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

[LoveMyRaps]

This hit me hard.

[Bruin]

Get this man a Canadian passport so he can play for us in Paris

[Raps in 4]

Beautiful write-up. I'll miss him.

[Fairview4Life]

And I’ll admit something to you now. I would do this thing as a rookie, during the anthems, where I’d look around and try to spot my jersey in the crowd. Obviously you can’t be doing that during a game, you need to be chill. But during the anthems you’re looking at the crowd anyway, so it’s less bad. It’s crazy, though: I’d never see any. I swear, every night I looked. Nothing. Then finally, this random night, I’m doing my usual scan — I SPOT ONE. RAPTORS 43. I’ll never forget that feeling. I’m going, YESSSS!!! on the inside. And I tried to keep my cool on the outside … but if you ever wondered, “Why’d Pascal look like he’s about to fist pump during the anthem one night as a rookie?” there you go.

Which one of you local heroes was this.

[Raps in 4]

Good Luck! Top 10 Raptor easily. Wishing him alot of success. Well suck hard during the reg season in 2024 and 2026 for the Indy picks but make noise in the playoffs.

He's easily top-5 right now (until Scottie gets his career going), but even then, I'd make a case for him over Derozan in terms of impact.

[MiamiSPX]

He's just a great human being. Classy dude through and through.

There was a brief period of time where I wanted nothing more than Siakam and FVV to lead us to glory again. That would have been such a great story. 2 homegrown guys that came out of nowhere, leading the forgotten team up in Canada to another title. Also, they loved Toronto and wanted to be here. Of course, it didn't take long for me to see that was never going to happen with them as the #1 and #2 guys, but that is through NO fault of their own or lack of effort. The fact that each of them are still starters in this league, each making over 40M (soon for Siakam) is just crazy when you think about it.

There is something to be said for Masai's insistence on only bringing in high character guys.

[Harold_and_Kumar]

Like most people, I was a bit underwhelmed by the selection but immediately loved his game. I remember thinking he had something that would translate. Not sure if it was here or another forum, but I was getting clowned on for thinking he was a bit like a Marion-lite in his early years. Hilariously, it turned out to be a bad comparison because he worked so hard to develop his game that calling him Marion-like was an insult.

I love that whenever Pascal retires, it sounds like we'll likely have him back here as ambassador for all the things we believe in and stand for, both as a City and as supporters of the Raptors. What better way to get your future young guys to buy in, than by having Pascal show them what it takes.

Good luck in Indiana Pascal.

[missionman]

"The hardest time of my career by far was the bubble — that’s not unique. Mentally, physically, I just wasn’t my best. And I really struggled with how we finished that season, because I loved our team. I thought we had the pieces to defend our title. So I felt like we let everyone down. And it was tough in those moments. I would get messages from trolls filled with these hurtful things, racist things.And being so isolated in the pandemic, it really weighed heavy on me. "

This !sh makes my blood boil so bad. F all of those guys then, and even all of ya'll now who belittle his contribution to this franchise. Really feel like our struggles now is just some bad karma from a bunch of id!ots in this city who don't know how to appreciate the good things and blessings we have / had. "I'm just keeping it real bro, Trashcal Siakam bro, just calling it like I see it.."... F#k ya'll.

This. I wrote something similar here when Powell was traded. I still hate how so many fans have become 'win a championship at all costs' nowadays. I'm in my 50s and have been a fan of the raptors since day 1 - have lived through the days when we couldn't even re-sign our own free agents, or players played their way to be traded (a la Vince Carter).

And so, I just want to have a good competitive team, that keep me entertained for the season and give me hope (however small it might be) that the team will maybe get to a conference final. With players I like and that like my city.

Its why my favourite raptors ever are Lowry, Demar, Powell, Siakam.

F you guys that ripped on Siakam for saying he wanted to extend only in Toronto. 15 years ago we would have killed for an All NBA player that wanted to be in Toronto.

Wish Pascal all the luck in the future.

[missionman]

Hey man wheres OG's player tribune. Booooo

Players Tribune
by OG Anunoby

OG Anunoby

Fixed (removed the "Thanks")

[deck]

[redeye514]

"The hardest time of my career by far was the bubble — that’s not unique. Mentally, physically, I just wasn’t my best. And I really struggled with how we finished that season, because I loved our team. I thought we had the pieces to defend our title. So I felt like we let everyone down. And it was tough in those moments. I would get messages from trolls filled with these hurtful things, racist things.And being so isolated in the pandemic, it really weighed heavy on me. "

This !sh makes my blood boil so bad. F all of those guys then, and even all of ya'll now who belittle his contribution to this franchise. Really feel like our struggles now is just some bad karma from a bunch of id!ots in this city who don't know how to appreciate the good things and blessings we have / had. "I'm just keeping it real bro, Trashcal Siakam bro, just calling it like I see it.."... F#k ya'll.

