The Toronto Raptors' 50-point preseason demolition of the New York Knicks will be qualified by the fact that none of the defending champion's heavy hitters were in the lineup. However, Bruce Brown was, and Raptors fans will relish that victory for as long as they are able.
Brown, who is fighting to be one of the final players on the Knicks' roster, managed just five points in 18 minutes of this utterly humiliating showing. Raptors fans never bought into Brown since he was acquired from the Indiana Pacers as a byproduct of the Pascal Siakam trade.
Toronto fans never take kindly to those who put down the very idea of playing basketball in Canada, and Brown found out the hard way just how much vitriol this group can carry.
Raptors' preseason win vs. Knicks came against former player Bruce Brown
At his peak, Brown was the type of player Masai Ujiri dreamed about. He can defend three different positions on the floor, shoot well from mid-range, and make some very impressive passes. Ujiri even said that when Brown came to Toronto in the Siakam deal, he had been trying to acquire him for years prior to this move.
From the jump in Toronto, Brown and the fans never got off on the right foot. Part of that is the fanbase's fault, as many were upset that Brown was not flipped to a contender at the NBA trade deadline for even more young assets. That is not his fault, but he could have won them back with some solid play.
Between averaging just 9.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in 52 games for Toronto (after averaging double digits with Denver and Indiana) and being quoted as saying he was trying to return to the Nuggets as soon as he touched down in Canada, Raptors fans never saw eye to eye with Brown.
Bruce Brown wasn't as good as he could have been for the Toronto Raptors
Brown showed the Raptors and other teams around the league that part of the reason his best seasons reached the statistical heights they did was the gravity of Nikola Jokic helping him out on offense. Without that all-time force multiplier making life easier for him, Brown was a below average half-court scorer, and his versatility could paper over those cracks.
Even though Brown played all 82 games for a solid Nuggets team last season, he is fighting as hard as he can to even make the back end of the Knicks' roster. While Brown was a useful player on a championship team in his prime, his lack of tremendous athleticism and 3-point range has limited his value as an older player.
While this was a preseason game against a bunch of players who will play most of the season in either Westchester or the end of the Knicks bench, it felt sweet to get one over on Brown. As Goran Dragic proved, Raptors fans can hold a grudge for years whenever a player mentions that they don't want to play in Toronto.
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