The 2019 Toronto Raptors

Our sports culture guide covers We The North as a slogan. This page is about the single run that turned it into something closer to a permanent civic identity: the Toronto Raptors' 2019 championship.

The buzzer-beater

On May 12, 2019, in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against Philadelphia, Kawhi Leonard hit a shot that bounced on the rim four times before dropping through — the first Game 7 buzzer-beater in NBA playoff history, sending Toronto to its first-ever Eastern Conference Finals appearance. Leonard finished the game with 41 points on 39 shot attempts, the most field goal attempts in a Game 7 in NBA history.

Beating Golden State for the title

The Raptors went on to beat the Golden State Warriors — a team that had reached five straight NBA Finals — four games to two, clinching the championship on June 13, 2019 with a 114–110 win. It made Toronto the first team based outside the United States ever to win an NBA championship.

A record-breaking parade

The victory parade five days later drew an estimated one to two million people into downtown Toronto — organizers themselves weren't certain of the exact final count, only that it exceeded expectations by a wide margin, making it among the largest single-day public gatherings in Canadian history. Roughly 56% of the entire Canadian population watched at least part of the Finals on TV, a genuinely national audience for what had, for most of the franchise's history, been a regional sport.

Sources

• CBC News — Kawhi Leonard Hits Buzzer Beater for Wild Series Win Over Sixers
• Forbes — Toronto Raptors Draw Massive Crowds to Victory Parade and Rally
• Wikipedia — 2019 Toronto Raptors Championship Parade

