#2. August 1, 1999.
Traded Jonathan Bender to the Indiana Pacers for Antonio Davis.
The story of Jonathan Bender’s Raptors tenure is a curious one. He was selected with the #5 pick in 1999, then traded to the Pacers before the season began. Did the Raps already know his knees were shot, even though he had just completed high school? I’m not sure we’ll ever find out, but the unfortunate fellow never enjoyed a meaningful NBA career.
Antonio Davis, by contrast, was an established power forward in his seventh NBA season when moved to #We the North (well, not then). He was an integral part of the excellent Raptors teams of the period, as a physical, consistent rebounder and rim protector. Though cursed with dreadful hands (he had a devil of a time catching even soft passes), he contributed an average of 12.9 PPG, and 16.1 PPG, in the regular season and playoffs, respectively. Rebounds? 9.2 and 10.6.
There wouldn’t be any position battle at power forward this training camp if we had a time machine and could bring back the Antonio Davis of the early zeros.
Next: A better result than we dared to hope