The city as recruiter: Raptors’ Ibaka loves Toronto
By Brian Boake
The Raptors’ Serge Ibaka is under no obligation to tell the world he loves Toronto. He does so anyway, in a post that warrants reading and after-thought.
Serge Ibaka, the Toronto Raptors starting power forward, came to the team in a trade from the Orlando Magic in February of 2017. Team President Masai Ujiri made the deal in full awareness that Ibaka would be an Unrestricted Free Agent at season’s end. In other words, Masai gave up Terrence Ross and the team’s first-round draft pick for a player who potentially could walk away after a few dozen games.
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As we know, the worst-case scenario did not transpire. Serge signed with the Raptors in the summer after a relatively painless negotiation and is proving his worth in the playoffs.
Why did Serge, a player in demand, not leave Toronto at his earliest opportunity? Ibaka provides some answers in a self-authored piece in Vice, which I encourage you to read.
Money quotes
- “Raptors fans are very passionate and loyal, and as a player that’s golden.” I’m reminded of one reason why Al Horford left the Atlanta Hawks for the Boston Celtics – he’d had enough of playing in front of empty seats.
- “[Toronto] is a very international city, with people from many different nationalities.” Serge is a member of the African diaspora with the Raptors, which includes Pascal Siakam and Masai himself. There’s a video of Serge enjoying Congolese food from a local restaurant, the name of which he got from Bismack Biyombo. Serge mentions how much he enjoys the city’s variety of food choices…but now and then, he wants to be reminded of childhood delights. There are NBA cities where that would be all but impossible. [20-second timeout: As someone who worries about where the next batch of Raptors are coming from, this June’s draft is worrisome. Our team has zero picks. I’m comforted somewhat by the knowledge that Masai has his scouts everywhere, including Africa, where I suspect the Raptors are (as the saying goes) first among equals. We’ll need to find rough diamonds continually if the Raptors are going to be competitive for years, and thus unable to draft lottery-grade studs.]
- “There is something about this city that makes you feel comfortable—except for the cold, of course. I still can’t get used to it!” The post isn’t all puff. Serge doesn’t like cold weather, and given the hellish winter we’ve been enduring, I hear him loud and clear. Likewise his complaints about downtown traffic.
- To switch the venue a bit, here’s a Bill Simmons podcast in which he and the host, Joe House, list the 16 NBA playoff cities by quality of food. The two place Toronto at #4 which is a bit silly once you learn neither have actually been here(!). Anyway, I’m linking it because both men have interesting things to say regardless, in particular Simmons talking about how much Jalen Rose loves our city. The Toronto thoughts start around the 44th minute.
The city as selling point
Probably the most tired meme of U.S. sportswriters is “Free agents don’t want to go to Toronto.” Maybe that was true some time ago. However, with Masai at the helm, and people like Serge (and Kyle, and DeMar) sticking around, we needn’t worry about players turning up their noses at our city.
That may be doubly so in the case of international players. After all, it’s the only the U.S. which taxes its citizens worldwide. Pascal, Serge, Jakob Poeltl, JV – none of them have that problem.
I’ll be watching with great interest those undrafted free agents who earn an invitation to training camp. Will a disproportionate number be internationals?