This past Friday, Oct. 4, the Toronto Raptors visited McGill’s Love Competition Hall for an open pre-season practice. Their visit marks the team’s first time holding a training camp in Montreal and their seventh pre-season game before the start of the regular National Basketball Association (NBA) season. Proceeds from the sales of the open practice tickets will be used to send underserved youth to McGill’s summer sports camp for free, making sports like basketball more accessible to these communities. The team’s trip to Montreal was packed with other community initiatives, including running a Community Impact Clinic at Kateri School and opening up a newly refurbished court at Parc Oscar-Peterson.

The NBA also used the team’s visit to Montreal to honour the Raptor’s 30th season in the league with “Maison NBA,” a three-day interactive experience including games, photo walls, meet-and-greets and more with past and present NBA and Women’s National Basketball Association legends. The exhibition included meeting players like Raptors star Vince Carter in Old Montreal.

During the practice,half of the players wore grey jerseys while the other half wore black jerseys, indicating early signs of the upcoming scrimmage. Expectant students and fans packed the hall, eager to watch the Raptors battle it out on the court.

Before the match, the players warmed up. They lined up doing plyometrics before moving to ball handling. After a few drills, players split into their respective teams and practiced some shots. The warmup sequences were rhythmic and synchronized—almost dance-like on both ends of the court. As players put up shots, they would occasionally bounce the ball hard against the floor or the backboard using the momentum to dunk the ball midair, drawing cheers from the crowd and leaving spectators on the edge of their seats.

The teams then began scrimmaging, with upbeat music playing in the background generating an electrifying atmosphere. A fast-paced play ended the first quarter with a 22-18 scoreline for the black-jersey team. RJ Barrett (#9) was particularly strong offensively, as he made his second-season debut with the team.

In between periods, North Side Crew dancers threw shirts into the crowd, prompting spectators to stand up and eagerly hold their hands out in anticipation.

The second period saw a comeback from the grey-shirt team, ending tied at 38-38 and featuring a strong performance from Jared Rhoden (#8). The quarter ended in a drama-filled sequence in which a stoppage left 0.6 seconds left to play. In the short amount of time remaining, the team wearing black managed to get a shot off but missed, temporarily injuring D.J. Carton (#3) on the grey team in the process.

During halftime, Raptors mascots kept the excitement high, pumping up the crowd in anticipation for the last bit of the scrimmage. 

The Raptors skipped the third quarter entirely, instead opting to immediately follow halftime with a five-minute fourth quarter in which they changed the scores up to 90-90—presumably to simulate the high-pressure last five minutes of a tied game. Following those five minutes, the scrimmage ended with a score of 102-98 in favour of the grey-jersey team.

The Raptors are building up a young team this year to try and come out strong for their 30th season. Throughout both the warmups and the game, the rookies tried to prove themselves. However, many of the returning players like Gradey Dick (#1), D.J. Carton (#3) and RJ Barrett (#9)—whose name has been floated for the most improved player for the 2024-2025 season—stood out in particular amongst the team. Looking ahead to this season, the Raptors’ returning players are still the ones to watch. 
The Raptors finished their week-long visit to Montreal with a pre-season match against the Washington Wizards on Oct. 6. Finishing their visit on a high, the Raptors beat the Wizards 125-98.