The road to the ultimate prize for the Toronto Raptors was never a smooth one.  As a long suffering Raptors fan, Doug Smith's We The North is a testament to the storied history of an underdog team that has gone through far too many highs and lows, tribulations that ultimately paved the way to 2019's Championship season.  From their first game on November 3rd 1995 in Toronto, to Game 6 of the NBA finals in Oakland, California, the stories in between those two pivotal moments are inspiring, enraging, painful, and powerful.  Relive the inaugural season for the NBA's only non-US team, the playoff failures of the past and not so distant past, the messy divorce between the team and Vince Carter, the unbelievable resurrection and renaissance under Masai Ujiri's tenure, and the magical championship season that no Canadian will ever forget. With a forward written by Toronto's first ever superstar Vince Carter, broken into 25 chapters (for the 25 years of the franchise's existence), and penned by Toronto Star's resident Raptor aficionado Doug Smith, fans of the team (or casual fans of the sport) will find something worthwhile in We the North.

I just reviewed We the North by Doug Smith. #NetGalley for a free review.  I gave it a 3/5.  I liked the way the book was portrayed in various subjects with each one of the major contributors to the Raptors getting their own chapters.  I did find that you can read it in a way that it might interest you and jump ahead.

A very surface level look into the 25 years of the Toronto Raptors spurred on by the recent championship. Each chapter deals with a specific person or era that was significant to the team. Some are interesting but most of the chapters lack depth or any inside information so there doesn't really seem to be much point to this book. If you are looking for books telling the history of the Toronto Raptors, I'm sure there are more comprehensive options available and the same goes for books chronicling the championship year. Might be of interest for absolute die hard Raptor fans but otherwise I'd not recommend