Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB.  Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players, coaches and executives.  As such, it is news to us that the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame has announced their Class of 2021.

The induction will take place on November 12, and will comprise of nine new members.

The Class of 2021 are:

Dr. Bill Bankhead, Men’s Gymnastics and Men’s Swimming Coach:  Bankhead would also become the first director of the LSU Assembly Center. 

Peta-Gaye Dowdie, Women’s Track & Field:  Dowdie was a 19-time All-American, 12-time SEC Champion and helped lead LSU to three NCAA Team Titles.  Representing Jamaica, she competed at the 2000 Olympics. 

Yvette Girouard, Softball Coach:  Girouard took the Tigers to three Regular Season Titles, four League Tournament wins and two College World Series appearances.  She was a three-time SEC Coach of the Year and had 1,285 Wins. 

Lora Hinton, Football:  In 1971, Hinton made history as the first African-American football player.

Bruce Reid, Men’s Track and Field:  Reid was a three-time SEC Pentathlon Champion and helped lead the Tigers to back-to-back Outdoor Track Championships.

Ashleigh Clare-Kearney Thigpen, Women’s Gymnastics:  Thigpen was a five-time All-American and in 2009 was the National Champion in the vault.  That year, she was named the LSU Female Athlete of the Year.

Billy Traux, Football:  Traux was an All-American at Tight End in 1963 and played for the Tigers in their Orange Bowl win over Colorado and Cotton Bowl win over Texas.  He would later win a Super Bowl with the Dallas Cowboys.

Armando Vega, Men’s Gymnastics’ Coach:  Vega was a two-time Olympian, and would become LSU’s Head Coach in 1972, holding that role until 1984.  His teams finished in the top ten in nine different years, and he was named the Southern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League Coach of the Year twice.

Lloyd Wills, Men’s Track & Field.  Wills joined the Track Team in 1969, becoming the first African-American to compete at the school.  He would be a five-time SEC Champion.

We would like to congratulate the newest members of the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame for earning this prestigious honor.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our pre-2021-22 revision of our top 50 Toronto Raptors.

As for all of our top 50 players in basketball we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NBA. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Please note, that this is our first revision in four years, which includes the 2019 Championship Season.  This has resulted in many changes, and nine new entries, and a brand new number one, Kyle Lowry, who climbed from his number four slot.

As always, we present our top five immediately, though nothing has changed in this upper-tier.

1. Kyle Lowry

2. Chris Bosh

3. Vince Carter

4. DeMar DeRozan

5. Jose Calderon

You can find the entire list here.

There is a lot more than Kyle Lowry’s ascendence to the top.

Pascal Siakam, who was an All-Star last year, enters at #7.

Kawhi Leonard, whose playoff heroics won the Raptors a title comes in at #11.

Starting Point Guard, Fred Van Vleet debuts at #12.

Norman Powell moved from #50 to #19.

Small Forward, O.G. Anunoby makes his first appearance at #23.

Center, Chris Boucher enters at #24.

Former Raptor Guard, Delon Wright, is #30.

Another former Raptor, Jakob Poeltl, is ranked #40.

Marc Gasol, who also is no longer with Toronto, is #44.

Danny Green, another one-year Raptor on the 2019 Championship winning team, is at #47.

We definitely won’t wait four years on this one again!

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

The biggest trade in Raptors history was Kawhi Leonard for DeMar DeRozan, but it can’t be dismissed how important the add-on of Danny Green was in Toronto.

Green was in his ninth NBA season, and he would start all 80 Games for Toronto at Shooting Guard.  Providing many clutch shots from the three-point arc, Green had a career-high .455 3P% which was good enough for second in the NBA. Green was also very good defensively, and his presence in the locker room was also positive.

Like Leonard, he left via free agency for Los Angeles, though in his case, it was the Lakers.  Green’s contributions in Toronto, although it was brief, will not be forgotten by Raptors fans.

It can be argued that the missing piece of Toronto’s puzzle was Marc Gasol, a three-time All-Star with Memphis, whose veteran presence the Raptors gave up Jonas Valincuinas for.  It was a heavy cost, but it worked out.

Gasol was not as productive as J.V. in terms of stats, but he was a proven veteran who helped to alter the team chemistry.  The Spaniard was fantastic for Toronto after the trade, and he helped the Raptors win the 2019 NBA Championship.

Gasol played one more year with Toronto, providing defense and leadership before he traveled back west to join the Lakers, his older brother's former team.