Raptors’ sturdy roots trace back to Coach Mac

There was no overwhelming sense of basketball history when the Toronto Raptors were born in the early 1990s, aside from the pocket of fans that followed the NBA and the sport closely in a hockey-centric city.

Even within the nascent organization that feeling was not prevalent. The workers knew the modern game and its teams and stars, but a true connection to the game’s roots was lacking.

John McLendon, the first Black coach of a predominantly white college at Cleveland State in the early 1960s, was inducted twice by the Naismith Baskeball Hall of Fame — as a coach and a contributor.Isiah Thomas knew this when he became the team’s first president and public face, and he wanted it fixed.

That’s…