How the Raptors spent their summers
DeMar DeRozan was finally convinced to take a vacation — or at least a long weekend
Five players, five summers. To each their own in preparing for the Raptors season that gets under way on the court Tuesday in Burnaby, B.C.
LUIS SCOLA
It was a busman’s holiday like none other for new Raptors forward Luis Scola, an intense two months with his Argentine countrymen chasing a goal that surpasses all others.
In the end, being able to now call himself a four-time Olympian may be the greatest accomplishment of his long and storied career.
“Four Olympics is something, to me, (that) carries a great honour because I believe Olympics goes beyond basketball . . . the chance to play for your country and do all those other things,” Scola said Monday at his first Raptors media day.
“Our team is a little bit more limited now . . . but the chance to be there and live the experience one more time and to do it four times is something way beyond any dream I had as a kid.”
Scola’s star turn at the FIBA Americas championship — he was the tournament’s MVP for the fourth time — also got the 34-year-old in prime condition.
“It makes me a better player,” he said. “It gives me a chance to work for eight weeks on the highest level, getting the competition level that you can only get there.”
DEMARRE CARROLL
He’s a bit of a social animal, active on social media and in Raptors lore something of a Junk Yard Dog kind of personality; DeMarre Carroll is quite comfortable putting himself out there for all to see.
“I think I’m a very unique individual,” the team’s most expensive summer free-agent acquisition said. “I’ve been through a lot and I want to share my story with people and let them see how I live day to day. I’m an aver- age Joe, just like you.”
Well, maybe not, since there aren’t a lot of shared experiences between a 29-year-old NBAer and a late-50s Canadian sportswriter. But he does just want to fit in with new teammates in some kind of “normal” way.
“I don’t play the game for the media, I play the game for my teammates, I play the game for the fans that come and show up. At the end of the day, it’s always good to get recognition but that’s not why I play the game,” he said.
“I think I finally got my opportunity, that’s the big thing, and taking advantage of your opportunity.”
DEMAR DEROZAN
Of all the “what’d you do on your summer vacation” questions in private conversations around the Raptors on Monday, the one that elicited the most excited response was from DeMar DeRozan.
“I finally went on a vacation,” he said. “First one.”
Now, DeRozan is a bit of a homebody, he truly appreciates just hanging around with his daughter and his partner and takes great delight in being surrounded by family.
And he’s also a bit of a workaholic gym rat, he said he feels an obligation to work on his game almost constant- ly and feels he loses something if he misses gym time for something as trivial as a holiday.
So it was not without great urging, and a desire to make his family happy, that he decided a break was in order from summers spent in Vegas and Los Angeles. Where’d he go? The great cities of Europe? A foray to Asia? Exploring Africa? Time spent in the bustle of South America?
“Cabo,” he said. Basically a stone’s throw from home.
OK, a couple of weeks in the sun doing nothing but relaxing must have been fun, even if it took him away from his game, his work, his love. “Labour Day weekend,” he said. That was it, a long weekend just out of town as the first true “vacation” he’s had; and people wonder why he comes back each year a better player.
PATRICK PATTERSON
He called it “the mayhem” and “the chaos” of the NBA year, the daily grind and physical beating and the emotional toll the September-to-May season takes on an athlete and a man.
So to prepare for it, to get his mind clear and body right and to be sufficiently recharged to do it all again, Patrick Patterson retreated to the darkness of a movie theatre.
The biggest film buff in Raptors franchise history, Patterson dove headfirst into TIFF, consuming something in the neighbourhood of 20 movies on his theatrical binge.
“Just being able to sit in a movie theatre for two hours, most importantly meet and see the actors and see a movie well before it’s released in theatres so I can brag about it to my family and friends, was great,” Patterson said.
Patterson is going to challenge for the one open spot in Toronto’s starting lineup but that’s a task for the next month, now that he’s recharged.
“To get ready for all the mayhem and the chaos is good to have something relaxing, something calming that I can enjoy.”
ANTHONY BENNETT
Home, sweet home.
Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? The comfort of family nearby, the support of non-judgemental friends and, for Anthony Bennett, a chance at redemption and to finally find himself after two lost NBA seasons.
The former No. 1 overall draft pick — now with his third team in three years and guaranteed nothing by the Raptors — said the chance to find himself in familiar surroundings was the main draw to signing here after forcing his way out of Minnesota last week.
“Definitely not an easy decision,” he said of engineering a buyout from the Timberwolves after one disappointing season. “I felt like we were beginning to establish something over there but at the same time, I feel like it was the best option for me to come here and play at home.”
Whether he does or not is still to be determined. He’ll be in a dogfight just to get playing time against older, more accomplished teammates and some Raptors officials are suggesting if it doesn’t work out, he could join the D-League team in Mississauga. He has learned plenty about himself, and the harsh realities of the play-orget-out nature of the NBA. What’s the most important? “I can stay level-headed with as many ups and downs as I had, just stay focused.”