» Raptors’ Chris Boucher talks free agency and life story

Article content

You could make a movie about Chris Boucher’s life story.

Article content

Article content

Article content

Forget Rudy, Boucher didn’t even play organized basketball until he was 19 years old and has gone on to become a veteran of over 400 NBA games, all but one with the Toronto Raptors.

Earlier, he was at times homeless, not in school and unsure of where the future would take him.

To live his basketball dream, Boucher had to leave Montreal — where he and his family settled after immigrating from Saint Lucia when he was five years old — and attend multiple schools in the U.S. in places quite foreign to him.

He had to overcome an injury that derailed a potential NCAA championship season at Oregon and kept him from being drafted, and then had to fight tooth and nail to earn a spot with the Raptors in 2018, seizing storybook moments in Las Vegas at NBA Summer League and then, poetically, in an exhibition game in Montreal to make the team.

Article content

Boucher, the longest-tenured Raptor, will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1 and, though not impossible, it seems highly unlikely he’ll get a chance to chase down the 11 Raptors who have played more games than him for the franchise over the years (largely owing to Toronto’s luxury tax concerns).

Speaking to Postmedia this week, Boucher seemed at ease with whatever the future holds and justifiably proud of his time with the Raptors.

“I watch the NBA, I watch the playoffs and I see that there’s a lot of need for players like (himself),” he said this week while heading to a charitable event in Scarborough. “As a free agent now, the only thing to do is you take this summer, you work on the little things that you want to get better in and obviously you wait for the draft, you wait for the playoffs and then the conversations will get started.

Article content

Article content

“I can be satisfied with what I did this season (he called it one of his best) and for whatever comes after, the conversations will be happening and I’ll have a better idea of what the future is going to look like.”

It was a complicated season for Boucher and a Raptors franchise that had two goals for 2024-25, neither of them compatible with where the 32-year-old big man was at this point of his career: Develop the many young players on the roster and lose enough games to have a shot at a top pick in May’s draft lottery.

That left Boucher out of the mix for the final 23 games of the season. As team president Masai Ujiri later explained while lauding Boucher for his professionalism, the team knew what it had in Boucher, but needed to find out about the likes of Jonathan Mogbo and Jamison Battle.

Article content

Ujiri added plenty of teams have expressed interest in Boucher in the past, which was nice for Boucher to hear as he figures out his next steps.

“It’s great. Masai will not hide anything from you, or he will tell you exactly what it is. That is one thing that I always appreciated from him and that’s why I was here for so long. I always believed in him, I always trusted him,” Boucher said. “And I think the one thing that he showed me that will help me no matter where I am is how to be a pro.

“I did get better here. Toronto helped me be Chris Boucher and kind of have a name in the league and that is something that I think I’ll always be thankful for.”

Boucher does extensive community work, primarily for youths in Toronto and Montreal, through camps, scholarships, community initiatives and mental health support through his SlimmDuck Foundation. He recently was named a finalist for the NBA Social Justice award, which recognizes a current player for pursuing social justice and advancing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s life mission to engage, empower and drive equality for individuals and groups who have been historically disadvantaged.

Article content

“It means a lot for my team. All the work that they put in,” Boucher said of the recognition. “During the season when I can’t be somewhere, I can, kind of have the content, do certain events or programs, they are still working all year long.

“I’m so grateful to have the right people around there doing the work and helping people turn their life around. I think that’s just something that I’m really blessed for. Blessed and grateful.”

This week Boucher was helping to promote World Wish Day, alongside Make-a-Wish recipient Henry Thompson, a 14-year-old leukemia survivor.

Thompson had previously met Boucher when he was named Raptors general manager for a day as his granted wish. This week the duo was at Jack Astor’s designing a special children’s menu for the promotion.

Article content

The work is important to Boucher.

“From who I was when I had nothing, I never asked anybody, anything. I never wished anything bad to anybody. I was just happy that I was alive,” he said. “And I think that I was able to bring that when I made it, and still be the same humble person, but also be able to know that, ‘OK, I can help people, and I can still live my life, and basketball is a life, and my life, my outside life, is something else,’ and kind of have a balance and everything.

“For me just getting there and my story, I think it’s always been about kind of hoping for better … and they try to make those kids that are really open and want to have a better future and are struggling with things that are out of their control.

“And, since I grew up in this, I kind of gravitate to that and find ways to be able to help people like that.”

Article content

Boucher is happy he ended up in Toronto and to land with Pascal Siakam — who also picked up the game lately — was another huge coup for him.

“You get to see how he plays, pick his brain and see the progress that he made, and obviously the development that Toronto is doing for the players. I was lucky to be part of it,” Boucher said.

“And I think that’s why I was able to stay here a long time and kind of get better. And you see it this year, we got young guys and they’re getting better. And obviously there’s a culture that is there that’s always been there from Pascal and from Fred (VanVleet) and obviously winning the championship with Kawhi (Leonard), you know, lets them build up, with change of players, obviously, and kind of show them the ropes of how you’ve got to be to be in the NBA.”

Article content

Change is the only constant in the NBA and, if this is it for Boucher as a Raptor, he has a message for his supporters.

“I want them to be able to see from where we came from,” Boucher said. “I think from the Chris Boucher that went to the G League, that went on to win the MVP and defensive player of the year, and the ups and downs and obviously the trades and the trade deadlines, and the games that we’ve had wonderful moments, spectacular games and dunks.

“I think if they can remember all the little things and know that everything came from the heart, I will always love Toronto and Toronto will always be home.

“I think that if they could keep that in the heart and know that I always came onto the court to play and to win, I’m good with that.”

@WolstatSun

Article content