TORONTO (AP) — The Toronto Raptors have gone from “We The North” to “We The Rebuilding North.”
It’s been five seasons since the Raptors rode their famous “We The North” rallying cry through a thrilling playoff run and brought the NBA championship north of the border for the first time.
That spring, crowds across Canada packed outdoor viewing parties to watch a star-laden Raptors squad beat the Golden State Warriors in six games.
The current Raptors roster doesn't have the marquee players that propelled Toronto's title run.
Kawhi Leonard left after his lone season in Canada, but the Raptors started a solid 46-18 the following season before the COVID-19 pandemic shut things down in March 2020. Toronto couldn’t recapture its magic in the bubble that summer, losing a seven-game series to Boston in the second round.
The following year, border restrictions brought on by COVID-19 forced a relocation to Tampa for one disappointing, losing season. More stars were shed that year and in the ones to follow, with Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet all departing or being traded.
Nick Nurse, who won it all as rookie head coach, was fired in April 2023, days after the Raptors couldn’t hold a 19-point lead in the third quarter and lost a home play-in game to Chicago.
Following last season’s trades of Pascal Siakam to Indiana and OG Anunoby to the Knicks, no significant contributors remain from Toronto’s 2019 championship team. The lone holdover is Canadian forward Chris Boucher, who played a mere four minutes that postseason.
This coming campaign, the 30th season of Raptors basketball, isn’t exactly shaping up to end in celebration.
“We’re going to play to win, but it is a rebuilding team,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri acknowledged at the start of training camp. “I think everybody sees that quite loud and clear.”
Equally clear, Ujiri said, is the intention to anchor the rebuild around 23-year-old forward Scottie Barnes. The former rookie of the year was a first time All-Star last season, his third, and set career highs in scoring, 3-point shooting, rebounding, assists and blocked shots.
Barnes signed a contract extension this summer that could reach around $270 million if he meets supermax criteria.
Ujiri said the “seriousness” and “intensity” Barnes has shown of late was proof the fourth-overall pick in the 2021 draft deserved the big money deal.
“What I’ve seen this whole summer is dedication to work, dedication to really pay attention to what he wants to get better at,” Ujiri said. “I respect that about him, and I think there’s going to be some growth with him this year.”
The Raptors have equally high hopes for the development of guard Immanuel Quickley, acquired along with Canadian forward RJ Barrett in the Anunoby trade.
Quickley admitted being initially unsure about his new situation after the trade to Toronto but said he's now comfortable with his new team, new city and expanded role under head coach Darko Rajakovic. Like Barnes, Quickley signed an extension with the Raptors over the offseason.
“This has probably been one of the best things that’s happened to me,” Quickley said he’s come to think of the trade to Toronto. “I’m looking forward to taking full advantage of it.”
Still, center Jakob Poeltl and the rest of the Raptors know there’s no shortcut back to NBA championship contention.
“This has to be a long-term project,” Poeltl said. “Our expectation isn’t to win 65 games this year and be in the NBA Finals. I think we can have good, positive experiences just based on how we develop and how we improve over the year.”
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Boston Celtics guard JD Davison (20) tries to get past Toronto Raptors guard D.J. Carton (3) during the second half of an NBA preseason basketball game in Toronto on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes (4) reacts after making a 3 point shot during second half NBA pre-season basketball action in Toronto on Tuesday, October 15, 2024. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes (4) and Boston Celtics guard Derrick White (9) battle for the ball during the first half of an NBA preseason basketball game in Toronto on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) drives past Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes (4) during second half NBA pre-season basketball action in Toronto on Tuesday, October 15, 2024. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)
Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said Friday it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, as the region reckons with the killing of top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a battle with Israeli forces in Gaza.
Hamas acknowledged Sinwar’s death and described him as a martyr. Sinwar was a chief architect of the attack on southern Israel that precipitated the latest escalating conflicts in the Middle East.
Many, from the governments of Israeli allies to exhausted residents of Gaza, expressed hope that Sinwar’s death would pave the way for an end to the war, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech announcing Sinwar’s death that “Our war is not yet ended.”
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish combatants from civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.
Here's the latest:
BEIRUT — Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says European countries are working for a “sustainable cease-fire” in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
Speaking in Beirut after meeting Friday with her Lebanese counterpart, Najib Mikati, Meloni said European nations also support negotiations for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October last year.
Mikati says “a diplomatic solution should overcome” war that has intensified in recent weeks into an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, and that Israel must agree to a cease-fire.
Meloni says targeting U.N. peacekeepers deployed along the Lebanon-Israel border is unacceptable and that both sides must “ensure at all times the safety of each of these soldiers.” She says the peacekeepers will be needed in any post-conflict scenario.
Over the past two weeks, U.N. posts along the border have been subjected to fire that that has wounded at least five peacekeepers.
She says the peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, must be strengthened and that UNIFIL and Lebanese troops should be the only armed forces in the area south of the Litani river along the border with Israel.
According to a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the 34-day Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006, Hezbollah should have no presence in the area along the border with Israel.
MOSCOW — Asked about the possibility of an all-out war between Iran and Israel, Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced hope that tension can be defused in the region.
