12:46 p.m.: Raptors trade Powell to Portland for Trent Jr., Hood
12:30 p.m.: Denver trades package for Aaron Gordon
9 a.m.: What should the Raptors do? Here’s what Doug Smith thinks
On this, the most exciting transaction day in pro sports, we’re going to have some fun while keeping the NBA news, the rumours and the reaction all in one safe space. Have a question or want to chat? Use the Conversations tool at the bottom of this blog by registering for free to thestar.com (not available on the Star mobile app). Let’s get started. Deadline is 3 p.m. ET.
2:45 p.m.: Update from the Toronto Star desk — 15 minutes to go and we’re still doomscrolling.
2:30 p.m. (updated): The Atlanta Hawks have traded point guard Rajon Rondo to the Los Angeles Clippers for Lou Williams and two future second-round picks, sources told ESPN.
The Clippers were said to be engaging with the Raptors on point guard Kyle Lowry, as you’ll read below.
2:20 p.m.: New Orleans Pelicans guard Josh Hart tweeted about the Toronto Star NBA trade deadline blog (unconfirmed): “Refreshing my feed every 5 secs.”
I know you all can relate, and we’re happy you’re here.
2:17 p.m.: What’s the hold up on a Kyle Lowry trade?
“The hold up on both teams is the inclusion of Talen Horton-Tucker from the Lakers and Tyler Herro from the Miami Heat,” says Shams Charania of The Athletic.
2:10 p.m.: The Raptors are trading guard Matt Thomas to the Utah Jazz for a future second-round pick, sources tell ESPN.
The trade opens up a roster spot for Toronto, meaning the Raptors could take on an additional player in a potential Lowry trade.
2:00 p.m. (updated): Norman Powell left quite a legacy on the franchise. Fans will never forget how he changed the course of the 2016 Pacers-Raptors playoffs series with a steal and thunderous dunk in Game 5.
My favourite Powell story is the one he penned for the Star just before the 2016 training camp when we asked him to provide advice to incoming rookies Jakob Poetl and Pascal Siakam.
Powell also made sure he contributed to the community.
Days before Christmas, he checked off the wish lists of more than 30 low-income families and providing them with grocery gift cards through the Yonge Street Mission.
For the 2019 Christmas, even thought he was recovering from an injury, he helped spread some holiday cheer on Saturday to the children displaced by a fire at 235 Gosford Blvd.
What’s your favourite Norm Powell memory? Share with us using the conversations tool below.
1:35 p.m.: Fun fact about the Gary Trent Jr. acquisition via Doug Smith — it now means the Raptors have the first Father-Son pairing ever to both play in Toronto.
Gary Trent Sr. played a dozen or so games in the horror of the 16-66 season in 1997-98. He came to Toronto along with Alvin Williams in the Damon Stoudamire deal. (more details on the trade posted below at 10:45 a.m.)
1:25 p.m.: The Golden State Warriors have emerged as a possible trade destination for Philadelphia’s Danny Green, sources tell the New York Times.
1:18 p.m.: While ESPN is reporting that the 76ers are no longer pursuing Lowry, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports that the Heat remain very much in the mix — while the Lakers and Clippers also have engaged with the Raptors.
Yes, those Clippers.
Former Toronto Star digital desker and friend of the live blog Tanis Fowler tweeted in response to the Clippers report: “OK, FINE. We’ll take Kawhi and Ibaka off your hands.”
1:15. p.m.: Want to share your NBA Trade Deadline takes with us? Use the conversations tool below, we’d love to chat.
1:11 p.m.: FAN ANGLE: Some fans worry that losing Lowry will hurt the Raptors’ optics and erase any clout the franchise accumulated thanks to years of effort from the All-Star guard.
“We’re not going to have an identity anymore if they trade Lowry,” said Emmanuel Dennis, a 23-year-old Scarborough resident.
“Who’s going to be the face of the Raptors now? We’re going to be nobodies again. Even though we have a championship, we’re still getting disrespected. That’s just going to get worse.”
1:05 p.m.: So, who is newest Raptor Gary Trent Jr.? He certainly is the prize of this Norman Powell deal. The 22-year-old, in his third NBA season, has averaged 15 points over 41 games this year. He’ll be a restricted free agent at the end of this season. And we’ll have lots more to come on him.
