Toronto Raptors forward Thaddeus Young
03/26/2025 02:45 PM
Complaining about playing professional basketball in Toronto seems to be a popular move these days.
A couple of former Raptors took shots at playing north of the border over the past week.
It started with Thad Young.
“I ain't gonna lie, being in Toronto was kinda tough," Young said on a recent episode of the Out the Mud Podcast hosted by former NBAers Zach Randolph and Tony Allen. "It's cool to visit, be there for like four or five days, but to live there, it was tough. It was tough on my family."
A player with 20 years of NBA experience, Young sees the Raptors being the only NBA team in Canada as a hardship for the franchise.
"It's almost like you're at a disadvantage," Young said. "We had to go through the airport every single time. You gotta go through the airport, it's the customs part of it. It's like, you mean to tell me I just paid for the package and now I've got to pay more money to get my package from you? Like, c'mon, man. Customs? Then getting stuck at the border. I got stuck at the border for like three or four hours."
Young played for the Raptors for three seasons from 2021-24, and his comments got the ball rolling for other ex-Raps to chime in on the subject.
Lou Williams, a Raptor for the 2014-15 season when he won the Sixth Man of the Year Award, acknowledged the travel disadvantages Young pointed out, but also spoke highly of his one year in Canada.
"Canada has its own culture. It has its own heritage and things of that nature," Williams said on FanDuel TV's Run It Back show. "And so there are some adjustments that you’re probably not used to when you’re an American, when you go to go to play there.”
When asked about Young’s comment that it “sucked” to play in Toronto, Williams disagreed.
"I wouldn’t say that it sucked for me," he said. "I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Toronto, but it definitely has its disadvantages when you play for the Raptors as opposed to being on the opposing team."
Rudy Gay, however, was not as nice as Williams.
“Toronto, it’s tough, man,” the former Raptor said on a recent episode of the Knuckleheads Podcast.
It’s far from the first time Gay has spoken poorly about his time in Toronto, as his time with the Raptors was far from smooth sailing. Gay was acquired by the Raptors from the Memphis Grizzlies in January 2013, then shipped out to the Sacremento Kings less than a year later.
"You think I wanted to go to Toronto? … If I wanted to get traded, why the (expletive) would I go to Toronto?" Gay said in May 2024 on an episode of the 7PM in Brooklyn podcast, co-hosted by former Knicks star Carmelo Anthony.
Upon his first game back in Toronto with the Kings, the Raptors fans booed the former eighth-overall pick, and apparently, the animosity is still mutual to this day.
“That weak-ass accent they got,” Gay said on this week’s episode of the Knuckleheads Podcast when asked about his problem with Raptors fans. “They hate me, I don’t know why they hate me. You ever got traded from somewhere and the fans boo you? They traded me, I ain’t ask for no trade.”
This trend of bashing playing for the Raptors is nothing new. One of the first memorable examples came in 2001.
Antonio Davis, a 2000-01 All-Star with the Raptors, said then he was concerned about the education his children were receiving in Canada.
“Canada teaches a lot of different things — the metric system,” Davis said in an interview with Jim Rome in 2001. “I mean, they go to school every day and they’re singing the Canadian national anthem. Some of those things just aren’t going to pass as they’re kids. As they grow older, there are some different things they need to learn.
“I’m a little worried about it now because they’re really starting real school — first and second and third grades. I think those grades are very important in their learning process.”
Even Raptors legend Chris Bosh had a critique, saying he was happy to move to Miami because he didn’t have “the good cable” in Toronto.
A large number of players have spoken very highly of their time in Toronto, but it appears this is a trend that the Raptors may have to continue to deal with.
