Before Mighty Mouse and Popeye Jones. Before Carter’s clank and Childs’ clock miscue. Before T-Mac and CB4. Before “It’s over ladies and gentlemen.” Before Hoffa and Bargs. Before “I got us” and We The North. Before Kobe’s 81 and DeMar’s 52. Before “F**k Brooklyn” and “F**k it, let’s get two.” Before Pierce’s block and LeBronto. Before KLOE and the Klaw. Before four bounces and 0.3 seconds. Before the clock ticked down to zero on June 13, 2019.
Before all of this, there was the game that started it all.
On November 3, 1995, the Toronto Raptors played their inaugural game versus the New Jersey Nets — 25 years ago this past Tuesday.