What the world looked like the last time the Raptors won a playoff series
After losing Game 1 at home for the third straight season, Game 2 between the Raptors and Indiana Pacers was described as "the tightest-sphinctered game in Toronto basketball history."
You can imagine, then, the angst building north of the border as the Raptors prepare to defend home court again in Game 7 after a humiliating Game 6 defeat in Indiana.
This current Raptors core enters Sunday 6-11 in playoff games over the last three seasons, including 0-3 in potential closeout situations, and 0-2 when facing elimination themselves. One of those two losses came in a Game 7, at home, after failing to put the Brooklyn Nets away in Game 6.
As a franchise, the Raptors own the league's longest drought without a series victory, and have never won a best-of-seven series in 21 years of existence.
Here's how different the world looked the last and only time Toronto advanced beyond the first round on May 4, 2001.
The top movies at the box office were The Mummy Returns and Driven.
The No. 1 song was All For You by Janet Jackson.
Drake had yet to make his debut as Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi: The Next Generation, which would launch later that year.
The first iPod was more than five months away from hitting the market.
Nokia and Motorola were the top-selling cell phone brands, and most phones looked like this:
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram obviously didn't exist, and neither did Youtube or Myspace, but MSN Messenger was undoubtedly buzzing about Alvin Williams' clutch jumper to bury the Knicks.
And finally, in perhaps the most hard-hitting fact of all, the last time the Raptors won a playoff series, Jerry Stackhouse - now an assistant coach in Toronto - led the NBA in field goal attempts, Michael Finley logged more minutes than anyone in the league, and Steve Francis posted the highest Value Over Replacement Player.
Suffice to say, it's been a while.
Should the Raptors emerge victorious in Sunday's Game 7, the team's rabid fanbase will be able to laugh this history off from their party in Jurassic Park. Should they be sent packing early again, that party will find itself drowning in a plethora of Crying Jordan memes.