“…like a pack of Raptors…”
“You could make jokes, but we would come at you like a pack of Raptors.”
– Tracy Murray, Toronto Raptor, 1995-96 season
If you watch the National Basketball Association, you might think the Raptors brought high-stakes hoops to Toronto. But 1995, when the NBA came to town, wasn’t the beginning, and doesn’t tell the whole story. It’s more instructive, and accurate, to examine the city’s basketball scene from the ground up. This view doesn’t just include pro games at Maple Leaf Gardens in the 1940s with Toronto’s first basketball team, The Huskies, but legendary city high schools – like Bathurst Heights, Eastern Commerce, Oakwood, and Runnymede – that incubated top-tier talent for decades. If you witnessed those classic 1990s battles between the Toronto All-Stars and Team Michigan at Varsity Arena, you know the sport has deep roots in our city.