Toronto Raptors

Team information

• Inaugural season: 1995
• Home arena: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Owner: Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment
• Team colors: Red, black, silver, gold, and white

Overview

The Toronto Raptors is a professional basketball team that plays in the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Eastern Conference. With a nickname inspired by a Hollywood blockbuster, the Raptors was formed in the mid-1990s amid a wave of expansion. At the time, it was one of two Canadian franchises in the NBA, but when the Vancouver Grizzlies moved to Tennessee in 2001, Toronto remained as Canada’s only team. For much of their first two decades, the Raptors had more downs than ups, winning their division just once from 1995 to 2013. However, in the late-2010s, Toronto went on a run of sustained success. The team won five division titles in six years and captured the NBA Championship in 2019.

History

The Raptors were not Toronto’s first professional basketball team. In 1946, the Toronto Huskies played in the newly formed Basketball Association of America (BAA). The team lasted only one year before it folded, while the BAA merged with another league in 1949 to form the NBA.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the NBA was experiencing a boom in popularity and began a series of expansions to several new cities. With the NBA wanting to establish a foothold in the Canadian market, a group of investors called Professional Basketball Franchise (Canada) Inc. (PBF), organized a bid for a new team. The group included Canadian businessman John Bitove and retired NBA star Isiah Thomas. In November 1993, PBF was awarded the rights for an NBA franchise in Toronto for a then-record $125 million.

In early 1994, the team sought fan input for a new name. Among the top ideas submitted were the Beavers, Bobcats, Dragons, Hogs, Raptors, Tarantulas, T-Rex, and Terriers. Team officials chose the Raptors, most likely to capitalize on the success of the movie Jurassic Park, which had dominated the box office a year earlier. Raptor was short for velociraptor, one of the signature dinosaurs in the film. A uniform-clad version of the dinosaur dribbling a basketball became the team’s first logo. Toronto rebranded its logo in 2015, changing it to a silver basketball gouged with three claw marks and encircled by the team name.

The team’s home was to be a new arena being built in downtown Toronto, but with the completion of the construction still years away, the Raptors played their first four seasons at SkyDome, a large multi-purpose stadium now called the Rogers Centre. In the team’s inaugural game on November 3, 1995, the Raptors defeated the New Jersey Nets 94–79. However, the rest of the season did not live up to the team’s initial success. Toronto finished the 1995–1996 season with a 21–61 record, the third-worst mark in the NBA. The next three seasons featured similar outcomes, including a 16–66 record in 1997–1998 that stands as the worst season in team history as of 2020. In 1996, Bitove sold his stake in the Raptors to business partner Allan Slaight; two years later, the team was purchased by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, a company that also owns the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts, and five other professional sports franchises.

The Raptors’ fortunes began to turn around in 1998 with the selection of Vince Carter in the NBA Draft. Carter, a collegiate star at the University of North Carolina, anchored a turnaround that saw the Raptors win 45 games in 1999–2000 and make their first playoff appearance. In February 1999, the team also moved into its new arena, the Air Canada Centre, which was renamed Scotiabank Arena in 2018.

Toronto made the playoffs in each of the next two seasons and won its first playoff series in April 2001, beating the New York Knicks 3–2. In the next series, the Raptors took the Philadelphia 76ers to a seventh game before losing in heartbreaking fashion 88–87. The team could not add to its string of successes during the 2002–2003 season and finished with the league’s third-worst record. For much of the next decade, the Raptors continued to struggle. They did make two playoff appearances in 2006–2007 and 2007–2008 and won a division title in 2006–2007 but were knocked out of the playoffs in the first round both times.

In 2013, the Raptors began a rebuilding program under new general manager Masai Ujiri. Ujiri’s reshuffling of the team’s roster paid off in 2013–2014 as Toronto won its division and made the playoffs for the first time in six years. That success continued for the next four seasons, with the Raptors capturing their division three times and winning a franchise-record 59 games in 2017–2018. However, despite being one of the NBA’s best teams in the regular season, the Raptors always came up short in the playoffs.