12:46 p.m.: The Toronto Raptors have traded Norm Powell to the Portland Trailblazers on Thursday ahead of the NBA’s trade deadline, cources confirmed to the Star.
The Raptors received Gary Trent and Rodney Hood in return from Portland.
Powell has spent his entire career with the Raptors after being obtained as part of the most lopsided transaction ever pulled off by team president Masai Ujiri.
The 27-year-old native of San Diego arrived in Toronto on a draft-night trade in 2015 that saw Ujiri ship off Greivis Vasquez to the Milwaukee Bucks for Powell and the draft pick that ultimately became OG Anunoby.
12:44 p.m.: The Oklahoma City Thunder are finalizing trading George Hill to the Philadelphia 76ers, sources tell The Athletic.
Does this take them out of the running for Kyle Lowry?
“This one is intriguing from the Raptors scheme of things,” said Raptors reporter Doug Smith on his live Twitter Spaces chat.
12:42 p.m.: Sacramento Kings are finalizing a deal to send Nemanja Bjelica to the Miami Heat, sources tell ESPN.
12:37 p.m.: Former Raptor Terrence Ross tweeted the official mood of this trade deadline. Stress, anxiety, anticipation. And there’s still more than two hours to go.
12:30 p.m.: Doug Smith said on his live Twitter chat now that he thinks the Sixers would benefit more from a Lowry trade than the Heat.
To join our Twitter Spaces by heading to the Twitter app on your phone. The conversation can be found on the top bar, where Fleets are, surrounded by a purple background. Doug is planning on chatting until 1 p.m. unless news breaks.
12:30 p.m.: Denver is sending Gary Harris, R.J. Hampton and a first-round pick to the Magic for Aaron Gordon, source tells ESPN.
12:20 p.m.: Could be another big trade down the pipe.
The Orlando Magic are progressing on a trade to send Aaron Gordon to the Denver Nuggets, sources tell the Athletic.
That would be the Magic’s third trade of the day, as they appear to be looking to the future.
12:08 p.m.: Doug Smith said on his live Twitter chat now that he heard that up to 20 teams are interested in Norman Powell.
To join our Twitter Spaces by heading to the Twitter app on your phone. The conversation can be found on the top bar, where Fleets are, surrounded by a purple background.
12:05 p.m.: The Star’s business feature writer Richard Warnica points out on Twitter that Lowry will go down as the greatest Raptor of all time and jokes that “there’s no doubt his most astonishing statistical achievement is selling a house for under asking in Toronto in 2021.”
11:50 a.m.: Looks like we have the second big deal of the day, and it involves the Boston Celtics.
Boston finalizing deal to acquire Orlando guard Evan Fournier for two second-round picks, sources tell ESPN. The Celtics had a huge trade exception to use.
11:45 a.m.: This is your 15-minute warning!
At 12 p.m. ET, long-time Raptors reporter Doug Smith will be providing analysis and taking questions ahead of the NBA trade deadline.
His latest take? The Raptors shouldn’t let a recent slide force their hand at the trade deadline.
Join our Twitter Spaces by heading to the Twitter app on your phone. The conversation can be found on the top bar, where Fleets are, surrounded by a purple background.
11:40 a.m.: Kyle Lowry also left his mark on off the court in Toronto with his annual “Lowry Holiday Assists” program.
11:35 a.m.: It’s Kyle Lowry’s 35th birthday today and fans are looking back fondly on his time with the Raptors.
“Lowry was the glue guy on the championship team,” said Dov Kahn, 18, a Toronto-born shooting guard set to play for Fleming College in Peterborough before the pandemic.
“He was the leader; they couldn’t have won a ring without him. His willingness to take a charge and bang bodies in the paint with the really big guys embodies the grittiness of Toronto basketball culture.”
That being said, Kahn isn’t opposed to trading the franchise icon.
“Get the man a statue, he’s the greatest Raptor of all time, but it’s time to rebuild,” he told the Star’s Ben Cohen.
11:15 a.m.: Whoa! The first blockbuster trade of the day, but it doesn’t involve Toronto.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the Chicago Bulls are acquiring centre Nikola Vucevic and Al Farouq Aminu from Orlando for Otto Porter Jr., Wendell Carter Jr., and two first-round picks.
That counts as a Woj bomb.
Vucevic made the all-star team this year, the second time he was honoured. But he did struggle against Marc Gasol when the Raptors eliminated the Magic in the playoffs two years ago.
