Toronto Injury Lawyer Blog
I’ve been a Toronto Raptors fan since Day #1.
2019 was a magical championship season. But outside of the 2019 season, the Toronto Raptors have been a hot mess.
Did you know that the Toronto Raptors have competed in 23 playoff rounds in their 30 year history. In those 23 playoff rounds, they have lost Game #1 an astounding 18 times!?!?!? They have lost 72% of their Game #1 playoff games in the course of their history! They’ve only been up 1-0 in the playoffs just 5 times in franchise history! 2 of those 5 Game #1 wins came during their 2019 Championship Season! They’ve had roster turnovers, coaching turnovers, staff turnovers. It doesn’t matter. The just lose 72% of their Game #1 playoff matchups which is insane to grasp. Even in 2019, that Championship Season, they lost Game #1 of the playoffs to the Magic; they lost Game #1 Eastern Conference Finals to the Bucks. Is this a Game #1 Playoff Curse, or is it a sign of a franchise which is either ill equipped, under prepared, or just isn’t serious about winning. Different iterations of the team, yet the same results ensue.
Despite their 2019 title, the Raptors hold a cumulative woeful playoff record of 57–67 (.460). They have been eliminated in the first round in 7 of their 14 total playoff appearances! That number of first round playoff exists might go up yet again in a few days.
The Toronto Raptors have historically struggled to maintain a winning standard, as evidenced by an all-time regular season winning percentage of .474 (1,172–1,302) as of the 2025–26 season. Their playoff winning percentage is just .456, which marks them as a loser. This record places them in the bottom third of the league historically, ranking 21st out of 30 teams in all-time win-loss percentage. Ouch.
If you’ve watched the Raptors through their history, you’ve seen them lose more than they win. If they’ve made the playoffs, chances are that they lose Game #1, and then lose in the opening round of the playoffs (this has happened 50% of the time).
Compare that to the Miami Heat which has an all time winning percentage of .525 and a .545 winning percentage in the playoffs. The Boston Celtics have an all time playoff winning percentage of .574. The San Antonio Spurs have an all time playoff winning percentage of .552. All of these franchises post marks which completely put to shame the Toronto Raptors.
So, what’s wrong with this season?
Jakob Poeltl is being paid like an all-star centre, yet he isn’t playable. He is on a $104 million contract extension taking him in to the 2029-30 season. He is currently earning $19.5 million this season, yet cannot play up to that contract.
Emmanuel Quickley is currently in the second year of a five-year, $162.5 million fully guaranteed contract with the Toronto Raptors that he signed in July 2024. While the total value of the deal can reach $175 million with performance-based incentives, his cap hit is structured to remain flat at $32.5 million annually. He is chronically injured, and has yet to play in the playoffs.
If you take the combined value Poeltl and Quickley’s combined salaries, that’s $52 million in salary (in a salary cap league), which isn’t playing in the playoffs either because the talent is either injured, or isn’t talented enough to compete. When you have $52 million in dead money unable to play, it’s a recipe for disaster. There’s no way to sugar coat this. That’s a lot of bad money on the books making it very difficult to compete consistently at a high level. This is evident this season given the Raptors record against the NBA’s best teams. Toronto held a dismal 4–18 record against the NBA’s top 10 teams by winning percentage at one point in March, including an eight-game losing streak against such opponents. They were swept in the season series by the Boston Celtics (0–4) and the New York Knicks (0–5). The team went a combined 2–22 against the top six teams in the Western Conference and the top three in the East.
How has this gone over with fans of the Toronto Raptors?
I can’t say that it’s gone over too well. Seats at cost are still available for Toronto’s home playoff games against the Cavaliers (not re-sale seats via the secondary ticket market). In years past it would be very difficult to get list value seats at source. People aren’t very excited about the team, have better things to do, and the asking price for tickets, even at list price, is exorbitantly expensive.
The overall buzz around the city and the basketball community about this year’s version of the Raptors is rather subdued. You wouldn’t be criticized if you didn’t know that the Toronto Raptors were even in the NBA playoffs. The casual basketball fan is completely alienated from this team because it hasn’t captured anyone’s imagination.
Enough basketball stuff? Sure. Now on to some personal injury content. A few days ago, a person was telling me that when they were a teenager, they would routinely sneak out of the house late at night, steal their parents keys, and drive off (while a minor and without a driver’s license). As a personal injury lawyer, my mind was racing. What would happen if this person were involved in a multi car collision? What would happen if they lost control of their car and rode it off into a ditch and sustained injuries? Who, if anyone, would have to pay? How would all of that play out? While the person was sharing other interesting stories for their past, I just couldn’t get over the hypothetical fact pattern of an unlicensed youth, stealing their parents car and driving off into the middle of the night and getting into a car accident. This sort of thing has happened before. And then I added another twist to the hypothetical and asked what would happen if the vehicle which they were involved in the car accident with was not insured for whatever reason. I had the thousand yard stare because my mind kept going through all of the different scenarios of insurability; and all of the twists and turns which would play out depending on the facts of the case.
