Long live the 2018-19 Toronto Raptors.
As the Los Angeles Clippers roll into town on New Year’s Eve, Serge Ibaka will return for the first time since departing in the summer of 2020 from the team he won a championship with. There is an anticipation, of course, that Ibaka (who became a fan favourite during his four seasons with the Raptors) will receive a warm welcome from both old colleagues and the Scotiabank Arena crowd (what little of it there’ll be, anyway).
“On the court, off the court, [Ibaka] really maximized his time here and became a real staple in this city. Obviously, we miss him and we love him, but I’ll probably put him in every ball screen I can [New Year’s Eve] just to test him out,” Fred VanVleet said, jokingly. “He’s looking a little old these days—I’ll make sure to tell him that when I see him. But he was a pleasure to play with and just a great teammate and friend and a big, big part of what we did here.”
Indeed, Ibaka and his large personality have left a profound impact upon the Raptors organization and Toronto at large. Whether it’s through media (who could ever forget his internet food show, How Hungry Are You?) or his prolific fashion statements, the big man always seems to find ways to tell stories—something he’s been known to conjure up in the locker room as well.
“When we went down 0-2 to Milwaukee and we came back to Toronto,” head coach Nick Nurse recalled, “I was getting ready to show clips and Serge [Ibaka] asked me if he could speak to the team before we started the film session and he got up there and said, ‘I’ve been in this situation before with OKC. We were down 0-2 to the Spurs, they had Kawhi [Leonard], and Danny [Green], and Tim [Duncan], and Manu [Ginobili], and all these guys and we won four-straight, and we’re gonna do the same here.’ And he was right.”
In hindsight, Ibaka’s pep talk to the Raptors is now one of the many moments of the 2019 run encased in legendary status. The everlasting mental fortitude of that team, both on the floor and off of it, radiates from every memory, every tale that surfaces as time wears on. But at the time, Ibaka’s anecdote was simply that: A distraction to try to cheer up his bummed teammates.
“It didn’t mean anything at the time because Serge [Ibaka] is always talking, he's always got a story,” VanVleet said with a smile, “he’s always got some motivational speech and he doesn’t know how to finish his speeches, so he just rambles on for a while. So at the time it didn’t mean anything, and then once we won, we could look back and say, ‘Damn, Serge did tell us.’ We were down 0-2. You look back and say, ‘He was a genius the whole time’ and nobody was listening.
“It made it funny cause Kawhi was in the room and he was telling us about the time they came back to beat Kawhi and Danny, so it was a good lighthearted moment after we were feeling crappy being down 0-2. And we ended up climbing out of the hole.”
While he may be remembered best for his iconic style, playful character, and significant community work during his time with the Raptors, it’s also worth recalling just how relentlessly competitive Ibaka is and was, and the immeasurable value he provided to a franchise that only several years earlier had been a league-wide laughing stock.
No matter which version of the 32-year-old you’re talking about, there will always be a story.
“It was a hell of a moment,” Nurse said. “A hell of a leadership moment and a hell of a moment for our team.”
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