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Al Campbell

Professional basketball arrived in Canada last season following years of lobbying.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) awarded Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies franchises at a cost of US$125 million each.

Toronto fared the best after general manager and former Detroit Piston great Isiah Thomas drafted Arizona point guard Damon Stoudamire and built his team around him.

 The Raptors proved competitive in the early season with memorable wins over division leaders Orlando and Seattle. The team finished with a 21-61 record - Stoudamire being named Rookie of the Year.

 On the West Coast, the Grizzlies, led by Oklahoma State centre Bryant 'Big Country' Reeves, won their first two games before being caught in a series of losing streaks. They finished with a 15-67 record.

 Meanwhile, last year marked the first time the Canadian Football League's (CFL) Grey Cup was won outside Canada.

 After the Baltimore Stallions became the first American club in the CFL's 83-year history to win the championship with a 37-20 victory against the Calgary Stampeders, the team later learned that the National Football League's (NFL) Cleveland Browns was planning to relocate to the city.

 The Stallions, out of a home after only two seasons in Baltimore, eventually moved to Montreal and revived the Alouettes franchise which had folded nine years earlier.

 The move ended the CFL's three-year expansion experiment into the American market. The league folded four clubs earlier this year and this season it reverted to its original nine-team all-Canadian format.

 No Canadian team advanced in the playoffs in the National Hockey League (NHL), all being knocked out in the first round.

 The Colorado Avalanche, which had moved from Quebec the previous season, won their first Stanley Cup with a four-nil series win against the Florida Panthers.

 The Toronto Blue Jays and the Montreal Expos both experienced a disappointing baseball season.

 The Blue Jays continued to dismantle their two-time World Series-winning team and paid for their commitment to youth by finishing 30 games back in the American League East.

 The Expos, which had previously shown signs of building a winning franchise, sold off their main asset, Larry Walker, to Colorado as they were unable to pay the big slugger the superstar dollars he was commanding.

  With the heart and soul of the team gone, Montreal finished 24 games back in the National League East.

 A Montreal native who has enjoyed a good season is racing car driver Jacques Villeneuve.

 The son of the late Formula One driver, Gilles Villeneuve, Jacques built on his early success in the IndyCar season when he was named 1994's Rookie of the Year, and won the Indianapolis 500 and the driver's championship last year.

 This season, Villeneuve made a successful switch to the Formula One circuit when he signed for Williams and captured his first F1 crown by winning the European Grand Prix in Germany in only his fourth race. In eight races this season before yesterday's French GP, Villeneuve had one win, three seconds and one third placed-finish.

 On the running track, sprinter Donovan Bailey clocked the fastest time for 100 metres last year with a 9.91-second performance at the Canadian championships in Montreal, just six-100ths off Leroy Burell's world record.



Stars break into their own league