Raptors all-star is ready to lead
Despite frustration with front office, forward wants to stay in Toronto
In fall 2019, Pascal Siakam was riding high. He had just finished his third NBA season and was well on his way to becoming basketball royalty in Canada, having just helped lead the Toronto Raptors to their first championship, alongside Kyle Lowry and Kawhi Leonard. Siakam was awarded a maximum contract extension, which gave him the status — at least financially — reserved for stars. He rewarded that faith from the Raptors by making his first career all-star team that season.
This was an unexpected rise for Siakam, a Cameroon native who only picked up basketball at age 17 and spent two years at New Mexico State University before the Raptors selected him late in the first round of the 2016 draft.
Now Siakam, 27, is facing questions about whether he can truly be a long-term cornerstone in Toronto. Last season, he struggled. The Raptors, who so recently had been top contenders, were one of the worst teams in the NBA, playing home games in Florida because of pandemic travel restrictions. Siakam’s play was well below a level expected of a star. To make matters worse, Siakam contracted COVID-19, causing him to lose 20 pounds. And then there was a postgame blow-up with coach Nick Nurse in March borne out of Siakam’s frustration with losing.
Although Siakam’s play picked up in the last months of the season, he suffered a left shoulder injury that required surgery and ended his season in May. He is expected to miss the start of the 2021-22 season.
“I never had surgery before,” Siakam said in a recent interview. “I’m from Africa; I mean, if anything, my mom would try to give me some home remedy or something that can cure anything.”
Trade rumours have circled Siakam, but Masai Ujiri, who runs basketball operations for the Raptors, has downplayed trade talk publicly, as has Siakam’s agent, Todd Ramasar. In a conversation from Los Angeles, where he is rehabbing his injury, Siakam said he wants to stay in Toronto long term, but admitted to some frustration with the front office after receiving the contract extension.
The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
> How is rehab going?
I was expecting it to be worse, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I would say just, I think the first two weeks or three weeks was the worst, just because I couldn’t sleep. I have to find a position to get comfortable. I had to sleep on the couch for two weeks because I couldn’t sleep on the bed. I’m a side sleeper. So I couldn’t do that.
> Are you shooting or doing anything basketball-wise?
Yes. I’m shooting, ball handling. I think at this point in the process, I look better than I thought I was expecting, at least, or I’m doing more than I thought I would do at that time.
> Were you surprised that Kyle Lowry left for Miami?
I wouldn’t say I was surprised by it because obviously I could see it coming. When I was a rookie, these were the people that we look up to, right? It was Kyle. It was DeMar (DeRozan). Kyle was like our big brother. We looked up to him and DeMar. So it was weird, obviously, to see them go. Sometimes I’ll be thinking, “OK, Kyle is not here any more, right?” You don’t really put it in perspective. Some of the questions, obviously, about what the team wants to do and things like that, they ask you. And before, you felt like all those questions, I didn’t really have to answer them, because I felt like Kyle was there, and now he’s not there.
> Have you guys talked?
We talk. We texted. Obviously, it’s all love. He was just telling me, “This is your team. You know, I love you. Everything that we went through.” And, “Go ahead and do it. I’ll be watching out and see it.” And I think the same thing even for me. Honestly, he’s a legend, a Toronto legend. For me, (I said), “Hey, good luck out there. I’ll kick your butt when I see you.”
> What do you think the 17year-old version of you would say to the 27-year-old you?
Yeah, it’s impossible. At that point in time, I wasn’t really thinking that I was going to make it to the NBA and I was going to be this big, that I was going to be at this level, win a championship. I could never even get myself to dream about those things. One, because obviously, basketball wasn’t my first choice. And then secondly, I just couldn’t see myself doing those things, because I was going to business school, and I planned to go to college for business in Cameroon.
> With Lowry gone, obviously now you’re even more of the guy now. Your agent says you’re happy in Toronto. Masai Ujiri, the team president, said your relationship is pretty healthy with the organization. How would you characterize it?
I think it’s growing, obviously. Because I just think that for me, I feel the love. Obviously, Masai, we go way back, and I’ll always have a ton of respect for Masai and everything that he’s done for the continent. For me, at that point when I started becoming that person, I just felt like there wasn’t that much level of communication, to be honest. And that was the only thing really that I felt. It was like, “We got you the max contract, but are you the guy?” I think that’s something that I was struggling with.
> What do you mean by that?
Obviously, Kyle was there, being a point guard. Kyle was, to me, always the greatest Raptor of all time. I think he was always like, “I was the guy.” I had the contract, but I never really felt like I was the guy, to be honest. > You wanted them to say, “You know, here’s the max contract. You’re the guy. You’re the centrepiece that’s going to take us to the repeat championship.”
Yeah. I never really felt like there was that. And I think those conversations are happening now.
> Trade rumours are part of the business. But there must be a part of you after this season that said, “Whoa, I won a championship for you guys. I became an all-star.” Is there a human side of you that is like, “Man, that’s messed up”?
Yeah. I think it is, definitely. And I think it’s something that I’ll probably definitely struggle with. You know? And I think even just, like, the negativity about my name. For me, it was weird. Because I’m like, “Damn.” I’m such a positive person, the people that know me. People see my story, understand where I come from and all the things that I’ve been able to achieve so far in my career. It has always been about positivity, right? It’s always, like, good things. “How can you hate this person?” type of thing.
Coming to Toronto, I always felt like it was a perfect mix. Me and Toronto was always perfect because, OK, I’m international; I love the diversity about being in Toronto. I understand being an underdog. Toronto always feels like it’s that underrated type of city. The people always feel like they never get respect from the general American media.
I think for me, just seeing the negativity and all the slanders about me … it was just kind of disappointing and just kind of like, “Man.” I really did feel, like, just me going through tough times — it’s not going to change everything, right? I felt like we were connected. And obviously I understand, like, man, this is a sport, right? You get paid the big bucks. You get paid to perform. I get that, and I understand it.
> Was there any irritation from you toward the Raptors that your name was surfacing so much in trade rumours?
It didn’t bother me really, because I never really heard anything from the Raptors. Even all the news I was seeing it was never like, “Oh. The Raptors wanted to give up Siakam for this.” It was always like “the Warriors like Pascal,” or it was always “the Kings like Pascal,” or this. There was never nothing where it was like “the Raptors wanted to give away Pascal.”
> What are your expectations of yourself as you enter the new season?
I feel like when the season was ending, I was catching a rhythm, finally feeling good. “Man, I just had COVID. Lost 20 pounds.” These are things that I was going through, and I feel like I’ve always gotten better in my eyes. And I think there’s another level that I can definitely get to.