Former Toronto Raptors forward Norman Powell, left, drives to the basket against Golden State Warriors guard Quinn Cook during the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the 2019 NBA Finals at Scotiabank Arena.Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
Out for drinks one night last year in Montreal, Eric Smith figured his workday was done.
Smith, who has just entered his 21st season as the play-by-play voice of the Toronto Raptors on The Fan 590, was with the team as it held its training camp at the Universite of Quebec at Montreal. He’d met up with a friend at a bar one evening when his phone rang after midnight. The name on the screen? One-time Raptor Chris Childs.
“I had to excuse myself from the bar and go outside and talk in an alley for almost damn near 45 minutes because he thought of something else that he wanted to say,” Smith said.
In assembling We the Raptors – a book that Smith wrote with his brother-in-law, Andrew Bricker, an associate professor of English literature at Ghent University, in Belgium – Smith’s relationships with a generation of Raptors players allow for what feels like a behind-the-scenes conversation on each player’s respective time with the club. The result is a series of candid reflections on what their time with the Raptors and what life in Canada and the NBA were like for them.
“We started getting into things that weren’t even necessarily connected to the Raptors or to Toronto,” Smith said. “There were people that shared very personal details about their family or their children or about various battles with addiction, you name it. They were extremely open and forthcoming.”
Former Toronto Raptors forward Kawhi Leonard holds up the trophy after the team’s win over the Milwaukee Bucks to become the NBA Eastern Conference champions, in Toronto in May, 2019.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Smith and Bricker conceptualized the book during the locked-down, Zoom-heavy pandemic days of 2020 and 2021. What makes their book different, they said, is that it’s not about the star players who fans debate will have their jerseys retired next, or who might one day have a statue built outside of Scotiabank Arena.
We the Raptors explores the franchise’s 30-year history through the eyes of 30 of the team’s complementary players. Smith and Bricker often refer to their book voices as the glue guys of the team.
“When you’d look out into the stands,” Smith said, “people were buying the No. 10 jerseys for DeMar [DeRozan], the No. 7 for Kyle [Lowry], but I saw a ton of No. 8, José Calderón; No. 24 for Norm Powell; No. 17 for Jonas Valanciunas. Back in the day, I was seeing No. 33 for Antonio Davis, No. 13 for Jerome Williams.
“This fan base, as much as they love their stars, I think Toronto loves the glue guys as well. Toronto is often looked at as this sort of high and mighty or white-collar city, but I think it’s a blue-collar city and a blue-collar fan base across the board.”
Former Toronto Raptors guard Jose Calderon reacts after his team scored a basket in the last few minutes of a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Toronto in February, 2011.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The book is broken into four sections: the expansion era of 1995 to 1999; the Vince Carter years of 1998 to 2004; the Chris Bosh years of 2003 to 2010 and finally the golden era and beyond, which spans from 2013 to 2025.
Each section has an interlude of sorts that discusses a key moment in the team’s history. A flashback to Game 7 of the 2001 Eastern Conference semi-final and Smith’s recollection of Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game against the Raptors in 2006 stand out.
Having been around the Raptors for so long – he and his broadcast partner, Paul Jones, are the longest-serving broadcast duo in franchise history – Smith’s knowledge on the team is authoritative. In being around all of these iterations of the roster in that time, he’s built strong relationships with many of the players.
Tracking players down for interviews was laborious only in the volume that he sought. He said texts, direct messages and calls were often returned quickly and the interviews felt more like conversations.
Toronto Raptors’ legend Vince Carter dunks during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Toronto, in January, 2004.AARON HARRIS/The Associated Press
Bricker, who listened back to the calls as he worked on the book, described them as casual, podcast-like conversations.
“The players that talked to Eric, man, they were willing to really think and reflect on their time in a way that was incredibly emotionally open,” he said. “That, for me, was a huge surprise, having witnessed so many decades of really keeping interviewers at arm’s length.”
Former Fab-5 member Jimmy King, Matt Bonner, Antonio Davis, Alvin Williams, José Calderón, Jorge Garbajosa, Bismack Biyombo, DeMarre Carroll, C.J. Miles and championship-team members Danny Green and Norman Powell are among the 30 players interviewed.
The lone exception to the book format comes with its foreword. It was written by six-time NBA all-star and 2019 champion, Kyle Lowry. He appropriately heaps praise on the rest of the players featured in the book.
“You have to have humility, and even the stars understand that we won’t make it without the other guys. Period,” Lowry writes.
We the Raptors – on sale Tuesday, Nov. 4 – is a book for those players and the fanbase that has embraced them for three decades and counting.