We’ve all been down it before. You open up YouTube to search for a specific video, or just to browse and kill some time, and suddenly you’ve gone from a breakdown of Klay Thompson’s shooting mechanics to watching David Lee Roth train his border collie to herd sheep. Welcome to the YouTube Vortex.
This week we start with arguably the biggest “What if?” question in Toronto Raptors franchise history: What if Mike James re-signed in Toronto in the summer of 2006 Tracy McGrady stayed in Toronto throughout his prime?
Last week, I put together a trade tree piece based on the infamous Vince Carter deal in 2004. As part of my, um, “research”, I spent a good chunk of time watching old Carter highlights from his Raptors days (or: just another weekday). So when I opened up YouTube this morning for this vortex piece, unsurprisingly there were plenty more Carter highlights recommended to me by the website’s creepy algorithm. So I clicked on the first one. Remember, each video was suggested by YouTube based on the one that preceded it.
And down the vortex we go…
“T-Mac and Carter in Toronto (4.10.2000)”
It’s pretty amazing to see Carter and McGrady share the floor together. Given how young they were in this clip — Carter was a 23-year-old sophomore, while McGrady, three years into the NBA already after being drafted straight out of high school, was just 20. Sure, their opponents, the Cleveland Cavaliers would go on to win just 32 games that season, and their leading scorer was a 30-year-old Shawn Kemp (second-leading scorer? Former Raptor Lamond Murray), but there’s no denying that the two athletic dynamos wreaked havoc running the wings.
The duo also complemented each other well. Carter at the time was more suited to carrying a scoring load while McGrady’s defensive abilities come through in the video, and the chemistry between the two cousins was also on full display.
Though that ’99-00 season was a breakout for McGrady, who went from averaging 9.3 points the prior season to more than 15 per game, he’s still very much a pup at this point in his career. But watching the two trade buckets, it’s hard not to imagine what could have been.
“Vince Carter Thinks He And Tracy McGrady Could’ve Built A Championship Team In Toronto”
Fast-forward to the 1:03 mark in this video to hear how Carter feels about he and McGrady’s potential. It’s not the first time Carter has said this, and it’s a sentiment McGrady has echoed as well. Carter mentions that the mindset at the time for star players was to get their own team as opposed to teaming up, as is more common today (Kyrie Irving aside), and it led McGrady to sign with Orlando in the summer of 2000.
Also, where is that video being filmed? Did the interviewer catch Carter on the way to fight some parking tickets? Sure seems like it.
“Vince Carter Explains when He Dunk Over Alonzo Mourning“
Ok, so now I think it’s safe to say that the previous video was shot somewhere outside the NBA TV studios in Atlanta. Really glad we got to the bottom of that.
Memories of this dunk should haunt Raptors fans, seeing as it came not too long after Carter declared he was done with dunking just before his final days in Toronto. But Carter’s breakdown and his advice for aspiring shot blockers on how to avoid getting posterized is genuinely interesting. A couple of years ago I spoke to Carter at length for this oral history on his iconic 2000 dunk contest performance (also in that contest? then-Raptor Tracy McGrady).
For more than an hour he explained every aspect of his dunks in heavy detail — the inspiration, execution and everything in between — and I found it legitimately fascinating to hear how much thought and analysis Carter put into his craft. I’d pay (a lot) for a TV channel devoted entirely to Carter’s dunks, with him breaking down each one.
“Poster Dunks On Kevin Durant”
Poor Durant. This just seems needlessly cruel, doesn’t it? But, hey, spend enough time on an NBA basketball court and you’re bound to be on the receiving end of a nasty dunk or two (or, in this case, 17).
“NBA Highest Vertical Jumps“
I guess it’s not too much of a leap that a YouTube chain beginning with Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady would lead to a video like this.
The most jaw-dropping freeze-frame here comes at the 2:09 mark, when then-Pacers guard Gerald Green shows us how high above the rim he can get his head (spoiler: very). Also, I don’t know about you, but I totally forgot about Shannon Brown and his insane vert (on display three times in this video).
And, hey, a Jamario Moon sighting!
“Jordan Kilganon – The Dunk King 2”
Sudbury, Ont., native Jordan Kilganon is maybe the best dunker on the planet. A professional dunker, he was a YouTube sensation from the moment he stepped in front of a camera but his first major exposure came at the NBA All-Star game in Toronto two years ago, when he did this — in jeans, no less — during a TV timeout:
Between that and the dunk compilation in the first video, I’m virtually speechless; Kilganon’s unique blend of creativity and nutso athleticism is on full display, and his work is worthy of devoting a good chunk of time to a deep-dive on YouTube on his dunks alone.
“IMPOSSIBLE JAPANESE PUZZLE SOLVED After 10 YEARS! (full video)“
Yeah, I guess it makes sense that YouTube would take us from Jordan Kilganon dunk videos to one dedicated to solving an “impossible” riddle.
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