RAPTORS: THE MULTI-MILLION-DOLLAR MOPE WHO IS VIN WEASEL

Nice to see that Vin Weasel is being so true to form.

Wince, as he's also known, has predictably failed to nut up and say straight out that he wanted this playoff matchup vs. the Raptors even worse than he wants his mom to commission another statue of him. This is only about Reason No. 853* why he deserves to be taunted and booed louder than ever before at Air Canada Centre when the Toronto Raptors host his New Jersey Nets in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series this weekend.

We know Carter wanted this series to happen. Strangely enough, you can only get that from his teammates:

Mikki Moore in today's Star-Ledger: "My teammate wanted Toronto, (and) whatever happens, we're going to be right behind him."

Antoine Wright, in the same paper, previous day: "I don't think there's any doubt about it. He wants it."

Meantime, Vin Weasel offers up vanilla quotes on the order of, "Now it's the second season. It should be fun."

That's Wince for you -- acting like it's all good in front of the media, while telling his teammates do his talking for him. He's always saying something without saying something. It's Toronto circa 2004 again -- and remembering what he was like then, that's reason enough to boo him off the court.

He just never once said It -- he couldn't just come out and say he wanted to play for another team. Vin Weasel's true feelings have always had to be voiced by someone else -- teammates, agents, advisors, his mother. He's a 29-year-old teenager who makes Hamlet seem less whiny by comparison.

Raptors fans would have understood if he had just let us in on his supposed life of misery. He was a confused 25-, 26-year-old who had doubts over whether he could get his with the Raptors in 2004 B.C. (Before Colangelo). He wanted something better -- who doesn't at the same age, regardless of how many millions they're getting paid to play a game?

The way he dealt with that still chaps our collective Canadian ass. The Weaz became a multi-million-dollar mope who floated out on the perimeter of the court. He literally refused to put the ball on the deck and take it to the rim like he did in the early days. It was his passive-aggressive way of pouting about Canadians supposedly being too callow about basketball to appreciate him as anything more than a high-flying dunk artist. (As if Canadians needed Wince to teach us basketball -- if memory serves, we got all those Lakers-Celtics games in the 1980s on CBS too, and they weren't always scheduled against a hockey game or reruns of Bizarre.)

He dissed the Raptors fanbase by making it obvious he was trying to pull the chute, then acted like he'd had the last laugh after he got a soft landing in the Jersey swamp. What kind of person does that in good conscience? How many Raptors seasons went to waste as a result of his self-absorption? It was at least three, maybe four before Bryan Colangelo came in as general manager. And Carter, not to mention any number of people who are paid to give their opinion on sports, think it's time to move on?

No way. This is why you save up on venom, especially since Carter has turned it on down the stretch to get the Nets into this matchup. For sports fans with a Toronto focus, this is the most important playoff series the city has been part of since the Doug Gilmour-Wendel Clark Leafs went up against Wayne Gretzky's L.A. Kings in the 1993 Stanley Cup semi-final series.

It's too good to miss. Colangelo's Great Raptor Redesign has produced a winning team in less than a year with a bunch of anti-Vin Weasels, most notably Chris Bosh, a real superstar. The Raptors in the playoffs doesn't stir as many hearts in Southern Ontario like it does when the Leafs make the playoffs, but there are going to be a ton of people who will opt in just for the sheer hope of seeing Vin Weasel lose. Picture him slinking off the court, that smug little smile on his face as he wonders which franchise he's going to drag down next should he decides to become a free agent this summer.

In '93 against L.A., the bad guys won with Gretzky doing his little dance after he banked in the series-deciding goal off Dave Ellett's skate in the final minutes of Game 7. In 2007, it would be just if the only jig Vince Carter will perform is when he fakes limping to draw a cheap foul.

Move on? Not now, not ever. Like co-blogger Neil Acharya said after the Valentine's Day game: "Screw him and the crutches he pretended to walk in on."

NEILADAMUS?

By the way, here's what Neil wrote back on Dec. 16, 2006:

"Try and find another NBA arena where the return of a former player two years later will still result in chants raining down like last night's 'Carter Sucks.' The funny thing is, it still may get worse for Carter, especially if he ever has to play a playoff game here one day."

* It happens to be 853 days since The Trade, not that anyone's been counting.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.