This. I wrote something similar here when Powell was traded. I still hate how so many fans have become 'win a championship at all costs' nowadays. I'm in my 50s and have been a fan of the raptors since day 1 - have lived through the days when we couldn't even re-sign our own free agents, or players played their way to be traded (a la Vince Carter).

And so, I just want to have a good competitive team, that keep me entertained for the season and give me hope (however small it might be) that the team will maybe get to a conference final. With players I like and that like my city.

Its why my favourite raptors ever are Lowry, Demar, Powell, Siakam.

F you guys that ripped on Siakam for saying he wanted to extend only in Toronto. 15 years ago we would have killed for an All NBA player that wanted to be in Toronto.

Wish Pascal all the luck in the future.

100,000% This. I'm also a Day one fan. 'Championship or bust' mentality is so toxic, and actually quiet dumb cause only 1 of 30 wins. Getting mad at our own guys for not being 1 of 5 Lebron type players is soo stupid... mad at guys like DeMAr for saying 'we dont have LEbron' while also being mad at guys like Siakam for trying their best to be as close to a Lebron as possible... all because these fans 'know he's not LeBron', hence they are 'smarter than Masai'... all while fawning over idiots like Trae, LaMelo, whatever else piece of grass that always seems greener from a far (but I wouldn't touch with a 10 ft pole). Skill and luck goes into everything... narratives are formed on outcome. If Kawhi misses his shot in GAme 7 philly and we go on to lose.. we trade lowry that summer and many would've been viewed him as a Raptor choke artist, not the GROAT.. its always one extreme or the other. Never any grey.

[Brinbe]

Man, that Pascal story. =')

Love that despite the business being what it is that guys will always have love and connection to the city and community. Also those things he talked about loving is what I cherish too about this place. People either get it or they don't. Anyway, he and all the others who have left will always be welcomed back and championed as the legends they are.

And that was indeed a very special group of players. The championship season was great, obviously, but the way they came to play the season after without Kawhi was really just as memorable. They were destroying teams for months till covid hit, just by playing together at a high level and it was beautiful to watch.

Watch on YouTube

It sucks that they didn't get at least a 2nd championship at the end of it, but they still gave us so many memories to last a lifetime, especially considering where we were as a franchise 10-15 years before then. We would've never imagined having a team play to that level and Pascal was a big contributor to that. One of the best come-up stories we've seen in the league next to Fred, he will be missed. Wish him nothing but the best with the Pacers. They will love him there in Indy.

Watch on YouTube

[AndreasLeftCalf]

**** hell I'm still devastated over him being traded. I wonder if he can find the African snacks and food in Indiana lol

[right between the eyes]

On a side note, I hope they redesign the Raptors jersey next year. I remember they immediately did so when Kawhi left after the championship year.

It’s a new era now.

You're right! If this is not perfect timing for a redesign, I don't know what is!

[Sandman88]

**** hell I'm still devastated over him being traded. I wonder if he can find the African snacks and food in Indiana lol

Nah, but he’ll find some Bugles

[TheDunc]

Was truly a pleasure to have Siakam apart of the team, watching him grow into the player and man he is. He will always be loved in Toronto and should have his jersey retired here one day.

I truly hope he has success in this next chapter of his!

We love ya Pascal, f all the haters!

[Johnny Bball]

Classy.

[aminiaturebuddha]

Man this article really got me feeling all kinds of things. I've always loved the guy. His development over the years has been one of the most incredible and enjoyable things I've watched as a basketball fan. It's sad to see him go, even if it may have been for the best to move the team forward.

It's also a great reminder when we're talking about players and roster construction that these are human beings and we should try to keep the personal out of it. We don't know these guys, don't know what makes them tick. For instance there was this narrative developing about Pascal during these recent trade rumours that he was selfish and "only all about the money". I think it's clear that he genuinely loved being in Toronto and didn't want to leave.

So let's try not to ascribe negative personal traits to someone that we don't know just because we don't like someone's fit on a basketball team. Let's try to keep these things about basketball.

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.

[Tha Cynic]

Lowry, Derozan and Siakam are my favourite Raptors of all time in no particular order. After the trade it hit me that Siakam is gone even though I did feel we probably needed to move on.

[nestea]

That was written with honesty and from the heart.