Pulling on a Toronto Raptors shirt for the first time as a roster player, Canada’s Kelly Olynyk didn’t feel out of place.
The seven-foot center, who spent his early years in Toronto before moving to Kamloops, BC, had frequent time around the Raptors in his youth with his mother, Arlene, spending time at Scotiabank Arena as a scorekeeper for nine years and father, Ken, as an associate coach with the franchise.
Amid an NBA career that has featured stops with the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons, and Utah Jazz, a return to Toronto for the now-league veteran was a welcome move, even if it came somewhat out of nowhere in the chaos of the trade deadline on Thursday.
“It's been a whirlwind, it's crazy. Obviously, the trade deadline is hectic for everybody, but there's a lot of activity, and my name was in a lot of places,” he told the media, notably following the trade noise while with the Utah Jazz.
“Toronto kind of came out of nowhere. The last 24 hours before the deadline, I knew there was a shot to come here, but I didn't know how serious it was, and then it heated up, and it was super exciting.”
Coming to a team he grew up watching and becoming the club’s third Canadian also marked a special moment for the 33-year-old, who, despite not playing, was a genuine team member for the first time on Friday against one of his former teams.
While no longer the play-by-play voice of the Raptors, Chuck Swisky, who made his return to Toronto recently with the Chicago Bulls broadcast, played a critical part in Olynyk’s upbringing, with the then youngster listening to FAN Radio 590, pre-Sportsnet days and Swirsky’s calls on the radio.
“Very, very surreal,” he added. “It's a full circle moment. It's really cool to look back at your life and everything that you've done up till now and how monumental the Raptors have been in my life.”
However, given the surprise of joining the Raptors, Olynyk finds himself in a somewhat peculiar position, with previous expectations and trade rumors linking him to contending teams as a final piece to the puzzle. Instead, he joins a Raptors team as part of a massive shakeup, with the entire 2019 Championship core now moved on.
“You’re thinking you’re going to go to a contender, trying to help someone win in the playoffs or do something, and obviously, this is kind of a little bit of a switch. But it's something I've done a few times before,” he said.
“I went to Utah, and that was kind of the role that was there: help them come together and grow. Now that’s the role here, and I’ve had some practice with it.”
Coming into the fold, Olynyk’s addition is far from purely emotional for the Raptors, with him expected to play a critical part in the rest of the 2023-24 season before departing for the Paris 2024 Olympics with Team Canada alongside RJ Barrett, whom he won a bronze medal with at the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
"I play with RJ for a month every summer, but now you get to do it full-time,” he said. “ know what he's capable of, and now I can keep pushing him to be the best he can be."
However, given the qualities and style of play he brings to the team under head coach Drko Rajakovic, there’s likely a longer-term fit with the Canadian with his nation’s lone NBA franchise.
“We've been big fans of Kelly. I think the way we view him specifically is he's kind of like a steady hand, and I think we've seen it with the bench units, especially with the bigs. He's going to provide a skill set of a veteran presence,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said. “I think he really wants to be here.”
Joining Toronto alongside Ochai Agbaji, neither new face featured in the lineup on Friday but will hope to make their Raptors debuts when Toronto hosts the Cleveland Cavaliers for a Saturday night matchup.
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