It can only be a coincidence that the Toronto Raptors patriarch of snarl was honoured at the Air Canada Centre the same night the reeling club finally found some.
Charles Oakley’s time in Toronto running around with the baby dinosaur on his chest was relatively brief — he only played 208 of his 1,282 career games with the Raptors.
Still, he long ago took on an aura of significance that belied the fact he shot just 40.6 percent from the field with Toronto and had a minus-21 net rating over the three seasons. Not bad for a guy who earned $21 million over his three years with the Raptors.
No wonder he loves to come back, as the case was Friday night when he was recognized as part of the Raptors’ 20th anniversary celebrations.
Not to get too down on Oak — he was then, and remains now, good entertainment. Whether he’s slapping out an opponent at shoot-around about a woman or another about a gambling debt, or if he’s simply bringing the Oak-speak as he did when asked if he ever expected to have his own bobblehead.
“I have a head, so you never know what could happen,” he allowed.
But with Oakley it wasn’t what he did, it’s what he stood for. Like most enduring creation myths, it’s best to never let the facts stand in the way of a good story.
In Raptors lore, Oakley stood for all the old-time values that are rarely present in the modern NBA. Just ask him. Toughness. Resiliency. Defence. Hard work — basically all the things the Raptors haven’t had much of lately.
What does he see in the league today?
“Too many players who don’t love the game. They play the games, but they don’t play with their heart.”
Which brings us back to the current edition of the Raptors, losers of 9-of-10 before the team showed it might be coming out of the funk with a 102-92 win over the Miami Heat; a win that easily represented the most complete effort since the Raptors went to Atlanta and smoked the Hawks in the first game after the all-star break nearly a month ago.
For one night the isolation-heavy offence was gone as the Raptors moved the ball freely and easily as they counted 26 assists on 34 made field goals. And while they weren’t the second-coming of Oakley’s old New York Knicks defensively, they did come out with purpose as they held the Heat — in a nip-and-tuck battle for the eighth seed in their first post-LeBron James season — to just 36.6 percent shooting in the first half before taking the foot off the gas somewhat in the second.
“It felt good to go out there and play, share the ball, get out of this funk,” said DeMar DeRozan who offset a 3-of-12 shooting night by going 12-of-13 from the line and adding six assists. “We just needed to see it and get familiar with how we were playing and get back in a rhythm.”
The win was the first against the Heat in five years and 16 games. The last win for Toronto over Miami was back when Sonny Weems and Hedo Turkoglo were Raptors.
Was it the Oak effect? Or maybe it was the after-effect of Kyle Lowry’s in-game meltdown as the Raptors were getting trounced by the San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night.
Lowry is the closest thing the Raptors have to an Oakley-type — a competitor who typically plays without compromise. Even better, at his best Lowry is among the very best guards in the Eastern Conference. It’s just his best has been missing lately. During the Raptors’ slump he was shooting just 32 percent from the field prior to his 32-point outburst against the Spurs. He was rested for three games and just now seems to be finding his feet.
But if you’re going to berate your teammates on television and then question their effort again after the game, you have to perform in order to back up your credentials, and Lowry looked his old self on Friday night.
His fade-away from the left elbow was there, as was his pull-up three in transition. But far more important was the kind of grinding hustle that Oakley would approve of and which has always — in theory — been the spark for this team.
On one possession at the end of the third quarter, Lowry kept the play alive by scrambling for not one but two offensive rebounds on the same play, which eventually led to Amir Johnson getting fouled for two shots.
Lowry finished with a career-high seven steals to go along with 19 points, eight assists and seven rebounds while taking just 12 shots. He says he didn’t feel any different, but in an ode to the Oak-man, allowed that he and the Raptors may finally have gotten their collective mind right.
“I think we played with a good sense of urgency tonight,” he said. “I think we played off each other very well and the ball moved extremely well. We did a good job of playing defence and were able to get out in transition.”
It’s too early to suggest the Raptors have got this figured out, but they may have gotten themselves a clue they didn’t have a few days ago.
They host Portland on Sunday and will have another chance to find out if the snarl will last long after Oak has left the building.