Toronto Raptors, Canada Basketball, and MLSE team up for a 2024 Olympic bid, including NBA flare on women’s uniforms.
The Toronto Raptors have collaborated with Canada Basketball and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment in an innovative approach to raise the prominence of Canadian women’s basketball on the international scene as they prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The Raptors’ famous imagery will be prominently featured on the kits of the world’s No. 5-ranked Canada’s Senior Women’s National Team, according to Gist. Specifically, the Raptors emblem will appear on the team’s shorts during games leading up to the Olympics.
A girls’ basketball clinic was hosted in Toronto to kick off this collaboration, with Canadian national team athletes serving as guest coaches. Kia Nurse, Natalie Achonwa, Bridget Carleton, and Laeticia Amihere were among those in attendance, highlighting the great potential coming out of Canada. Carleton took advantage of the opportunity to convey her desire for a WNBA team in Toronto.
“I’d love to have a WNBA team in Toronto; wouldn’t everyone around here? “I just wanted it to work out,” Carleton said, according to Myles Dichter of CBC News. “But the league is still expanding, they’re moving in the right direction, and I think the excitement around women’s sports in Toronto and Canada is continuing to grow.”
This collaboration takes place against the backdrop of a rich basketball culture in Canada, where the sport has a century-long history and was invented by a Canadian. A WNBA exhibition game sold out Scotiabank Arena’s 19,800 seats in a single day earlier this May, demonstrating the country’s current love of women’s basketball. Furthermore, viewership for regular-season WNBA games in Canada has increased by more than 95% in the last three years.
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