Unlike warmer NBA cities such as Los Angeles and Miami, Toronto has a months-long winter season where the average temperature routinely falls as low as minus nine Celsius.
One year, officials had to call in the army to help deal with a major snowfall that crippled the city.
"It's one of the best cities," said Spanish player Jose Calderon, who joined the Raptors in 2005. "But I have to be honest with you, with a little better winter it would be the best."
Toronto is one of the NBA's most northerly venues, and the only one in Canada. As more than half of the city's population of some 5.5 million were born outside the country, the European athletes are easily able to find comforting reminders of home, says Reuters.