Related dictionary terms

More in the Toronto Guide

• The History of Toronto — How a fort on Lake Ontario became Canada's largest city — founding, war,…
• Toronto Neighbourhoods Guide — A general guide to Toronto's neighbourhoods — where downtown actually is, what…
• Toronto Landmarks — The buildings and sites that define Toronto's skyline and street level — from…
• Toronto Food Culture — Toronto's food scene isn't one cuisine with some diversity mixed in — it's…
• Toronto Sports Culture — Toronto is one of a handful of cities with a major team in every big North…
• Toronto Festivals & Events — From the largest Caribbean carnival in North America to one of the world's…
• Toronto's Multiculturalism, By The Numbers — Toronto's reputation as one of the most diverse cities on Earth isn't marketing…
• Toronto Transit: The TTC — Canada's first subway, a streetcar network locals fought to save, and North…
• Toronto Parks & Green Space — A car-free island park in Lake Ontario, a 400-acre park with an endangered oak…
• Toronto Media & Entertainment — Toronto has been a major film and TV production centre since the late 1970s —…
• Toronto's Economy: Bay Street — Toronto has been Canada's financial capital since the 1970s, when Bay Street…
• Toronto's Universities — Three major universities, three very different founding stories — and one of…
• Every Toronto Nickname, Explained — Toronto has accumulated more nicknames than most cities its size — some…
• Toronto's Indigenous History — Toronto's own history — and even its name — starts long before York was founded…
• Toronto Weather & Climate — Toronto runs a genuine humid continental climate — meaning real winters and…
• Toronto Architecture — A style found almost nowhere else — the Victorian bay-and-gable rowhouse —…
• Toronto Art & Public Art — One of North America's largest art museums, and — a few blocks away — one of…
• Toronto's Waterfront — A former industrial shipping and rail strip along Lake Ontario, being rebuilt…
• Church-Wellesley Village — Toronto's LGBTQ+ neighbourhood has roots going back to the 1970s, a defining…
• Toronto's Medical History — One of the most consequential medical discoveries of the 20th century happened…
• Toronto's Tech Scene — Toronto has quietly become one of North America's largest tech hubs — enough…
• Toronto Public Library — Toronto runs the busiest urban public library system in the world — more…
• Toronto Housing & Cost of Living — Toronto is consistently ranked among the least affordable housing markets in…
• The CNE ("The Ex") — Toronto's end-of-summer ritual: an agricultural fair turned mega-event, running…
• Famous People From Toronto — A city that produced a Nobel Prize-winning medical discovery and a…
• Toronto's Airports — Canada's busiest airport, and — a fraction of its size but a straight shot to…
• Toronto's City Government — How Toronto is actually governed post-amalgamation — the mayor and city council…
• Toronto's Comedy Scene — A Chicago import that put down roots in an old firehouse in 1973 turned into…
• Toronto Zoo & the Ontario Science Centre — One of the largest zoos in the world by area, and a beloved Brutalist science…
• Toronto's Craft Beer Scene — A city that drank mostly big-brand beer for most of the 20th century now…
• Is Toronto Safe? — Toronto's reputation is safer than its headlines sometimes suggest — the actual…
• Toronto's Ethnic Enclaves — Beyond the general neighbourhood map, Toronto has a specific set of streets…
• Toronto's Ravine System — Hidden beneath the street grid is the largest ravine system of any city in the…
• Toronto's Newspapers — Canada's national newspaper industry is disproportionately headquartered in…
• Cycling in Toronto — Toronto cyclists were lobbying City Hall for better infrastructure in 1896. The…
• Religious Diversity in Toronto — Toronto's 19th-century religious makeup was overwhelmingly Protestant. The…
• Toronto's Coffee Culture — Toronto's independent café scene took off precisely when the big chains…
• Union Station — Toronto's grand 1927 train hall is the single busiest piece of transportation…
• GO Transit — Where the TTC ends, GO Transit picks up — the regional rail and bus system that…
• Ontario Place — A Modernist waterfront park that drew millions of visitors a year in the 1970s,…
• Toronto's Worst Storms — Our general climate guide covers Toronto's normal weather. This is the abnormal…
• Toronto's Cocktail & Distillery Scene — The same Victorian-era industrial site that once housed the British Empire's…
• Toronto Broadcasting History — Toronto's broadcasting industry produced a genuine world-first in 1927,…
• Scarborough — From a rural township of 3,000 people to a district that tripled its population…
• Etobicoke — From a rural township incorporated in 1850 to a postwar suburb that grew from…
• North York — Almost single-handedly reshaped by one 25-year mayor, North York built its own…
• Mississauga — In 1975 it had 235,000 people. Under one mayor's 36-year tenure, it grew into…
• Brampton — Once North America's largest flower-growing business, later one of the…
• Vaughan — Canada's largest theme park put Vaughan on the map in 1981. It took until 2017…
• York — The smallest and most densely working-class of the six municipalities that…
• East York — Formed from the 1967 merger of a working-class township and the town of…
• Markham — A 19th-century farming village named for an Archbishop of York became Canada's…
• Oakville — Founded in 1827 by a colonel who built his fortune on white oak timber,…
• Durham Region & Oshawa — East of Toronto, Durham Region's largest city built its entire identity around…
• Richmond Hill — Built up as a stop along Yonge Street for farmers heading to Toronto's markets,…
• Ajax — Most Ontario towns are named after English hometowns or local landowners. Ajax…
• Whitby — Long before it was a Toronto commuter suburb, Whitby was a serious 19th-century…
• Pickering — When Pickering Nuclear Generating Station came online in the early 1970s, it…
• Burlington — Most GTA-area towns trace back to a British colonial land grant. Burlington…
• Milton — A 19th-century mill town named after an English poet became, for over a decade,…
• Newmarket — While most of the GTA's founding stories involve British colonial land grants…
• St. Lawrence Market — Founded in 1803 on the site of Toronto's original town hall, St. Lawrence…
• The Bloor Viaduct — Officially the Prince Edward Viaduct, this 1918 bridge across the Don Valley…
• The Toronto Island Ferries — Getting to the Toronto Islands has meant a ferry since the 19th century — the…
• Toronto's Performing Arts — Canada's first purpose-built opera house opened in 2006 after a 23-year…
• Toronto's Video Game Industry — Montreal and Vancouver are Canada's better-known game-development hubs, but…
• Homelessness in Toronto — Toronto runs one of the largest municipal shelter systems in the country —…
• The R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant — Toronto's drinking water is filtered inside a 1941 Art Deco building so ornate…
• Toronto's Historic Cemeteries — Mount Pleasant Cemetery is a designated National Historic Site laid out like a…
• Toronto's Shopping Malls — Toronto's two biggest malls anchor very different stories — one holds Canada's…
• The 2003 SARS Outbreak in Toronto — Toronto had the largest SARS outbreak outside Asia in 2003 — serious enough…
• OCAD University — Canada's oldest art and design school shares a park with the AGO — and its…
• Toronto's Winter Festivals — Our summer festivals guide covers Caribana, TIFF and Nuit Blanche. Toronto's…
• Casa Loma — Built by a Toronto financier who went spectacularly bankrupt within a decade,…
• The Royal Ontario Museum — Canada's largest museum added a jagged glass-and-metal crystal to its 1914…
• The Avro Arrow — Built in Malton, just outside Toronto, the CF-105 Arrow was one of the most…
• The Gardiner Expressway & the DVP — The elevated highway locals call the Gardiner took 11 years to build,…
• Queen's Park — Ontario's provincial legislature has run out of the same pink-sandstone…
• How Toronto Popularized the Board Game Café — Snakes & Lattes opened on Bloor Street in 2010 and is widely credited — even if…
• The CN Tower — Built in 40 months using a giant concrete mold that climbed itself upward, the…
• Rogers Centre (SkyDome) — When it opened in 1989 as SkyDome, Toronto's ballpark was the first stadium…
• Kensington Market — Kensington Market has changed its dominant culture at least four times in a…
• Toronto's Literary Scene — Home to Margaret Atwood and Canada's largest, longest-running literary festival…
• The PATH — Toronto's underground pedestrian network connects 75+ buildings across 30…
• High Park — Architect John Howard gave Toronto its largest park in 1873 on the condition it…
• Massey Hall — Built by an industrialist in memory of his son, Massey Hall has hosted everyone…
• The Group of Seven — Canada's most influential group of landscape painters first exhibited together…
• Osgoode Hall — Home to Ontario's highest courts since 1832, Osgoode Hall is best known for a…
• The Junction — A railway and stockyard neighbourhood that banned alcohol sales in 1904 to curb…
• Toronto Harbour — The Toronto Harbour Commissioners, formed in 1911, built both of the city's…
• The Railways That Built Toronto — Two rival 19th-century railway companies turned Toronto into central Canada's…
• The LCBO — Ontario's government-run liquor retailer was created in 1927 to replace…
• TIFF Bell Lightbox — Toronto International Film Festival's permanent home opened in 2010 on land…
• Canada's Big Banks — Only one of Canada's major banks actually started in Toronto — the rest…
• Toronto's Hospitals — Beyond the insulin story covered in our medical history guide, two of Toronto's…
• TTC Subway Art — Toronto's subway runs an unusually ambitious public art program — none more…
• Eaton's & Simpson's — For most of the 20th century, two department stores facing each other across…
• Rogers Communications — Ted Rogers Jr. borrowed $85,000 to buy a single FM station in 1960 and built it…
• The Blue Jays' Back-to-Back World Series — The 1992 and 1993 Toronto Blue Jays remain the only team based outside the…
• 1967: The Maple Leafs' Last Stanley Cup — The oldest roster ever to win the Stanley Cup did it in the final season of the…
• PRESTO — Ontario's regional transit fare card started as a tiny 2007 pilot in…
• The Chinese Head Tax — Between 1885 and 1947, federal law imposed a punishing entry tax on Chinese…