Pascal Siakam: "Toronto.. thank you for everything" - Player's Tribune

[Oakvillehoops]

Love you Pascal!!!

There not ship without your emergence, you came from nothing and earned everything that life rewards you with!!

[Chalky_White]

This one was released super quick, usually takes a bit after a departure. Makes you think the deal was in the works for a while so he had time to craft a well written farewell.

Quickley took like two weeks to release his goodbye, likely cause the trade was quite the surprise for him.

[SFour]

That was a great read.....honestly Siakam should be in the jersey retirement conversation for the Raptors.....he's a top 5 Raptor.

[TGM]

The business side said it was time to part ways. However, Siakam meant so much to this team and city. I’m glad I bought an auctioned signed jersey last year to remember this class act!

[soloxylo]

Gonna miss P, for real. He really gave it his everything, and genuinely wanted to be here for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, the business side of things makes those sentiments not so tangible. I'll always remember draft night, being happy we picked him at 27 - even then, I was seeing the potential, the upside. From where he started as a rookie, to what he became - Man, what a journey. I'm glad he landed in a great spot in Indy. He truly represented this team, this city to utmost highest. Nothing but love, respect for Pascal.

[Parataxis]

Sign him to a 10-day when he's ready to retire, or we riot.

All time great Raptor (Currently top-3).

Excited to see what he does in the rest of his career.

[GP2]

I honestly never thought about retiring his jersey until people brought it up here. But he certainly made it easy by picking #43.

[Public_Enemy101]

Classy dude. As much as we criticized his game, he never went after the fans and continued to improve. Wishing him the best in Indiana and looking forward to facing him in the regular season and in future playoffs!

[Son Goku 25]

Damn man this one hurts

[Wargreymon]

This one hit me hard. Why did you have to post this…got a grown 30 year old crying now.

[ATLTimekeeper]

I mean he did want the money. This is literally known lol.

You can want to stay and want all the money. Lowry operated that way his entire career. Nobody doubts how much he loved the Raptors.

I'm not going to dump on the guy for wanting as much money as he can get, but there is an affordability:talent ratio to consider. He's not a number 1 and you can't give him number 1 money. If he was sincere about wanting to stay a Raptor his entire life he would have asked his agent what kind of discount he would have had to give the Raptors to fulfill that dream.

While the feels come out when he talks about seeing himself as a Raptor for life, he didn't want any personal sacrifice to make that a reality, now did he?

Having said that I still like the guy a lot and wish him well.

There's a big difference between wanting to maximize your earnings, as anyone in any field who has ever had a job has wanted to do, and some of the crap that was being written about him on these boards over the last year or two, and especially the past couple of months.

Also the kinds of sacrifice he's asking is unreasonable. The Raptors offered a 3 year extension when he can easily get 4 (or more) somewhere else. Players don't leave 40-50 million guaranteed on the table for location. I don't know what kind of discounts people think happen these days.

[JJWong17]

This one was released super quick, usually takes a bit after a departure. Makes you think the deal was in the works for a while so he had time to craft a well written farewell.

Quickley took like two weeks to release his goodbye, likely cause the trade was quite the surprise for him.

Well from Masai's press conference, it sounds like they had a really open talk on the day of the Lakers game. That doesn't mean he knew he was going to land in Indiana but perhaps he got confirmation from Masai that yes, the trade talks are in earnest and it was extremely likely that Pascal would get moved before the trade deadline. That would have give him almost two weeks to write this, which coincidentally is a lot like a two weeks notice at a job lol

[Dennis 37]

I mean he did want the money. This is literally known lol.

You can want to stay and want all the money. Lowry operated that way his entire career. Nobody doubts how much he loved the Raptors.

I'm not going to dump on the guy for wanting as much money as he can get, but there is an affordability:talent ratio to consider. He's not a number 1 and you can't give him number 1 money. If he was sincere about wanting to stay a Raptor his entire life he would have asked his agent what kind of discount he would have had to give the Raptors to fulfill that dream.

While the feels come out when he talks about seeing himself as a Raptor for life, he didn't want any personal sacrifice to make that a reality, now did he?

Having said that I still like the guy a lot and wish him well.

There's a big difference between wanting to maximize your earnings, as anyone in any field who has ever had a job has wanted to do, and some of the crap that was being written about him on these boards over the last year or two, and especially the past couple of months.

We yes crap will flow. It could be the warmest sunniest day and crap will still flow.

[Dennis 37]

I'm not going to dump on the guy for wanting as much money as he can get, but there is an affordability:talent ratio to consider. He's not a number 1 and you can't give him number 1 money. If he was sincere about wanting to stay a Raptor his entire life he would have asked his agent what kind of discount he would have had to give the Raptors to fulfill that dream.

While the feels come out when he talks about seeing himself as a Raptor for life, he didn't want any personal sacrifice to make that a reality, now did he?

Having said that I still like the guy a lot and wish him well.

There's a big difference between wanting to maximize your earnings, as anyone in any field who has ever had a job has wanted to do, and some of the crap that was being written about him on these boards over the last year or two, and especially the past couple of months.

Also the kinds of sacrifice he's asking is unreasonable. The Raptors offered a 3 year extension when he can easily get 4 (or more) somewhere else. Players don't leave 40-50 million guaranteed on the table for location. I don't know what kind of discounts people think happen these days.

That's very true; discounts don't happen often, but don't be upset that you can't be a Raptor for life when you had the choice to stay.

Kawhi left money on the table to go home.

[James_Raptors]

This one was released super quick, usually takes a bit after a departure. Makes you think the deal was in the works for a while so he had time to craft a well written farewell.

Quickley took like two weeks to release his goodbye, likely cause the trade was quite the surprise for him.

Not sure when Quickley found out, but I thought the discussions started between the Knicks on/around Dec 11th, and then the trade happened on Dec 31st, so basically around 3 weeks.

[YogurtProducer]

I honestly never thought about retiring his jersey until people brought it up here. But he certainly made it easy by picking #43.

He is 100% being retired, joining Lowry and Demar as the only guarantees IMO

I still think Kawhi should have been as well, and I can see the argument for VC just based off cultural impact.

Leonard 2
Lowry 7
Derozan 10
Carter 15
Siakam 43

I have come around and would not mind seeing all 5 up there. Hopefully one day we add Barnes 4

[JJWong17]

Not bad for the lanky kid from Cameroon.

Not bad at all! I'm definitely crying. He really opened up and it hit hard to see him admit that he really couldn't see himself wearing another jersey when his agent asked him to imagine the future. I'm not the earliest Raptor fan, coming in during Bosh's second year, but I remember the constant chatter about how the franchise wasn't going to amount to anything, how it should be sold so MLSE could focus on the Leafs, how anyone who played here was always just waiting for his contract to end so he could get out of town. It's why Demar's public claim of "I got us" landed so hard. So to see that Pascal always felt like this was where he wanted to be and that this was where he had made his home, it's just so meaningful.

He'll always be a Raptor not just for the championship he helped us win but for truly embracing the city.

[DreamTeam09]

#Salute my fav Raptor

[Kingsway_fan]

Trading pascal for a bag of chips will go down as one of the biggest fiascos in raptors history. This is on you, Masai.

[NBJ13]

Go ahead and get that big bag you've earned and come back home later