'We the North' The Toronto Raptors : From Jokes to Champs
Basketball Stories: The Toronto Raptors - From Jokes To Champs
New writer Roger Cumberbatch explores the rise and rise of the former NBA Champions, from the new franchise in the early 90s to sitting on the top of the pile in 2020.
Ladies and gentlemen, your 2019 NBA Champions, the Toronto Raptors. Not only was their championship run an amazing story, but they were poised to be in a position to repeat as champions in the 2020 season, which ultimately was won by the Lebron James inspired LA Lakers.
Nobody that considered themselves a basketball expert, expected what happened on June 13th, 2019. From Jokes to Champs, the story of the dynamic path of the Toronto Raptors from humble beginnings, to sitting on the throne as the reigning NBA Champions.
The Origin of the Toronto Raptors
Rewind to the year 1993, and the cries for a professional basketball team to play in Canada were finally heard. The NBA’s 28th franchise, the Raptors were born for an expansion fee of $125 million dollars.
The team was introduced with team General Manager Isiah Thomas bursting through the paper version of the team’s logo, a giant red dinosaur.
Pinstripes, with a machination of purple, white, red, and black, the Raptors were seen as more of a cartoon character, with no hope on the horizon of winning it all.
It took 2 years, but on November 3rd, 1995, the Toronto Raptors played their first official NBA game. The Raptors won 94-79 over the New Jersey Nets, behind 10 points and 10 assists, from their 7th overall draft pick, guard Damon Stoudamire.
A win in their first ever franchise regular season game was a nice story, but after finishing the season 21-61, the Raptors were still going to be the laughing stocks of the league for many, many, years to come.
The team played in a domed stadium, called the Skydome, which has now become the Rogers’ Centre. Toronto would limp through the next 4 seasons with losing records, but that changed in the Fall of 1999.
The Raptors would finish the 82-game season with a 45-37 record, and earn their 1st berth in the NBA playoffs. The team was swept 3-0 in a 5-game series versus the New York Knicks, but the team was now on the map.
5th overall draft pick Vince Carter, acquired in a draft-night trade, nicknamed “Air Canada”, took the team to new heights of exposure and respectability with his play on the court.
Air Canada Takes Flight - The Arrival of Vince Carter
Carter won the 1999 Rookie Of The Year Award, and cemented his name as one of the greatest dunkers in NBA history, with his jaw-dropping performance and subsequent win of the 2000 NBA Dunk Contest. Toronto was now being featured on the big networks in the United States like TNT and NBC, so many eyes were following the team outside the Canadian borders.
After some promising seasons, the team was underachieving with the level of talent that it had in the locker room. With Vince Carter as their leader, the team struggled and failed to become anything more than mediocre.
The relationship soured between Carter and the team, resulting in trade that would devastate the team for more years to follow.
The Chris Bosh Show
It was not until 2003 when the Raptors drafted Forward Chris Bosh, 4th overall from Georgia Tech University, that the future looked bright for Toronto.
The journey down the tunnel towards the light, was another rough ride for the franchise player Bosh, and his Raptors. Injuries, disgruntled stars, several key changes to the coaching staff and management, would follow the team like a rainy black cloud until the end of the 2007 regular season.
Bosh would lead Toronto to their 1st Atlantic Division title, a final record of 47-35, and the 3rd seed in the 2007 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs.
Executive, Brian Colangelo was named the 2007 NBA Executive of the Year, for putting together the team that looked like it was well on it’s way to league prominence.
More ups and downs and another division title was not enough for the Raptors to take that next step. Star player Bosh had elevated his game in every season that he played, including having his best statistical year in his final season with the team.
Bosh would let his frustration with losing lead him to joining Dwyane Wade and Lebron James in Miami as a member of the Heat.
With Demar Came Hope
Once again, without Bosh, the new burden of carrying the team was placed on the backs of Demar Derozan, and Kyle Lowry.
Derozan was drafted and Lowry was acquired in a trade from the Memphis Grizzlies. In 2013, out was Colangelo as team GM, and in came his replacement, Masai Ujiri.
Ujiri was young, successful with his previous employer the Denver Nuggets, and aggressive. Ujiri had a vision of championship rings dancing in his head every night, with every roster change.
Ujiri stayed loyal to new coach Dwayne Casey, who led the team to even higher levels, franchise highs in wins every season once Casey and Ujiri joined their basketball minds together.
Toronto won 56 games in 2016, 4th overall best record in the NBA, and would roll through the playoffs as the #2 seed in the 2016 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs, losing to the eventual NBA champs, Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Believe In Masai
The Raptors would mire in the shadows of James for the next 2 seasons, but everything changed for the better in the off-season of 2019.
In an unforeseen, bold, and franchise-altering series of moves, team GM Ujiri fired Head Coach Casey, who had won the 2018 NBA Coach Of The Year Award, and traded their franchise player Demar Derozan to the San Antonio Spurs for Kawhi Leonard.
Leonard would use what is now a commonplace practice league-wide known as “load management”, and save his best performances arguably of his career, for the playoffs of 2019.
Leonard hit one of the most iconic shots in NBA history to eliminate the Philadelphia 76ers, moving the team one step closer to the NBA Finals that they so desperately could taste.
After a rocky start to the Eastern Conference Finals, and going down 0-2 to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Raptors reeled off 4 straight wins to reach the NBA Finals for the first time in team history.
Of course, by now, everyone knows that Toronto won the 2019 NBA Finals by defeating the Golden State Warriors, the previous champions, 4 games to 2 in the best of 7-series.
Final Buzzer
We The North has risen beyond just a rallying cry.
Support from team Ambassador Drake, and all of the attention he brings to the team that represents his city, has kept the Toronto Raptors in the public spotlight since their victory that made them NBA royalty in the summer of 2019.
