Analysis: The Raptors should move to Utah because dinosaurs

Let's face it. The Toronto Raptors are only called the Toronto Raptors because when the team was created, there was this really popular movie out called Jurassic Park.

Really, the name Raptors has nothing to do with Toronto, or Ontario, or Canada. And no one except paleontologists and Michael Crichton would have associated the word 'raptor' with 'dinosaur' anyway, until the Spielberg movie came out. So you can't say the team was named after dinosaurs generally. It was clearly because of Jurassic Park.

Maybe people in Toronto are okay with this, but for some people outside of the centre of the universe, it all seems a bit embarrassing. People like The 180's associate producer Matthew Lazin-Ryder. 

A lot of other great movies came out in 1993.  A lot of movies that we could have named a basketball team after but didn't.  It would be ridiculous to have the Toronto Doubtfires. Or the Toronto Benny and Joons.  Or the Toronto Philadelphias.  So why does it make sense to name the team after Jurassic Park?- Matthew Lazin-Ryder, The 180

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "you idiots, there are plenty of teams named after things that have nothing to do with their home cities so it's fine" and to that, we say "good point," but also "we have a plan to fix that too."

By rearranging just four NBA team names, we can solve a lot of name and local identity problems. Here's the plan:

1: Move the Raptors to Utah. Utah's team is the Jazz. They're only the Jazz because the team was moved from New Orleans. No offense to the Salt Lake City Jazz Festival, but Utah ain't exactly the jazz capital of America. But Utah does have dinosaur fossils.

2: Move the Jazz back to New Orleans. New Orleans is the birthplace of jazz. This is a no-brainer.

3: Move the New Orleans Pelicans to L.A. Sure, New Orleans does contain literal pelicans, but since they get the Jazz back, there's no need for the name. You know where else has pelicans? California. So, the New Orleans Pelicans become the L.A. Pelicans.

4: Send the Lakers north: The Lakers were originally from Minnesota, "Land of 10,000 Lakes." No one ever said "I love Los Angeles, there are so many lakes!" Yes, L.A. has some little swimmy lakes here and there, it's not really part of the L.A. identity. But you know where there is a really big lake and it's been important to the development of the city? TORONTO. Therefore, L.A. gets the Pelicans, and the Toronto Raptors become the Toronto Lakers.

The National Basketball Association has yet to respond to this proposal.

Until they do, we'd love to hear your ideas on what to rename the Raptors. Add a comment below or send an email to the180@cbc.ca.