the NBA? Wouldn't you sweat out about 5-10 pounds every day at practice? Just imagine his eating regime.

#2 - Charles Oakley vs. Tyrone Hill. Oak had a blood feud going with Tyrone, who owed Oakley $54,000 from an earlier dice game. Before one game, Charles started tossing basketballs at him. Great quote from Eric Snow: "Every time we play each other, Oakley says something about Hill. He'll say 'Where's Hill at?"
You would never see that today. With players like Vince Carter practically French-kissing opponents before games-- there just isn't any hate left in the game. Oak was one of a kind.

#1 - Charles Oakley vs. Jeff McInnis. This time the bad blood was over a woman. Apparently McInnis was going after a woman that Oakley was dating.

Big mistake.

Charles is like the villain Anton Chigurh from 'No Country for Old Men'. If you piss off the Oak Man, he will get
you, guaranteed. This time Oakley sucker-punched Jess in the head while he was sitting on the bench. The lesson is, as always, don't mess with Charles Oakley.

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