Pascal Siakam revisits tough "breakup" from Raptors
Pascal Siakam started the 2023-24 campaign in October as a member of the Toronto Raptors and ended the season four games away from the NBA Finals.
In some sense, the 29-year-old has had a year of personal successes, but he admitted that things weren’t always easy in a postgame press conference following his Indiana Pacers losing four straight games to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.
“It’s been a crazy year. I came from a place where I thought I was going to spend the rest of my career there and ended up leaving there and, yeah, it’s been hard,” Siakam told reporters in Indiana. “It’s been tough just going through everything and leaving in the middle of the season and just going through it a lot mentally and physically and just from everything and then landing here; the support from the first day has been incredible.”
Siakam averaged 22.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 4.9 assists in 39 games for the Raptors this season while putting up 21.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists in 41 games for the Pacers following the trade. In the postseason, those numbers stayed about on line, as he averaged 21.6 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 3.8 assists in 17 games in the 2024 playoffs.
“After you have that kind of breakup, it’s hard. It’s tough,” Siakam said of getting shipped from Toronto to Indiana. “And then you’re coming here, and I think without that kind of support, I don’t know how I’d do. I’m so grateful and happy that I came to a place where I just feel so supported, and you just feel like you’re needed, you feel like you matter, and as a player, that’s really all you can ask for.”
A 27th overall draft pick in 2016, the Cameroon native built up quite the resume in Toronto: two All-Star appearances, two All-NBA appearances, the NBA’s Most Improved Player award in 2018-19, and, of course, being a part of the 2019 NBA title-winning roster.
“Two African guys that won a championship. I share that with him… Again, I say to you guys, that guy’s success is my success no matter where he is,” Toronto president Masai Ujiri said on January 18, the day after trading Siakam.
Siakam will be a free agent again this summer, though he declined to comment directly on his future when asked.