Europeans warm to playing for chilly Toronto

TORONTO: Southern Europeans on the Toronto Raptors NBA team agree the city's multicultural feel makes it a great destination for foreign players, as long as they pack a snow shovel and long underwear.

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.