5 Names You'll Never Hear About When Discussing The Raptors

The Raptors have had such players as Rafael Araujo, Omar Cook, and William Cunningham. These players didn’t make an impact and are rarely remember when talking about the history of the franchise. I wanted to take some time (in no particular order) and give some of these players some ink. So here are five non-descript players in Raptor History.

Robert Archibald – Position - Center                               Played: 2004

Archibald played with the Raptors briefly in 2004, after drafted by the Grizzlies (see a pattern yet?) in the second round in 2002. Archibald boasts excellent career averages of 1.2 points and 1.6 rebounds per game. I am almost positive that he was one of the reasons that big men no longer were valued as the NBA changed the rules to suit the slashing wing player.

Greatest Claim to Fame: Graduated from Lafayette High School in 1998, the same class as MLB player Ryan Howard.

LaMark ‘Mark’ Baker – Position - Guard                       Played: 1998

Baker is one of those players that you really wouldn’t know about unless you were the hardest of hardcore Raptor fans. Why? Baker only played in one game in his Raptor career, and his whole NBA career. However as a plus for Baker he made 287,500 with the Raptors in that one game. This was after being waived by the Charlotte Hornets in 1992.

Greatest Claim to Fame: He is currently third all-time for assists in Ohio State University History

Damone Brown - Position - Forward                               Played: 2003

Brown was one of those overrated Syracuse players that thought he was better than he was in the infamous 2001 NBA draft. For some unexplainable reason Brown was allowed to play 115 minutes of the NBA game – professionally. If his field goal percentage of .314 does shock you the fact he was picked ahead of actual NBA players Mehmet Okur, and Earl Watson should.

Greatest Claim to Fame: Running a successful Crack ring in New York for several years while in the NBA.

Kornel David - Position – Forward                                  Played: 2000

David was actually the first Hungarian to play in the NBA and of course he had to play for the Raptors as we are widely known as the United Nations of the NBA (sorry SA fans its true) David actually was a solid end of the bench rotational player however he never scored. In 11 of 17 games he played for the Raptors he didn’t score a point. However he rebounded in the games he didn’t score. (He’s starting to sound like a candidate to be successful on this year’s team) David finished his Raptors career with 2.5points and 1.9rebounds per game.

Greatest Claim to Fame: Member of the BC Zalgiris Lithuanian National Championship team in 2002

So I’ve clearly had some fun with the research and the sad fact is that the above statements are all true about these players. Today has been a History day of sorts for me, so please send me your favorite least remembered Raptor and will give them their due.