'Absolute privilege to play in our city' Darko Rajakovic responds to ex-Raptors ripping Toronto
'Toronto is one of the best cities in the world,' Rajakovic said.
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Darko Rajakovic thinks the former players who have been ripping Toronto recently are off the mark.
“Toronto is one of the best cities in the world. Toronto Raptors have the best fans in NBA. It’s a privilege to play in this city,” said Rajakovic, who is in his second season as head coach of the Raptors, before the team played the Charlotte Hornets at home on Friday night.
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Rajakovic had been asked about recent comments by former Raptors like Thaddeus Young, Rudy Gay, Lou Williams and Charlie Villanueva, some of who were complaining about playing in the NBA’s only non-American market.
“Toronto, it’s tough, man,” Gay had said on a recent episode of the Knuckleheads Podcast.
“That weak-ass accent they got,” Gay said 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.”
Young had earlier said it was “tough” having to go through customs and spoke on his wife not enjoying living in the city, even though he re-signed with the Raptors after the team gave him a generous new contract.
“I ain’t gonna lie, being in Toronto was kinda tough,” Young said on the podcast. “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.
“It’s almost like you’re at a disadvantage,” Young continued. “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.”
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Rajakovic clearly disagrees and lauded the knowledgeable fans who understand where the Raptors franchise is in its competitive cycle.
“It’s amazing every time I go out, when I go to the store, and when I talk to regular people, how much they love the team, how much they recognize the moment we’re in, how much there is support and we’re just at the start of our rebuild,” Rajakovic said.
“So I think it’s an absolute privilege to play in our city and to play in front of our fans and I’ll leave it at that.”
Back in the day prominent Raptors like Tracy McGrady, Antonio Davis and Chris Bosh spoke out against things like kids having to learn the metric system, the weather, or the lack of American sports channels available and the amount of curling or hockey coverage on TV.
Williams, who won the NBA’s sixth man of the year award in his one strong season in Toronto and got a Drake song named for him, at least was more diplomatic than some of the other former Raptors
“Canada has its own culture. It has its own heritage and things of that nature,” Williams said on FanDuel TV’s Run It Back. “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.”
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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.”
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