Speaking Friday during a meeting with media representatives he said “no one is interested in the escalation of the conflict for both economic and security reasons.”
He says there is a possibility “to find a settlement, but that will depend on the parties involved in the confrontation.”
He notes that Russia has maintained contacts with Iran and Israel and stands ready to play mediator if asked, describing those relationships as “quite trusting.”
He says: “We are ready to do what depends on us, if our role is viewed positively, to also help end those horrible strikes on civilians in the Gaza Sector and help normalize the situation in southern Lebanon to end an exchange of strikes there.”
Israel’s military says it allowed 30 trucks of humanitarian aid into northern Gaza, the latest delivery over the past week as Israel faces pressure from the U.S. to ramp up aid.
The military body in charge of humanitarian aid, COGAT, said Friday that the trucks carried food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment. There has been no confirmation from the U.N. that the aid arrived and is being distributed in the north.
Aid crossings to the north of Gaza were closed for the first two weeks of October, the U.N. says, sending food and water levels plunging in an area of Gaza where some of the heaviest fighting is taking place.
The closures raised fears that Israel was implementing an extreme plan proposed by Israeli generals to besiege northern Gaza and starve out Hamas militants there.
Following a letter from the U.S. saying the continual closures could risk continued weapons funding for Israel, Israel says crossings have reopened and aid is continuing to flow.
BERLIN — The Biden administration says it does not have any early insight on who might succeed Yahya Sinwar or whether the new Hamas leader might be more willing to revive a cease-fire and hostage deal.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby has called Sinwar the main obstacle preventing the negotiations from moving forward. But he says it remains to be seen if the killing of the Hamas leader could reinvigorate negotiations.
He adds it’s “too soon” to assess who Hamas “might anoint as Sinwar’s successor and what that individual may be willing to pursue.”
Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel’s military will keep fighting until the hostages are released and will remain in Gaza to prevent a severely weakened Hamas from rearming after a year of devastating war.
Khalil al-Hayya, who was Sinwar’s Qatar-based deputy, says Hamas will not return any of the hostages “before the end of the aggression on Gaza and the withdrawal from Gaza.”
TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has condemned the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and says his death will not disturb Islamic resistance.
The state-run IRNA news agency on Friday quoted Pezeshkian as saying, “Martyrdom will not create a disturbance in the Islamic Ummah’s resistance against force and occupation.”
Pezeshkian also expressed condolences to the people of Gaza and all the freedom-seekers of the world.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military has released new footage showing what it says is the killing of Yahya Sinwar, including a tank firing at a home where the Hamas leader took refuge after a firefight with Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli military says Sinwar was killed in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday when the tank shell hit the building where he had fled following a gunfight.
Israeli soldiers killed Sinwar after encountering three militants fleeing between buildings in Rafah, Israeli military spokesperson LTC Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters Friday. Under Israeli fire, two militants whose faces were covered by cloth fled into one building while another — Sinwar — entered a second.
Before night fell, soldiers killed the two militants in one building and fired a tank shell at the other. It wasn’t until the following day, that soldiers inspecting the rubble noticed the body of a man who looked like Sinwar. His identity was confirmed by forensic tests in Israel.
Shoshani says the military has intelligence that troops killed Sinwar during a rare moment when the Hamas leader was outside rather than in Gaza’s extensive tunnel network.
At one point, Shoshani said, Sinwar spent time in the same tunnel complex where six hostages were held. The military says they were killed by their Hamas captors as Israeli soldiers drew near.
BEIRUT — The militant group Hezbollah has expressed its condolences to the Palestinian people and Hamas for the killing of Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas’ political bureau.
A statement issued by the group’s leadership Friday referred to Sinwar as a “martyr” and praised his role in leading Hamas on “the path of resistance.”
Hezbollah describes him as the leader “who stood in the face of the American project and the Zionist occupation, and sacrificed his blood for that.”
“We in the leadership of Hezbollah, who are facing with our resistant and steadfast Lebanese people the repercussions of the criminal Zionist aggression, confirm our standing with our Palestinian people,” Hezbollah says.
— By Sally Abou AlJoud
BERLIN — U.S. President Joe Biden is reiterating his call for Israel to use the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as an opportunity to move toward peace.
Biden said as he met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin Friday that Sinwar’s killing “represents a moment of justice.” He says Sinwar “had the blood of Americans and Israelis, Palestinians and Germans and so many others on his hands.”
Biden says he "told the prime minister of Israel yesterday, let’s also make this moment an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas.”
Scholz, also a staunch ally of Israel, has said Sinwar’s death should open “the concrete prospect of a cease-fire in Gaza, of an agreement to release the hostages held by Hamas.”
BEIRUT — Hamas has heralded Sinwar as a hero who “ascended as a heroic martyr, advancing and not retreating, brandishing his weapon, engaging and confronting the occupation army at the forefront of the ranks.”
The Hamas statement released Friday appears to refer to a video circulating of Sinwar’s last moments, in which he sits on a chair in a badly damaged building, severely wounded and covered in dust. He then suddenly raises his hand and flings a stick at an approaching Israeli miniature drone in an apparent final act of defiance.