10:55 a.m.: At 12 p.m. ET, long-time Raptors reporter Doug Smith will be providing analysis and taking questions ahead of the NBA trade deadline.
His latest take? The Raptors shouldn’t let a recent slide force their hand at the trade deadline.
Join our Twitter Spaces by heading to the Twitter app on your phone. The conversation can be found on the top bar, where Fleets are, surrounded by a purple background.
10:45 a.m.: So what’s the biggest trade on deadline day the Raptors have made? It’s got to be obtaining Marc Gasol from Memphis for Jonas Valanciunas, Delon Wright and C.J. Miles, right?
But, and if you expand dealine deals to include trades in the days leading up to the deadline, you got to include the Damon Stoudamire trade in the discussion as one of the biggest in franchise history.
On Feb. 13, 1998, the Raptors traded Carlos Rogers, Damon Stoudamire and Walt Williams to the Portland Trail Blazers for Kenny Anderson, Gary Trent, Alvin Williams, two first-round picks and a second-round pick.
The Raptors had to deal a reportedly unhappy Stoudamire, the franchise’s first star a.k.a. Mighty Mouse.
If Masai Ujiri does make a deal, will he land a young player that can have as much of an impact as Williams?
10:20 a.m.: ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that Denver is acquiring Cleveland centre JaVale McGee for Isaiah Hartenstein and two future protected second-round picks.
If this deal made your heart pound, then you definitely are an NBA trade deadline fanatic.
10 a.m.: What level of “NBA trade deadline fanatic” are you?
Have you typed the words “Kyle Lowry” into your favourite search engine more than 17 times in the last six weeks?
Have you turned your “Woj Bomb” Twitter notifications on?
Are you glued to our live blog and absolutely loving it?
If you answered yes or no to any of these questions, you’ve come to the right place!
9 a.m.: What does the Star’s Doug Smith think the Raptors should do? Doug puts on his GM cap in this story prior to the victory Wednesday over the Nuggets.
What they must do, however, is disassociate the last 10 games from the next two years. Overreacting to what’s going on now is a dangerous route to take and it would be ill-advised for Ujiri or Webster to blink this week in the light of a losing streak.
Draft picks are nice but dealing either of those two players to legitimate title contenders will yield picks in the late 20s, and there’s never a ton of value there. Moving them for young players sounds great but the Raptors are already to committed to a young core of VanVleet, OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam. Why would they trade into any of those settled positions?
12 a.m.: We already had one trade overnight! Involving two former Raptor point guards, no less. The Detroit Pistons are trading Delon Wright to the Sacramento Kings for Cory Joseph and two second-round picks, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
11 p.m. Wednesday: Drake even interrupted Lowry’s postgame conference with a phone call.
10:30 p.m. Wednesday: If Kyle Lowry played his last game with the Raptors, he went out with a bang.
Shrugging off a gruesome nine-game losing streak with one of their most impressive performances of the season, the Raptors routed the Denver Nuggets 135-111 on a night awash in emotion.
Lowry finished with eight points and nine assists before checking out with about five minutes left. He finished with an individual plus-42 on the night that was the second-best in Toronto franchise history behind a plus-46 from Mark Jackson.
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TORONTO – The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced cookie brand Oreo as the team’s helmet sponsor for the upcoming NHL season.
The new helmet will debut Sunday when Toronto opens its 2024-25 pre-season against the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Arena.
The Oreo logo replaces Canadian restaurant chain Pizza Pizza, which was the Leafs’ helmet sponsor last season.
Previously, social media platform TikTok sponsored Toronto starting in the 2021-22 regular season when the league began allowing teams to sell advertising space on helmets.
The Oreo cookie consists of two chocolate biscuits around a white icing filling and is often dipped in milk.
Fittingly, the Leafs wear the Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s “Milk” logo on their jerseys.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
MacKenzie Weegar wasn’t bitter or upset as he watched friends live out their dreams.
The Calgary Flames defenceman just hopes to experience the same feeling one day. He also knows the road leading to that moment, if it does arrive, will likely be long and winding — much like his own path.
A seventh-round pick by the Florida Panthers at the 2013 NHL draft, Weegar climbed the ranks to become an important piece of a roster that captured the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s top regular-season club in 2021-22.
Two months later following a second-round playoff exit, he was traded to the Flames along with Jonathan Huberdeau for Matthew Tkachuk. And less than two years after that, the Panthers were hoisting the Stanley Cup.
