FIRST ROUND FUN FACTS: MAGIC VS. RAPTORS

(1) Alex English, an assistant coach on the Raptors, scored more points than any other player in the 1980s NBA. If you knew that, you're a savant.

(2) Adonal Foyle is an interesting dude. He writes poetry (often with Wizards center Etan Thomas), reviews books for HOOP Magazine, and founded Democracy Matters, a non-partisan student organization hoping to combat apathy among college students (good luck). One of The Mag.Com's staffers was actually a Democracy Matters rep in college and got to meet Foyle, who was also adopted by two Colgate professors when he was 15.

(3) "Raptor" is a fairly omnipresent term in popular culture. In addition to the broad designation "bird of prey," there's also the Cagiva Raptor (a motorbike!), the Raptor Roller Coaster at Cedar Point, the Raptor Electric Guitar, Raptor: Call of the Shadows (a video game!), Raptor from Marvel Comics, Raptor the novel by Gary Jennings, Raptor the spacecraft in the Battlestar Galactica universe—alright, we'll stop. We bet most IT guys in an office could add to this list, though.

(4) Dwight Howard once gave us his three favorite dunks of all-time . Here's the issue: Number 2 was Jordan over Ewing . Ewing is an assistant coach with the Magic. Ha! Also, how do you make a list of the top dunks of all-time and not include this and this ? Dwight, we thought we knew ye.

(5) Speaking of that list, the third selection was Josh Smith over Primoz Brezec , who currently plays for the Raptors. Brezec might be on the wrong side of more "facial dunk" posters than anyone currently in the NBA. In fact, this site seems to be pretty much dedicated to him getting slammed on.

(6) Marcin Gortat is a little-used Magic reserve. Cool. Cooler: his dad, Janusz Gortat, is a Polish boxer who represented the country in the '72 and '76 Olympics, winning the light heavyweight bronze both times. Who beat him each year? Leon Spinks. U-S-A! U-S-A!

(7) The first ever points in Raptors history were a bit star-crossed: Ed Pinckney wins the tip, kicks it to Alvin Robertson (repeated charges of domestic violence) for the three; Toronto up! The GM looking on courtside? Isiah Thomas. EGAD. The PG? Damon Stoudemire (booked for marijuana possession in his life). Raps won, 94-79, over the Nets!

Print Article . Email Article. Subscribe to The Magazine