GENEVA — Forces in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon are maintaining their positions despite “demands” to move from the Israeli Defense Forces.
Spokesperson Andrea Tenenti of UNIFIL, the interim force in Lebanon, said Friday that a “unanimous” decision was taken by its 50 troop-contributing countries and the U.N. Security Council to hold its positions. They will also continue to monitor the conflict and ensure aid gets to civilians.
“The IDF has repeatedly targeted our positions, endangering the safety of our troops, in addition to Hezbollah launching rockets toward Israel from near our positions, which also puts our peacekeepers in danger,” he told a U.N. news briefing in Geneva by video.
Tenenti says deteriorating security in the recent fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli forces has forced UNIFIL — which has some 10,000 personnel — to suspend most, but not all, of its patrols near the U.N.-imposed Blue Line boundary separating Lebanon and Israel.
He says UNIFIL has seen “hundreds of trajectories, and sometimes more, crossing the Blue Line each day, forcing our peacekeepers to spend extended hours in shelters to ensure their safety, which remains our top priority.”
Tenenti says UNIFIL is maintaining its positions “despite IDF demands to move from positions close to the Blue Line.”
JERUSALEM — Israel’s military says two soldiers have been injured in a gunfight with militants who crossed from Jordan into Israel.
At least two militants crossed into Israeli territory south of the Dead Sea Friday morning, before being shot dead by Israeli troops. The military says two soldiers were injured during an exchange of fire and that troops are searching the area for another militant who may have infiltrated.
The identities of those who crossed the border remain unclear.
Hamas praised the incursion but did not claim responsibility, calling it an “important development” in the war in Gaza and a “natural response” to the “brutal crimes of the occupation against our Palestinian people.”
The statement is one of the first public comments by Hamas since Israel killed its leader, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza.
BEIRUT — A statement issued by one of Hamas’ political leaders abroad has tacitly but not directly confirmed the death of the group’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, in Gaza.
Hamas said Friday that Israel is mistaken if it “believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people.”
Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim says past leaders have also been killed and “Hamas each time became stronger and more popular, and these leaders became an icon for future generations to continue the journey towards a free Palestine.”
He says it is “painful and distressing to lose beloved people, especially extraordinary leaders” but that the Palestinian militant group is sure it will be “eventually victorious.”
When asked if the statement confirms Sinwar’s death, Naim said it does not.
JERUSALEM — Israeli prosecutors are set to indict a Palestinian from East Jerusalem who police say planned to carry out an attack on a hostage protest in Tel Aviv.
In a statement Friday, the police and Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said the man was a supporter of Hamas and other militant groups, and planned to carry out multiple attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers in retribution for Israel’s offensive in Gaza.
Police say the man had not yet acquired a weapon or explosives to carry out any of the attacks, but that he was planning to attack a protest calling for the return of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Such protests occur weekly in Tel Aviv.
BEIRUT — Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group says it is entering a new phase in its fight against invading Israeli troops, adding that it has introduced new weapons over the past days.
A statement from the group’s operations room early Friday says Hezbollah’s fighters have used new types of precision-guided missiles and explosive drones for the first time.
The statement appears to refer to a drone laden with explosives that evaded Israel’s multilayered air-defense system and slammed into a mess hall at a military training camp deep inside Israel, killing four soldiers and wounding dozens.
The group also announced this week that it fired a new type of missile called Qader 2 toward the suburbs of Tel Aviv.
The statement also says Hezbollah’s air defense units shot down this week two Israeli Hermes 450 drones.
Hezbollah says its fighters are working according to “plans prepared in advance” to battle invading Israeli troops in several parts of south Lebanon.
UNITED NATIONS — Iran’s Mission to the United Nations issued a statement honoring Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, after Israel said he had been killed in fighting.
It says: “When U.S. forces dragged a disheveled Saddam Hussein out of an underground hole, he begged them not to kill him despite being armed. Those who regarded Saddam as their model of resistance eventually collapsed. However when Muslims look up to martyr Sinwar standing on the battlefield — in combat attire and out in the open, not in a hideout, facing the enemy — the spirit of resistance will be strengthened. He will become a model for the youth and children who will carry forth his path for the liberation of Palestine. As long as occupation and aggression exist, resistance will endure, for the martyr remains alive and a source of inspiration.”
Iran and Iraq fought a brutal war in the 1980s that began when Hussein launched an invasion of Iran. It killed more than 1 million people on both sides.
An Israeli security forces officer examines the damage to a home struck by a rocket fired from Lebanon in the town of Majd al-Krum, northern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israelis celebrate the news of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, near Kibbutz Erez, southern Israel, on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
FILE - Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas in Gaza, delivers a speech during at a hall on the seaside of Gaza City, on April 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)
FILE - Yahya Sinwar speaks to foreign correspondents in his office in Gaza City on May 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)
A demonstrator holds a sign about the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar during a protest calling for a cease-fire deal and the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Displaced men fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in Beirut's Dahiyeh suburb, eat as sit at Beirut's seaside promenade, along the Mediterranean Sea while the sun sets over the capital Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
