TORONTO - Hogtown hasn’t seen a hoops juggernaut of this magnitude since the days of SkyDome, an era when Mighty Mouse captivated the audience, when the expansion Raptors took the city by storm.
Anyone who even remotely remembers the good old days will recall the afternoon of March 24, 1996, an occasion that serve as the defining moment in a first season dotted with losses and off-court upheaval, among other lowlights.
Flash forward to the present and the modern-day Raptors enter Sunday’s tip against Miami with similarly long odds, in ways even longer than Toronto’s chances in its inaugural season when Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls paid a visit.
The Jordan-led Bulls would go on to win 72 games and an NBA title, but one of the few losses during the regular season was produced by the Raptors in a 109-108 thriller that featured a Jordan basket that didn’t beat the buzzer.