“Happy for the city and for the team,” Weegar said of Florida’s June victory over the Edmonton Oilers. “There was no bad taste in my mouth.”
His sole focus, he insists, is squarely on eventually getting the Flames to the same spot. The landscape, however, has changed drastically since Weegar committed to Calgary on an eight-year, US$50-million contract extension in October 2022.
Weegar has watched a list that includes goaltender Jacob Markstrom, defencemen Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin and Nikita Zadorov and forwards Elias Lindholm and Andrew Mangiapane shipped out of town since the start of last season — largely for picks, prospects and young players as part of a rebuild.
Despite that exodus, he remains committed to the Calgary project steered by general manager Craig Conroy.
“It’s easy to get out of all whack when you see guys trying to leave or wanting new contracts,” the 30-year-old from Ottawa said at last week’s NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas. “I just focus on where I am and where I want to be, and that’s Calgary.
“I believe in this team. The city has taken me in right away. I feel like I owe it to them to stick around and grind through these years and get a Stanley Cup.”
The hard-nosed blueliner certainly knows what it is to grind.
After winning the Memorial Cup alongside Nathan MacKinnon with the Halifax Mooseheads in 2013, Weegar toiled in the ECHL and American Hockey League for three seasons before making his NHL debut late in the 2016-17 campaign with the Panthers.
He would spend the next five years in South Florida as one of the players tasked with shifting an organizational culture that had experienced little success over the previous two decades.
“There’s always going to be a piece of my heart and loyalty to that team,” Weegar said. “But now I’m in a different situation … I compete against all 32 teams, not just Florida. There’s always a chip on my shoulder every single year.”
Weegar set career highs with 20 goals — eight was the most he had ever previously registered — and 52 points in 2023-24 as part of a breakout offensive performance.
“I think my buddies cared a lot more than I did,” he said with a smile. “All I hear is, ‘fantasy, fantasy, fantasy.'”
Weegar was actually more proud of his 200 blocked shots and 194 hits as he looks to help set a new Flames’ standard alongside Huberdeau, captain Mikael Backlund, Nazem Kadri, Blake Coleman and Rasmus Andersson for a franchise expected to have its new arena in time for the 2027-28 season.
“You have to build that culture and that belief in the locker room,” said Weegar, who pointed to 22-year-old centre Connor Zary as a player set to pop. “Those young guys are going to have to come into their own and be consistent every night … they’re the next generation.”
Weegar, however, isn’t punting on 2024-25. He pointed to the NHL’s parity and the fact a couple of teams surprise every season.
It’s the same approach that took him from the ECHL a decade ago to hockey’s premier pre-season event inside a swanky hotel on Sin City’s famed strip, where he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the game’s best.
“From the outside — media and even friends and family — the expectations are probably a bit lower,” Weegar said of Calgary’s outlook. “But there’s no reason to think that we can’t make playoffs and we can’t be a good team (with) that underdog mentality.
“You never know.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept 17, 2024.
Jose Maria Celestino da Costa was named vice-president and head of soccer operations while Marianne Brooks was appointed vice-president of partnerships, Kelly Shouldice as vice-president of brand and content and Joyce Sou as vice-president of finance and business operations.
The new six-team women’s pro league is set to kick off in April.
“Their unique expertise and leadership are crucial as we lay the foundation for not just a successful league in Canada, but one that stands among the top sports leagues in the world,” NSL president Christina Litz said in a statement. “By investing in top-tier talent and infrastructure, the Northern Super League is committed to creating a league that will elevate the game and set new standards for women’s professional soccer globally.”
Da Costa will oversee all on-field matters, including officiating. His resume includes stints with Estoril Praia, a men’s first-division team in Portugal, and the Portuguese Soccer Federation, where he helped develop the Portuguese women’s league.
Brooks spent a decade with Canucks Sports & Entertainment, working in “partnership sales and retention efforts” for the Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Warriors, and Rogers Arena. Most recently, she served as senior director of account management at StellarAlgo, a software company that helps pro sports teams connect with their fans
Shouldice has worked for Corus Entertainment, the Canadian Football League, and most recently as vice-president of Content and Communications at True North Sports & Entertainment, where she managed original content as well as business and hockey communications.
Sou, who was involved in the league’s initial launch, will oversee financial planning, analysis and the league’s expansion strategy in her new role.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
