Calgarians will get a first-hand look at the Toronto Raptors on Friday night at Jack Simpson Gym.
An open scrimmage to culminate the NBA team’s four-day training camp in the city offers another reason for fervent basketball fans in Alberta to embrace the sport.
“I heard that there is a lot of passion for basketball here,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic, during Thursday’s third day of camp at the University of Calgary. “One of our coaches (of player development), Noah Lewis, studied here in Calgary. He’s raving about the city and how the city loves the game of basketball and how much actually basketball has been evolving over here over last couple of years. So it’s great to be here.
“We’re really looking forward to see fans coming to our open scrimmage.”
Some 3,000 roundball enthusiasts will be on hand for that at the home of the Calgary Dinos.
“It means a lot to be here,” Rajakovic said. “It’s a chance to get to know the city and meet fans that are here in Calgary.
“Every year, we’re having a training camp in different parts of Canada, just so we can get to know Canada better. So it is an amazing privilege, and it’s incredible for our guys to get to know the people here in Calgary.
“It’s going to be an intrasquad game,” continued Rajakovic. “We’ll have some drills early. so guys can get loose a little bit. Then, we’re going to play against each other, so that the fans will be able to have the opportunity to see all the players.”
Seats for the evening sold out fast a few weeks back — further proof the game has its reach into these parts.
Basketball has already been on the rise recently with the Calgary Surge proving to be a can’t-miss product in the sports landscape — and in the community — the last three summers. The Canadian Elite Basketball League franchise certainly has its followers.
Calgary Dinos basketball coach Dan Vanhooren attends the Raptors’ camp on Thursday.
“Any time you have a pro team in town, it gives everybody something else to strive for,” said longtime Dinos head coach Dan Vanhooren. “The Surge has been great. They’ve been successful, as well. And they’ve been wonderful to work with when we get that opportunity. And we’re looking forward to continuing that relationship.
“Again, that’s just driving more momentum and more excitement around the game.”
And then there’s the Dinos themselves, who have been a longtime successful constant in the marketplace.
“I think there’s a great deal of excitement around the game in Canada, and certainly in our city, it’s growing and growing,” continued Vanhooren. “To have this quality of an event here and to be able to see some of the stars and have some people in our community come watch them play is a terrific opportunity for the growth of the game.
“And for us, when you can bring a brand like the Raptors onto our campus and then create that level of excitement, there’s just definitely some momentum that can be created from that. That level of marketing, we just can’t do, and it will showcase our facilities and what we are as a university.
“So to saddle up our brand together with theirs for even a week is really useful for us.”
Calgary has played host to the Raptors twice before — pre-season games in 1996 and 2016.
This year’s stop is part of tour through Alberta — they head to Banff next — and a trip further west to Vancouver, where they play a pre-season affair Monday against the Denver Nuggets.
“There’s always something we can learn from it,” said Vanhooren of gleaning info from watching the Raptors first-hand. “For us to be able to sit and watch and be in the stands and take some tidbits from what Darko’s running or what they’re doing as a team or how they practise or how professionally they work, we can bring those things to our own practices and then start to spread that through the community here and in Alberta.”
Alijah Martin and Sandro Mamukelashvili take part in Raptors camp on Thursday.
And just when you thought it was coming to an end, there’s more big basketball on the horizon.
Of course, the Dinos are already on the court, having played three games against NCAA competition — the Nevada Wolf Pack and the Murray State Racers — in the Bahamas in August and three more against U SPORTS foes — the St. Francis Xavier X-Men, the Acadia Axemen and the Toronto Metropolitan University Bold — last month in New Brunswick. Next is a host of the Calgary Cup — versus the Brock Badgers and the UBC Thunderbirds — beginning next Friday at Jack Simpson Gym.
A trip to Victoria is also in the offing before the 2025-25 Canada West campaign opens Oct. 24 in Lethbridge.
And … oh, yeah … another major event is coming to the U of C next spring.
“We’re hosting of the U SPORTS Men’s Basketball Final 8 in March 2026,” added University of Calgary director of athletics Ben Matchett. “It’s shaping up to be a big year for basketball at the University of Calgary.”