The Toronto Raptors are currently at a bit of a crossroads in their storied franchise history, as the team is now firmly out of the era defined by the 2019 Kawhi Leonard championship but does have some young talent to work with, mostly in the form of Scottie Barnes. It was a frustrating season in 2023-24 for the Raptors, which saw Barnes earn his first All-Star appearance but also traded away franchise cornerstones OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam, officially signaling that a rebuild is in the works up north.

With all of the current frustration surrounding the team, it can sometimes be fun for fans to look back at previous generations of the team, including the days when the squad had both Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter wearing a Raptors uniform and electrifying crowds across the NBA.

Recently, it was announced that Carter would be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and Carter has since confirmed that McGrady himself will be playing a key role in that ceremony.

“Yes, you do choose (who inducts you),” said Carter, via Run it Back presented by FanDuel TV (via ClutchPoints on X, the social media platform formerly referred to as Twitter). “I'm not going to reveal all of the people because I'm still waiting for a yes, so I don't want to be like ‘yes, so and so is going to be there,' and then we get there and they're not there. But I can confirm that (McGrady) will be there. He's one of the guys that I asked and he was like ‘hell, yeah. I was waiting for you to call me.'  So it seems like in his mind, he already had it in his mind that he was going to be up there. So that's one, and I think he'll help me through it. We've had some conversation and there's a couple of others that I have in mind. There's one for sure that I'm going to ask. So I want to wait before I throw his name out.”

A legendary era

Although they were never able to accomplish much success together in their Raptors jerseys in the postseason, McGrady and Carter still formed one of the most lethal duos in the NBA at that time, setting the stage for current archetypes such as Kawhi Leonard and Paul George with the Los Angeles Clippers as well as Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown with the Boston Celtics.

Speaking of Leonard, it's now been almost five full years since he led the Raptors to their only NBA championship to cap off the 2019 season, defeating what was left of the Golden State Warriors in six games to reach championship glory. That championship marked the tail end of an era that was defined first by Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan prior to Leonard's arrival.

While the team has been on a steady downhill trajectory since then, it's always fun to remember the good old days, when both Carter and McGrady electrified crowds all across the league.