Toronto Raptors
National Basketball Association team in Toronto, Ontario
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The Toronto Raptors are a professional basketball team based in Toronto, Ontario, that competes in the National Basketball Association (NBA). They represent Canada's sole NBA franchise and are significant as the country's highest-level professional basketball presence.
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The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto . The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games at Scotiabank Arena, which it shares with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League (NHL). The team was founded in 1995 as part of the NBA's expansion into Canada, along with the Vancouver Grizzlies. Since the 2001–02 season, the Raptors have been the only Canadian team in the league, as the Grizzlies relocated from Vancouver to Memphis, Tennessee.
As with most expansion teams, the Raptors struggled in their early years, but after the acquisition of Vince Carter through a draft-day trade in 1998, the franchise set league-attendance records and made the NBA playoffs in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Carter was instrumental in leading the team to their first playoff series win in 2001, where they advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals. During the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons, they failed to make significant progress, and Carter was traded in 2004 to the New Jersey Nets.