That lack of playoff success prompted Ujiri to fire head coach Dwane Casey after the 2017–2018 season, even though Casey had been named NBA Coach of the Year. Ujiri replaced Casey with Nick Nurse and pulled off a stunning trade, acquiring superstar Kawhi Leonard from the San Antonio Spurs. The moves paid dividends as the Raptors won 58 games and advanced to the 2019 NBA Finals. Their opponent was the heavily favored Golden State Warriors who had won three NBA titles in the previous four years. Led by Leonard, the Raptors surprised Golden State by jumping out to a 3–1 series lead before winning the title in game six. It was Toronto’s first NBA title and the first major championship by any Canadian team since the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series. The Raptors were once again among the best NBA teams during the 2019–2020 season, winning 46 games as of early March 2020.

Notable players

Three players or coaches who were connected to the Raptors have been named to the Basketball Hall of Fame, but most of their career highlights occurred with other teams. Lenny Wilkens coached the team from 2000 to 2003 and has the second-most coaching victories in NBA history as of 2020. Hakeem Olajuwon played one season (2001–2002) with the Raptors but played most of his career with the Houston Rockets. Tracy McGrady was drafted by Toronto in 1997 but became an All-Star player with the Orlando Magic and the Rockets.

Toronto’s first-ever draft pick, Damon Stoudamire, won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 1996 but was traded to Portland during the 1997–1998 season. Vince Carter played for Toronto from 1998 to 2004 and made five All-Star appearances as a Raptor. As of 2020, Carter still holds the franchise record for most average points per game with 23.4. When his playing career is completed, Carter will almost assuredly be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Toronto’s brief success from 2006–2008 was fueled by Chris Bosh, who was drafted in 2003 out of Georgia Tech University. Bosh made five All-Star games with Toronto before signing with the Miami Heat as a free agent in 2010. Bosh remained the team’s all-time leading rebounder as of 2020 and was second in points scored in franchise history. The all-time team leader in points scored is DeMar DeRozan, a four-time All-Star who was drafted by the Raptors in 2009. DeRozan, who is also the franchise leader in games played with 675, scored 13,296 points from 2009 to 2018. In addition to being part of the team’s resurgence in the late 2010s, DeRozan was the key piece in the trade that brought Kawhi Leonard to Toronto.

Another integral part of the Raptors’ success in the 2010s was Kyle Lowry, who was traded to Toronto in 2012. Lowry made six All-Star teams from 2015 to 2020 and is the franchise leader in three-pointers, steals, and assists and all-time third in points scored. When taking into account his career body of work, Leonard is one of the most accomplished players to play in Toronto. Known for both his offensive and defensive ability, Leonard won an NBA title with San Antonio in 2014 and was named finals MVP. With Toronto, he averaged 26.6 points per game during the 2018–2019 season and was named to the All-Star team. However, Leonard left the Raptors after only one season to sign a free-agent deal with the Los Angeles Clippers.

As of 2020, the Raptors had not retired any uniform numbers. In addition to its 2019 NBA championship, the team had made twelve playoff appearances and won six division titles. Dwane Casey, who coached the team from 2012 to 2018, is the all-time franchise leader in coaching victories with 558.

Bibliography

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Gay, Carlan. “The Definitive Top 10 Ranking of Greatest Toronto Raptors of All-Time.” NBA.com, 29 Jan. 2020, ca.nba.com/news/the-definitive-top-ten-ranking-of-greatest-toronto-raptors-of-all-time/1cdui3qcqtvuc1vl0jy3qi9r7m. Accessed 21 Mar. 2020.

“Laying the Groundwork for the NBA in Toronto.” NBA.com, 2020, www.nba.com/raptors/history/raptors‗history.html. Accessed 21 Mar. 2020.

“Our Company.” Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, 2020, www.mlse.com/our-company. Accessed 21 Mar. 2020.

“Toronto Raptors.” Basketball Reference, 2020, www.basketball-reference.com/teams/TOR/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2020.

“Toronto Raptors Career Leaders.” Basketball Reference, 2020, www.basketball-reference.com/teams/TOR/leaders‗career.html. Accessed 21 Mar. 2020.

“Toronto Raptors Team History.” Sports Team History, 2020, sportsteamhistory.com/toronto-raptors. Accessed 21 Mar. 2020.

Wong, Alex, Sean Woodley, and Jack Armstrong. We The Champs: The Toronto Raptors’ Historic Run to the 2019 NBA Title. Triumph Books, 2019.