The Struggles and History of the Toronto Raptors

The Toronto Raptors was first put together in 1993 when a franchise for an NBA team was given to Toronto, Canada. This expansion of the NBA to include Canadian cities in the list of cities with NBA teams resulted in the creation of the Toronto Raptors as well as the Vancouver Grizzlies. While both franchises were awarded in 1993, these two teams, the Toronto Raptors and the Grizzlies from Vancouver, did not get to see some NBA action until 1995.

A year before the Toronto Raptors was set to hit the hard court; the team unveiled their logo as well as introduced their General Manager to the world in a televised event. Since 1994 was the year that saw the popularity of Jurassic Park breaking box office records, the logo and the name which was chosen out of thousands of entries was one that played on the popularity of the movie. The General Manager of the team was also introduced at the same time and the GM of the Toronto Raptors turned out to be no other than retired Pistons player Isaiah Thomas. Also called the baby-faced assassin for his on-court prowess, Thomas took on the challenge that the Toronto Raptors gave him.

The first few years of the Toronto Raptors under the management of Thomas was pretty trying for him with some of his draft picks and staffing decisions meeting with negative feedback from the fans of the team. Eventually, Thomas resigned from being the general manager of the team but not until he tried and failed to get the team for his own when he tried to bid for team ownership of the Raptors in 1998. This failed bid and the not so favorable results of the past year made Thomas decide to leave the Raptors, leaving the team with Glen Grunwald in charge.