A disgruntled Toronto Raptors' fan who last year paid $120,000 for front-row seats "right next to the coach" has filed a million-dollar lawsuit against the basketball team's parent company after it said it would add a new row of courtside seats in front of his.

Mark Michalkoff, president of the Toronto logistics company DLF Solutions Inc., paid $30,000 for a personal-seat licence for two "unobstructed VIP seats" to Raptors' games in August 2006, according to a statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court. The licence is a one-time fee.

The tickets themselves, which were for seats sandwiched between the press row and the Raptors' team bench, cost another $90,000.

According to the statement of claim, if DLF wanted similar unobstructed seats this year, it would now have to pay $1,650 per seat per game, compared with $915 last year, an 80 per cent increase.

The Raptors waived swingman Luke Jackson from their preseason roster to get down to a league-mandated 15-man limit for the regular season that begins Tuesday.

Jackson, who signed with the Raptors at the end of last season, averaged 2.6 points and 1.8 rebounds in five preseason games.

Toronto forward Joey Graham will stay through the 2008-09 season after the Raptors exercised their fourth-year option Monday.

"I think Joey's earned it; he's gotten better every year," coach Sam Mitchell said. "He's a guy you definitely want to keep on your roster."

The team had until Oct. 31 to exercise its option on Graham, who is making just under $1.6 million this season. He will earn about $2.4 million next season. Graham has averaged 6.5 points and 3.1 rebounds in two seasons with Toronto.

Needing to pare his roster by one before 6 P.M. Monday, Bryan Colangelo would like nothing better than to pull off some kind of trade ? either a player for a draft pick or a two-for-one deal ? to make things easier.

But with the NBA's complex salary-cap issues to deal with and most teams wanting to divest themselves of guaranteed contracts for players at the end of the bench instead of adding them, Colangelo is not finding too many willing trade partners in his frequent discussions.

He admits 'a couple' of things are still alive, but "It's so hard to make deals that when you end up making one, you're kind of surprised," he said before the Raptors beat the Wizards last night.

Is Jamario Moon, a 27-year-old rookie with mesmerizing athletic skills but zero NBA experience, worth keeping?

If the answer is yes, and Colangelo can't work a deal then Toronto will have to eat the salary of someone with a guaranteed contract. The fact Luke Jackson hasn't played a significant minute all pre-season would have him at the top of the list.

In Toronto, it appears to be a three-horse field in terms of what players may be cut: Luke Jackson, Jamario Moon or Juan Dixon.

It's likely that Dixon's $2.9 million salary will come into play -- he may be too expensive to buy out. Moon, who has played well in limited minutes, has only a partially guaranteed contract (at $427,163). Jackson is set to earn $798,308 this season, which the Raptors could buy out without too much of a fuss.

Chris Bosh's return was more important than helping the Toronto Raptors to a preseason victory.

The All-Star forward, who's been out with an injured knee, played 15 minutes in his first appearance in four games Thursday night, finishing with 12 points in Toronto's 111-78 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

After the game, Bosh said the knee was feeling fine and that his night was a success.

"It's good," Bosh said. "It was good to get out there; I'm glad to see how it is to play in a game. I think my conditioning was pretty decent, and my knee was pretty good, so I'm feeling pretty comfortable right now."

Chris Bosh hasn't played an NBA preseason game since Oct. 7 in Rome, sidelined by what the team says is a "tweaked knee." But the 23-year-old was able to practice fully Tuesday for the first time in weeks and hopes to be ready for Thursday's exhibition game against the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers.

"Chris practiced again today. We let him go a little bit longer, and again, we'll see how he feels tomorrow," Raptors' coach Sam Mitchell said after Tuesday's practice. "This morning, he said he woke up and felt fine. If it feels good tomorrow, we'll let him go again tomorrow. And, if he feels good the next day, I'll play him in the game."

Bosh also practiced Monday but didn't appear too worse for wear Tuesday. There was none of the dreaded swelling that the team medical staff feared. He said his left knee was "stiff. . . kind of on the verge of being sore."

"It's just hard to get out of the blocks sometimes," Bosh said.

Chris Bosh did more on the basketball court on Monday than he has in almost three weeks and his return to play seems imminent.

Bosh said he's about "85 per cent" recovered from a lingering injury to his left knee, but if he wakes up today with no swelling or pain after working out strenuously yesterday, he'll dress for Thursday's pre-season game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Coach Sam Mitchell has already told the 24-year-old power forward his minutes will be limited, regardless of how Bosh feels, but getting the all-star acclimated to NBA game speed for even a few minutes is imperative.

Luke Jackson better show up in a big way in the final two preseason games, or he'll be shown the door.

Oct. 29 is the deadline for NBA teams to cut rosters to 15 players, and the Raptors are currently carrying 16. Jackson, who plays mostly at the small forward position, has played in three of five pre-season games and has averaged only 9.11 minutes, along with 1.67 points, and is shooting 2-for-7 from the floor.

Unless he gets considerable minutes in the club's final two pre-season games, Thursday against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Friday against the Washington Wizards, it's likely he will be released. Not that he has been the only player to have struggled during the pre-season.

Forward Maceo Baston, who was signed as a free agent on July 23, also has played in three of the five pre-season games, and has averaged only eight minutes per game, with two rebounds.

Raptor coach Sam Mitchell said that Chris Bosh will not play in Wednesday's game against Lithuania's Zalgiris Kaunas and will likely miss Friday's game against the Chicago Bulls as well.

"I want to be overly cautious," Mitchell said Tuesday afternoon. "We want to get him past this and hopefully not have to deal with it any more."

Bosh missed the final pre-season game of Toronto's European tour with a sore left knee and also sat out a couple of practices. By missing the two games this week, he'll have just two exhibition games - next Thursday and Friday against Washington and Cleveland - to prepare for the Oct. 31 season opener.