Try and imagine the history of the Toronto Raptors success as a 3\u00d73 relay race. Vince Carter ran the first leg of the race for Toronto. Let’s just say he got off to a quick start.<\/p>\n
After six years of downright atrocious basketball that is customary of an expansion team, Vince Carter<\/strong><\/a> helped put the Raptors on the NBA map. His athleticism and scoring prowess<\/a>\u00a0in only his second season earned league-wide recognition. (Carter put on arguably the best dunk performance of all-time<\/a> in 2000, and rightly was rewarded with the nickname, \u201cAir<\/i> Canada\u201d). But it was Carter’s performance in the 2001 playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers that convinced\u00a0Raptors fans their savior had finally arrived. In the team’s first playoff run, Carter went toe-to-toe with Allen Iverson<\/strong><\/a> in the Eastern Conference Semifinals,\u00a0eventually losing out in a crushing seven-game series. That was the\u00a0deepest the Raptors had ever gone in the playoffs and marked the apex of Carter’s time with the team.<\/p>\n Optimism was riding high, but the team didn’t come close to matching its playoff success\u00a0the next three seasons, prompting Carter to demand a trade.<\/p>\n With Carter in New Jersey, the baton was passed to Chris Bosh<\/a><\/strong>, the Raptors\u00a0fourth overall draft pick in 2003. After a promising rookie season, Bosh became the new franchise player tasked with leading the Raptors back to relevance. During his time in Toronto, Bosh averaged just over 20 points and 9 rebounds per night, helping the Raptors return to the playoffs in the ’06-07 and ’07-08 seasons. He became the first Raptor to reach 10,000 points with the franchise while setting team\u00a0records for total blocks, rebounds, and double-doubles over his tenure.<\/p>\n After failing to make the playoffs the next two seasons, Bosh, like Carter, grew tired of mounting disappointment. He left the Raptors\u00a0in 2010 free agency to form a big three\u00a0with\u00a0Dwayne Wade<\/strong><\/a> and LeBron James<\/strong><\/a> in Miami.<\/p>\n Consequently, the second leg of the Raptors relay race finished off with a few stumbles.<\/p>\n The Raptors struggled mightily without Bosh, finishing the ’10-11 and ’11-12 seasons with 22 and 23 wins, respectively. The future looked bleak for Toronto, with no clear-cut franchise cornerstone to succeed Bosh in place.<\/p>\n Back in June 2010 with Bosh set to join the Heat, DeMar DeRozan<\/strong><\/a>, the Raptors ninth overall pick in 2009, posted a tweet<\/a> on his Twitter account.\u00a0It said the following:<\/p>\n \u201cDon’t worry, I got us\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Without a franchise star, DeRozan welcomed the challenge of filling the void left by Bosh.\u00a0He knew it wouldn’t be easy, but DeRozan\u00a0believed he could not just lead\u00a0the Raptors\u00a0back to relevance. He could morph them into a title contender.<\/p>\n The USC product\u00a0entered the league as a raw athlete oozing with potential. Luckily, DeRozan never had to compete for minutes after his rookie season, given the team’s need for a starting shooting guard (sorry Sonny Weems<\/strong><\/a><\/em>). Given the Raptors’ dismal record,\u00a0DeRozan had the luxury of making mistakes without real consequence. He also got to experience the pain of losing early on, which surely\u00a0served as motivation going forward.<\/p>\n DeRozan emerged as the Raptors number one scoring option after the failed Rudy Gay<\/strong> experiment ended\u00a0in 2013<\/a>. Since then, he hasn’t slowed down. DeRozan has established himself as the team’s go-to scoring option<\/a>, leading the Raptors to the playoffs each of the last four seasons (the longest such streak in team history).<\/p>\n While Carter and Bosh left when the going got tough, DeRozan stuck it out. His desire to be the face of the Raptors franchise has never been in question. Even in free agency last summer, with the prospect of playing for his hometown Los Angeles Lakers a realistic possibility, DeRozan decided to remain North of the border in the place he calls\u00a0his basketball home. In doing so, he’s set a precedent for the Raptors, in terms of a star player remaining with the team. Many players before him left at\u00a0the first chance they could.<\/p>\n DeRozan was the first piece of the Raptors’ winning culture. He feels a responsibility to both the Raptors franchise and the city of Toronto.<\/p>\n He wants to finish what he started.<\/p>\n The anchor of a race is often the most important, hence why it\u2019s often the responsibility of the fastest\u00a0runner.\u00a0For the Raptors, there’s no one better to bring it home than DeRozan.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Main Photo:<\/p>\n TORONTO, CANADA – APRIL 16: DeMar DeRozan #10 of the Toronto Raptors makes a move to the basket against Paul George #13 of the Indiana Pacers in Game One of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2016 NBA Playoffs on April 16, 2016 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski\/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** DeMar DeRozan; Paul George<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DeMar DeRozan has already supplanted Vince Carter and Chris Bosh as the greatest player in team history, leading them to a fourth-consecutive 50 win season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1862,"featured_media":3110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"740","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,2,14],"tags":[275,350,96,596,318,933],"class_list":["post-5735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-featured","category-raptors","tag-chris-bosh","tag-demar-derozan","tag-nba","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-vince-carter"],"modified_by":"Lior Kozai (Managing Editor)","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1862"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Second Leg<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Final Leg<\/strong><\/h3>\n
What Sets DeRozan Apart<\/strong><\/h3>\n