History of Toronto Raptors - The Toronto Raptors are a professional basketball team. The Toronto Raptors are a team that plays in the highest level of competition in the world.
The Toronto Raptors are a professional
basketball team. The Toronto Raptors are a team that plays in the highest level
of competition in the world. The league that they play in is the National
Basketball Association. The Toronto Raptors have been around for a while, but
they are still one of the newer teams in the National Basketball
Association(NBA).
The Toronto Raptors have been around since
they were an expansion team in 1995. They were part of a two team expansion to
the NBA. The other team that joined that season was the Vancouver Grizzlies
organization. They were both additions to the NBA that joined in Canada. This
brought the NBA to Canada.
Unfortunately the story of the Grizzlies in
Vancouver was not a very long one. Just a few years after, the Grizzlies
relocated to Memphis, Tennessee. This leaves the Raptors as the only team in
the NBA that currently plays their home games outside of the United States.
The story of the Raptors hasn’t always been
a great one. They have not had a tremendous amount of success over the years.
They have however, been good about finding some key players for the team and
fans to rally around over the years.
This all started with their top draft pick
Damon Stoudamire. Stoudamire was a highly touted point guard that had the
makeup of a great player. He would join a struggling team, but showed flashes
of brilliance.
Stoudamire was an electric player that kept
the fans happy in the early years of the organization. He had the quickness and
scoring ability that brought him Rookie of the Year honors in 1995-96. He
averaged 19 points and 9 assists that season. These are exceptional number for
any point guard, but particularly for a rookie. The team showed flashes of
brilliance in those days of Stoudamire, beating the league’s top teams. They
were however unable to beat the teams that were of lower caliber and were not
able to find sustained success.
The biggest player in the history of the
franchise is without doubt Vince Carter. Carter was acquired in a draft day
deal and was a star early on. He had athletic ability that is compared to the
greatest players that have ever played the game. He is well known for his
scoring ability and his tremendous dunking skills. He put on a show that
brought more excitement to Toronto than the franchise has ever seen. Not only
that, but he managed to lead the team to the playoffs several times over the
years.
Eventually there was a falling out with
Carter and he moved on to another franchise. The team eventually made another
draft day to remember by picking up Chris Bosh. Bosh was one of the league’s
best big men in his time in Toronto. He managed to score and rebound. He was a
key part of the only division title in the history of the franchise in the
2006-2007 season.
Bosh has also now
moved on and it looks as though the team will need a new face for the franchise
in 2010.
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