Toronto Raptors: 30 greatest players of all-time

23. Jalen Rose

Question: how do you try to define someone’s career without mentioning the butt-whooping they were given by Kobe Bryant?

Answer: I don’t think you can.

I’ll get it out of the way nice and early. Yes, Jalen Rose was the scapegoat, and the main culprit, as Kobe dropped 81-points on the Raptors back on January 22, 2006.

It hurt, it probably hurts Jalen a lot more than it hurts any of us, but he had a solid career regardless of what happened on that fateful night.

Now that that’s out of the way, Rose was a pretty good Toronto Raptor. He spent three seasons with the team and averaged 16.7 points per game throughout his time there. He could play across three positions, he was a good ball handler and he could score.

Rose doing his thing was a fun thing to watch, driving to the rim and wriggling his way through contact. Had he been a willing defender he could have been a lot higher on this list.

Jalen gave us entertainment though, at a time when there wasn’t too much to be willingly positive about. Always fun with the media, which makes sense given his transition into an ESPN analyst,

Rose proved to be just as fun on the court as he was off of the court. He scored a game-winning basket in overtime against the Kings as one of his final contributions as a member of the Raptors.

He’s also the only player to ever be traded for Antonio Davis — TWICE!