OTTAWA - When the Toronto Raptors introduced their players at the team's annual media day this week, team officials also handed out a pronunciation guide.
With the addition of Hedo Turkoglu - pronounced HE-doh TURK-ah-loo - and Marco Belinelli, the Raptors have five European players on the roster. It's a basketball-without-borders mix of nationalities that both reflects the global growth of the game, and mirrors the multicultural makeup of Toronto.
"I think Toronto is a unique town, somehow I always felt since Day No. 1 that the atmosphere in Toronto as a city is unique, and the team reflects this atmosphere," said Raptors assistant vice-president Maurizio Gherardini. "I don't think it's a matter of the players feeling different from one another, they just feel part of this multi-ethnic environment and that reflects the way that they communicate, stick together, feel comfortable."
The Raptors traded for Turkoglu, a native of Istanbul, and Belinelli, a shooting guard from Bologna, Italy, in the off-season. Big Slovenian Rasho Nesterovic also returned to the team as a free agent.
The trio joined Spanish point guard Jose Calderon and Italian forward Andrea Bargnani on a team that has fashioned itself with a distinct international flavour since Bryan Colangelo was hired as the team's general manager in 2006.
"I have the feeling that overall it's getting more and more appreciated, and definitely the international community is looking at Toronto more frequently than I would say a lot of other teams," said Gherardini, the GM of Italian powerhouse Benetton Treviso before Colangelo hired him in 2006.
"Definitely I feel we have the eyes of the international community on us. We are pioneers in a certain way, but at the end of the day more and the more the team reflects what Toronto's all about."
The Raptors recently added Francesco Cuzzolin to the staff as the team's strength and conditioning coach. Cuzzolin spent 12 of the past 13 seasons with Benetton Treviso.
Toronto's NBA franchise was first dubbed the "Euro-Raptors" back in the 2006-07 season when Colangelo began a massive off-season overhaul, adding Calderon, Bargnani (the first European ever taken No. 1 in the NBA draft), Spain's Jorge Garbajosa, Nesterovic and fellow Slovenian Uros Slokar.
"I think this year is kind of like the first year I was on the Raptors when we had all the European players, it's kind of the same look," Bargnani said. "But we don't feel any (cultural) differences on the court, we just play basketball together."
There's expected to be about 75 international players from just over 30 countries on NBA rosters when the league tips off on Oct. 28.
While the 2009-10 international broadcast schedules are to be released soon, last season's games were televised in 215 countries and in 41 languages. More than 20 Raptors games were televised in Spain alone.
Journalists from Italian paper LaGazetta dello Sporto regularly staff Raptors practices and games, while reporters from Marca make several trips a season from Madrid. Members of the Turkish media travelled to Toronto when Turkoglu was officially introduced in the summer.
The European presence in the league would have been unheard of 20 years ago, Nesterovic said, but the numbers simply represent the growth of the game.
"The game is going global and there are more and more players that are good that can play in the NBA from outside the U.S.," Nesterovic said.
The 30-year-old native of Ljubljana said he's happy to be back in Toronto, a city that boasts a Slovenian community of "a decent size."
"When I see (Slovenians) on the street in Toronto, they're always excited and happy and that makes you feel good, that you can make somebody happy," Nesterovic said.
The presence of the European players and staff should help ease the transition to Toronto for newcomers Turkoglu and Belinelli, Gherardini said.
"They know that we've been sharing some of the same experiences, so I think they feel more comfortable, understanding how things are run, understanding the community, the team, the fans, everything," Gherardini said. "At the end of the day, it's a way of saying, OK, somehow I'm at home, there is no excuse at not understanding what's going on, or why we're doing certain things, why we're doing it this way."
Belinelli said he's thankful to have his Italian running mate Bargnani, plus Gherardini, at his side.
"They help me a lot, for me everything is new, so for me to be here with Maurizio and Andrea, it's of course a good thing because they can help me all the time," Belinelli said. "I'm happy for that."
The European players have all connected with their communities in Toronto when their hectic schedules permit. Bargnani is a regular at several Italian restaurants and said the city's large Italian community provided him with a level of comfort that he couldn't get in any other NBA city. Calderon, who's from Villanueva de la Serena, has his favourite Spanish restaurant in Mississauga.
"It's been great, it's a different culture just the whole team," Calderon said. "I think it's good for everybody, we learn a lot about other countries. It's nice."
