Toronto Raptors

The Toronto Raptors is a professional Canadian basketball team, based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball League, as a member of the nba's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. They play their home games at Arena Scotiabank where they compete with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League. The band was formed in 1995, along with the Vancouver Grizzlies, as part of the expansion of the NBA into Canada. Since the 2001–02 season when the Grizzlies relocated from Vancouver to Memphis, Tennessee, the Raptors were the only Canadian-based team in the League. After Carter had resigned Chris Bosh emerged as Team Leader. Bryan Colangelo was named general manager for the 2006–07 season, and the Raptors qualified in five years for their first playoff berth to win the Atlantic Division title with a mix of Bosh, 2006 first overall draft picker Andrea Bargnani and a roster revamp. In the 2007–08 season they qualified for the playoffs but struggled to reach the post-season in each of the next 5 seasons. Colangelo overhauled the squad's roster for the 2009–10 season in an effort to persuade potential free agent Bosh to return, but Bosh left to sign with the Miami Heat in July 2010, starting another phase of rebuilding for the Raptors. Masai Ujiri succeeded Colangelo in 2013 and helped usher in a new growth era, headed by a backcourt pair, DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. The Raptors returned to the playoffs the next year and were a consistent playoff team every year of Ujiri's tenure. Under Ujiri, the team won five Division championships, and recorded their most productive regular season in 2018. However, the team's failure to reach the NBA Finals resulted in Ujiri fire head coach Dwane Casey at the conclusion of the 2018 playoffs, and conduct the high-profile swap of DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green later that year, as well as acquiring Marc Gasol before the trade deadline. The Raptors won their first crown in the 2019 playoffs in the Eastern Division, and advanced to their first NBA finals where they earned their first NBA championship. Initially, the team's first logo portrayed an furious, red Velociraptor wearing white shoes and bare toe claws dribbling a basketball, inspired by the Jurassic Park film's popularity and the appeal of dinosaurs to younger audiences who would grow up as franchise fans. Orange, soft gold, black and "True Naismith" became the squad's original colors. The logo proved to be very popular with fans, as by the end of 1994 the Raptors were seventh in merchandise sales in the league. For the 2008−09 season, the franchise dropped the purple hue from the original logo, making bright red the primary hue of both the team's logo and jerseys. On December 19, 2014, the Toronto Raptors released a new primary logo, which the team described as "a triangular shield with a ball torn by an unmistakable assault by a Raptor" The Toronto Raptors used different court art throughout the history of the organization. The Raptors used the Huskies logo for retro games, so long as the Raptors are among the NBA's newest teams. The Raptors will use the Welcome Toronto logo in some titles beginning in early 2018, since the Raptors share strong relations with Toronto-based rapper Drake, as well as the 3D Raptors logo. Also printed on the courthouse are the name and logo of Scotiabank partner Tangerine Bank. The Raptors jerseys debuted during the 1995–96 season, and worn until 1999, had black and white tears as pinstripes, edgy asymmetric lettering, a raptor claw on one side of the pants, and a raptor on the other side biting the 'T' of the 'TR' franchise logo; and featured a red giant and aggressive Velociraptor dribbling a basketball in the middle of the shirt. The Raptors unveiled some new uniforms in 1999−2000, revealing a distinctive road jacket with a purple forehead and a black back. In 2003−04, the Raptors unveiled a solid red alternate which would become the main road jersey in 2006−07 when purple was dropped from the club's color scheme. From 2008−09 to 2014−15, the Raptors unveiled their alternate black road uniforms which were in turn worn as often as the original red ones.