How many Canadians have suited up for the Toronto Raptors?
Tracking the rise of NBA players from the Great White North.
The year the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies entered the NBA, there were as many Canadian players in the league as Canadian teams.
In that 1995–96 season, only Toronto-born Rick Fox and Montrealer Bill Wennington represented their home country on NBA rosters. But that season was also a jumping-off point for a major period of growth for Canadian representation.
The following year saw Victoria’s Steve Nash enter the league as a first-round pick, beginning a career in which he’d earn Canada’s first and second league MVP trophies. The Grizzlies eventually relocated to Memphis, but the Raptors parlayed a few strong draft choices — Vince Carter, among them — into a series of playoff berths and a major coming-out party at the 2000 NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
All of that created a surge in Canadian interest in hoops, and eventually major growth in the number of Canadian players in the league:
- Since 1995–96, a total of 52 Canadians have played at least one regular-season game in the NBA.
- In 2022–23 alone, a record 26 players did so.
- Two Canadians have been chosen first overall in the NBA Draft, and four have played in the NBA All-Star Game.
Still, home-country representation on Canada’s lone remaining team was slower to develop over that period. It wasn’t until the 2011–12 season that a “local” took the floor for the Raptors.
From that point, however, it’s become rare that the team doesn’t roster a Canadian. In 2021–22, three Canadians suited up for the Raptors alone.
Here’s a chart showing the growth of Canadians in the league, and the Raptors, broken down by year:
How many Canadian Raptors have there been?
To date, seven Canadians have suited up for the Raptors in regular-season games. Here’s a breakdown, in order of when each player joined the team:
Jamaal Magloire
Hometown:
Toronto
Raptors tenure:
2011–12
Eureka! It’s kind of hard to believe now, but the Raptors played 16 full seasons before rostering a Canadian. When they finally did, they signed local legend Magloire to a one-year deal in what would be his final season.
Magloire had played high school hoops at Toronto’s Eastern Commerce before suiting up for four years at Kentucky. He made the NBA in 2000, and quickly established himself as a tough, big-bodied defender and rebounder. He made one all-star team in 2004, becoming just the second Canadian — after Nash — to do so.
The Toronto native played sparingly for the Raptors in 2011–12, but immediately joined the team as a basketball development consultant and community ambassador when it was done. He earned a championship ring in that role as the Raptors won the NBA title in 2019.
Cory Joseph
Hometown:
Toronto
Raptors tenure:
2015–2017
Joseph joined the team after spending four years in San Antonio, where he learned the ins and outs of the NBA from three future Hall of Famers and contributed to the Spurs’ 2014 title.
In his two years in Toronto, Joseph played a pivotal sixth-man role off the bench and imported a winning mindset from San Antonio. He also helped in the early-days development of players like Fred VanVleet and Delon Wright, who went on to have a ton of success with the team after Joseph signed with Indiana in 2017.
Anthony Bennett
Hometown:
Brampton
Raptors tenure:
2015–16
A star prep player and then an efficient wrecking ball in his one year in the NCAA, Bennett became the first Canadian to go first overall in the NBA Draft. However, he had a rocky entry into the league for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2013–14 season, and never quite found his footing through four years in the league.
The Raptors signed Bennett as a free agent ahead of his third season, but he didn’t make much of an impact playing behind a crowded forward rotation that included Luis Scola, Patrick Patterson, and James Johnson. He amassed a total of 84 minutes in 19 games for the team before being waived in February.
Chris Boucher
Hometown:
Montreal
Raptors tenure:
2018–present
Boucher’s path to becoming an NBA regular is the stuff of legends. Born in Saint Lucia and raised in Montreal, he didn’t play organized basketball growing up and dropped out of high school at 16. He was eventually scouted while filling in for a team at a hoops tourney, and later worked his way through the U.S. college ranks.
Upon making the NBA, he won a title in his rookie year with the Warriors, and then got another with the Raptors after signing in the summer of 2018.
In the seasons since, he’s become a steady contributor of three-pointers and blocks. He’s also now the franchise leader in basically everything but assists (Joseph still has that one) among his Canadian counterparts.
Oshae Brissett
Hometown:
Toronto
Raptors tenure:
2019–20
Cue up the Willie Nelson, because Brissett has been everywhere, man. He was born in Toronto, grew up in nearby Mississauga, then played prep in both the U.S. and in Orangeville.
Brissett then went undrafted after two years at Syracuse, but signed with the Raptors as a free agent in the summer of 2019 to return to where it all started. He played 19 games for the team in the truncated 2019–20 season — averaging 1.9 points per game off the bench — before being cut after the season.
The Toronto product landed with Indiana in 2020–21 and has averaged just shy of 10 points per game in 88 appearances over the last two seasons with the Pacers.
Khem Birch
Hometown:
Montreal
Raptors tenure:
2021–2023
After a standout final year at UNLV in 2013–14 in which he averaged a double-double with nearly four blocks per game (not a typo), Birch somehow went undrafted. He then bounced from the NBA’s development league to European stops in Turkey and Greece, before finally getting his NBA shot with the Orlando Magic.
The Raptors acquired Birch from Orlando down the stretch of the 2020–21 season, and he became an immediate contributor and a bright light in an otherwise dark season spent playing “home” games in Florida due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Birch played a total of 94 games for Toronto before getting dealt to San Antonio at the 2023 NBA trade deadline.
Dalano Banton
Hometown:
Toronto
Raptors tenure:
2021–present
Banton came to the Raptors at the 2021 NBA Draft. The Rexdale native was a unique prospect as a six-foot-seven point guard, but in recent years the Raptors have sought out his particular combo of size and skill — so the fit made perfect sense the moment he was picked 46th overall.
Prior to his 2021–22 rookie season, Banton was even able to play Canadian welcoming committee to fellow Raptors draftee Scottie Barnes. In a Twitter video, Banton took it upon himself to teach his new teammate how to talk like a local — including the pronunciation of “Turonno.”
This is an updated version of an article originally published in 2022.
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