Last season, the Toronto Raptors finally got their own D-League team, Raptors 905. The expansion club, which played its home games in Mississauga, Ontario, was the league's first outside of the United States. Next year, the D-League will bring its biggest event north of the border, according to NBA.com's Scott Howard-Cooper:
The 2017 D-League Showcase will be held in suburban Toronto barring an unlikely late snag on final minor points, NBA.com has learned, the first time the premier in-season event for the NBA's minor league will be held outside the United States.
An announcement is expected within two weeks.
Playing in Mississauga, home of the Raptors' affiliate, will come 11 months after Toronto hosted the NBA All-Star game approximately 20 miles away. That is more coincidence than anything. The actual appeal is that the return to Canada addresses two priorities for officials: Taking the event to a different region after the last five years in California or Nevada and to play in a facility with more than one court to accommodate the growth of the league.
The D-League Showcase started in 2005 and functions as a scouting event for NBA and international teams. As the league has grown, so has the event. This year it was held at Santa Cruz's Kaiser Permanente Arena, and in five days, each of the league's 19 teams played two games.
Well.. GTA. Hopefully we help fill up the showcase.
