Would you play/live in Toronto?
Toronto is a great city. I would say all NBA players would love to VISIT Toronto and spent time hanging out here, but then most Americans would not want to settle down to LIVE in Toronto. For NBA players, they need to cross the border all the time if they play in Toronto where for most other players, they only need to do it twice at max. There are other things like TAX that would not be too attractive to Americans.
The weather in Toronto is also not ideal for southern Americans (as the majority of the NBA season is during the Winter). There are other cities with the same issue, but it's an easy choice compare to weather in LA or South Beach.
I guess that is why the Raptors is going the Euro approach. I am not against it, but we just happened to get a collection of soft Euros. (Let's hope Kleiza is tough.) Guys like Marc Gasol and Luis Scola would probably be the tough guys that would fit the Raptors Euro theme. (I know Scola is Argentinian, but his playing background is Euroball).
The article is right that if the Raptors can develop into a serious championship contender and build some "history", it can be one of the best cities to play in.
That's why I am always pro-tanking for a few seasons and build the team around young players in rookie contracts. These guys would likely be locked up for over 5 years. That's enough time to build a solid young core into a pretty good team that can attract players to stay.
The Raptors have not been "suck" enough to go that route for the past a few years (constantly getting late lottery picks just make it tough to build with).
Toronto is a great city, you're just going to pay a lot more in taxes. GST, PST + higher levels of income taxation. Difficult to convince a player to take less money (after the fact) to come to an unfamiliar place where their US exposure will be greatly reduced.
(I'm Canadian, so this isn't as bias as you might think)
It's the same climate as Detroit, New York, New Jersey, Minny, Chicago...snow in the winter, humid in the summer, so don't use that as an excuse.
I think there's more of just a stigma around living in Canada, these players don't know anything about it, and they don't feel comfortable living in another country, even though there isn't much difference culturally between the two.
toronto is a great city n players should be happy to play here compared to other places like milwake or cleveland. toronto is one of the best citys in the world and its the only team that the whole country supprts. chris bosh was the face of canada basketball (and hes not even candian). players dont understand how lucky they are to even have a job.
bosh yea ur a good player and i supported u since u were drafted y becuz u played 4 my city. u were never a leader but u were styll the franchise of our team. u never even won us a playoff series, but thats soft u never had a consistant supporting cast. but after hearing u quit on team and took an extra 6 games when we could hav made the playoffs.
i lost all respect 4 this guy im gonna talk trash to all bosh fans this guy sucks. i cant wait till miami comes to toronto im gonna go just to booooooo his quiting ass. this guy didnt do &$#%#&@! 4 us and is talking how toronto is diffrent.
toronto allowed him to develope he was given the oppertunity here we supported him and he should feel lucky to have a gob just ask a.i. , t-mac, or shaq
Vancouver Griz was a failure, but this was not because of the city or being in Canada.
It was more because the team was seriously mismanaged out of the gate and they had the an idiot running to the show long enough to completely destroy the franchise in Stu Jackson.
They have never had any success for the 6 years in Vancouver.
At least, the Toronto Raptors managed to draft a few stars and improved to the point of making the playoff.
Vancouver Griz was unable to get a single star even though they were constantly taking top 10 pick players.
1995 - Bryant Reeves #6 (Raptors got Damon Stoudamire #7)
1996 - Shareef Abdur-Rahim #3 (Raptors got Marcus Camby #2, but there were tones of stars in 1996 draft)
1997 - Antonio Daniels #4 (Raptors got Tracy McGrady #9)
1998 - Mike Bibby #2 (Raptors got Vince Carter via trade for Antawn Jamison, quite a lot of players better than Mike Bibby in the draft)
1999 - Steve Francis #2 (well, Francis went public on not going to Vancouver, but then if the GM was smart, he probably could have drafted another guy or traded down a few spots than to get a headcase in Francis and there are Baron Davis, Odom, Andre Miller, Marion)
2000 - worst draft in the past 2 decades, so nothing really they can do, but the Griz had #2.
There is not a single super star out of 5 top 5 picks. That's enough to keep a franchise at the bottom and destory any fanbase.
You act like Rahim and Bibby were duds??? Rahim was a carrer 18-8 guy, despite having a sub par five years of that span. And Bibby had some good years as well, not quite a superstar, but he didn't suck. I agree with the other picks, and had Francis not been an &$#%#&@! and actually played there, who knows?
I don't know what they were thinking taking Big Country Bryant Reeves or Antonio Daniels so early, what a waste of picks...
It definitely hurts not drafting well, but the Stu Jackson thing is on the money, he was horrendous for the franchise and in turn got them shipped to Memphis.
Rahim and Bibby are not super stars, they are pretty good players having solid career, but would you consider Rahim and Bibby to be real star players? They are close, but compare to the like of Vince Carter, TMac, Camby, those two really won't stand out. Stu Jackson really screwed up all his high draft picks for the Vancouver Griz.
Regardless of how bad a GM Isiah Thomas was, he really got an eye for talent. He would have made a great scout (although it seems that he didn't really consider character and mental makeup when he evaluated players).
http://www.tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=328768
This is an article about how NBA players don't want to play for the Raptors while other Americans do like the city of Toronto. What do you think about the article and playing and living in Toronto?