Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Time Off Gave Pascal Siakam Time to Reflect on Family, Basketball, and his Journey
The past few weeks have given Pascal Siakam a lot of time to reflect.
It was only a decade ago that the then-16-year-old first picked up a basketball at a Catholic seminary school in Cameroon. Now Siakam is 26, an NBA Champion, NBA All-Star, former Most Improved Player, and max contract player for the Toronto Raptors. It's a story you've no doubt heard countless times by now as he's enjoyed this meteoric rise from a looked over prospect at New Mexico State to one of the league's most talented young stars. But even with all the fanfare that's come with his success, it's easy to lose sight of how special it's been.
That's why the past few weeks were so important to Siakam. There's no questioning that being stuck in the NBA's COVID-19 Health and Safety protocols, quarantining alone for almost three weeks were an unpleasant experience for the Raptors star, but even in the darkness, Siakam found the light.
"It's been crazy. I think for me, I just feel like I've been through a lot, a lot this year — 2020, whatever — has been crazy," he said Wednesday night in his first game out of COVID-19 protocols. "A lot of hardships, but I just felt like, for me, I had a chance to grow a lot, man, as a person, as a player, just thinking about everything."
Sometimes, he said, that's hard to do as an NBA player. It's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind of constant traveling, practices, film sessions, and games that you lose sight of everything else that's gone on.
"I just felt like I've just had a lot of chances to think about my life in general," he said. "So many hardships and things that I've been able to come back from. And it just helped me kind of have my sights on things that are super important like my family.
"With my dad gone I just always felt like I was that person I can bring everyone together and I think that all these things helped me kind of like understand what's important, and making sure that I stay grounded and keep those people knowing that that's the most important thing."
As he sat reflecting on what the past years have been like he recalled a story from his college days when he couldn't figure out how to charge his phone. He had to get help from one of his teammates he said just to get his phone working.
"I had nothing and coming from that to, to being where I am today and man like I'm super blessed," he said. "I understand that I'm super blessed to be in the position that I am today. Not that I didn't know that before but these times remind [me] of that and I always want to make sure that I keep that in mind and I stay strong in my family because there's a lot of people counting on me and I think it's bigger than basketball at the end of the day."
When he did return to the court Wednesday, you could see the joy had returned. He looks like a man who crawled through 500 miles of shit and come out clean at the other end.
"I'm back, I'm back," he said with his arms stretched wide.
"Being back today, it's been great, awesome," he said following the game. "I felt great out there being on the floor."
Things weren't entirely back to normal for Siakam. He had his second-worst shooting performance of the season, going 3-for-11 from the floor and 0-for-3 on pretty makeable 3-pointers. He said he felt tired after the game, but he didn't want to talk about any of the negatives of the past few weeks, leaving the possibility that he did contract COVID-19 unanswered.
When Siakam is at his best he's healthy and playing with joy. It's something he's talked about repeatedly this season, finding the joy in basketball and ensuring his body is cooperating with him to maximize his potential. It might take him a little while to get his body back to where he wants it to be after such a long layoff, but if Wednesday was any indication of how he's feeling, the joy of being back on the basketball court is certainly there.
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