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The members of the NBPA Executive Committee include: Fred VanVleet, President; Grant Williams, First Vice President; Mason Plumlee, Secretary-Treasurer; Jaylen Brown, Vice President; Jaren Jackson Jr, Vice President; Donovan Mitchell, Vice President; Garrett Temple, Vice President; Karl Anthony Towns, Vice President; Gabe Vincent, Vice President
Shams Charania: Free agent Garrett Temple intends to sign a one-year, $3.6 million deal to return to the Toronto Raptors, sources tell ESPN. The Raptors and Mark Bartelstein of @PrioritySports reached the deal for Temple, who will enter his 16th NBA season. pic.x.com/W87onCqMLX
Josh Lewenberg: Garrett Temple just went to the locker room after Malaki Branham came down on his left knee. Could see the look of concern on his teammates' faces; the 38-year-old vet is beloved in that room. He recently spoke about wanting to return for Season No. 16. Hope he's OK.
Garrett Temple has learned to take the NBA life in stride, and in any conversation, he exudes a deep sense of gratitude for carving out a 15-year NBA career — and counting. “There are so many people that would kill to be in this position, so don’t take it for granted,” the Raptors veteran said after his team beat the Charlotte Hornets 108-97 on Friday. “I’m having a great time and I’d love to be a Toronto Raptor next year and the year after.”
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The inconveniences of playing in Canada have been echoed publicly by ex-Raptors Lou Williams and Rudy Gay. But is the issue more widespread? Temple, who’s also the vice president of NBA players’ association, acknowledged he’s heard the complaints from other players and the union has raised it with relevant authorities within the league. If there’s a way to make the process a little more seamless, they will try to make it happen. “Let’s be clear: it’s the U.S. (customs) that’s making it take long, it’s not Canadian borders,” he said. “But in the grand scheme of things, it’s nothing to deter somebody from coming here.”
The Toronto Raptors are on the road without their resident grown-up, the most adult of the — in theory — adults in the room. As they make their way through Indianapolis and now Chicago and then four blissful days in Orlando, missing is 38-year-old Garrett Temple. His absence files firmly under "life stuff," but in the very best category as Temple and his wife Kara, are expecting their third child any day now. Which raised the question: what would happen to the conga line? The what? The conga line. You see, at some point this season — and no one is entirely sure when — the Raptors' many rookie reserves began lining up behind Temple, with hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them while dancing in the final moments before the tip like they’re about to snake around the tables at a wedding with a DJ cheering them on.
Fortunately this all happened organically, as in, no one planned it. “I just knew I was dancing,” Temple told me. “I was always dancing. And Jamal (Shead) started putting his hands on my shoulders, but I didn’t know it was an actual conga line until we were in (Atlanta) and (Lindsay Dunn of Citytv) showed me the video. I didn’t know everything that was happening behind me. I thought it was me and Jamal. I was so locked in.”
But as far how this started, Shead claims he has no idea. He saw Temple dancing and decided to join him, and the rest of the rookies followed. “He was just dancin’, and I started grooving and J-Mo (Mogbo) was behind me and started groovin’ and JB (Battle) was behind him and started groovin’ and so on and so forth,” is Shead’s version. “I’ve seen some video, I think it’s pretty cool.” Said Walter: “Temp and Jamal were pretty hyped, so since we’re young guys we just followed along.”
“Definitely, it’s different when you sign an extension,” Williams said. “You’re coming in and you’re asked to do more. That’s with any job on the planet. When they pay you a little bit more, you’re asked to do a little bit more. For me it’s kind of walking in and leaning into it. “They’ve asked me to be more of a leader. I’ve been able to see how guys — obviously DeMar [DeRozan] — seen how he led. With Zach [LaVine], see how Vooch [Nikola Vucevic] leads. Early on it was Thad Young, Garrett Temple, you see the way they led. You pick up little things from them knowing that, and hoping that my time will come to lead, and that time has come. It’s a challenge for sure, something new, but I always try and lean into it.”
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Michael Grange: Garrett Temple also not with team for personal reasons. Expected to be back Sunday.
I know we constantly asked you last year what you were learning. What were the biggest lessons once you were able to remove yourself from the season? Was there something that sort of crystallized there in terms of what you needed to do to hit the ground running this year? Gradey Dick: I think it always goes back to the things Garrett Temple said and taught me and the advice that he gave me really at the beginning of last season. And that was just, “You’re going to go through ups and downs in all seasons. It’s a long season, 82 games. So you’re going to have your ups and your downs. … You’ve got to kind of stay even and just work every single day and really stack days.” … Eventually, it was working for me toward the end of the season.
I don’t want to relive the month of March. We know what happened. We know who was out. And it led to a much bigger role than the Raptors thought you would have at any point last year. Looking back at that, how much did that help you and what did you learn about yourself? Gradey Dick: It was tremendous. Obviously it was unfortunate, the guys being out. But at the end of the day, talking with my parents, my dad, my brothers and also always going back to Garrett Temple, it’s always just preparation. Whatever comes your way, just be prepared for your moment. And I feel like I tried to prepare myself day in, day out, as much as I could that when it finally came where I was starting to get more minutes and eventually (I was in the) starting role at the end, it was kind of like I was used to it all.
Adrian Wojnarowski: Free agent F Garrett Temple has agreed on a one-year deal to return to the Toronto Raptors, sources tell ESPN. He’s repped by Mark Bartelstein of @PrioritySports. pic.twitter.com/PA6pzkfSs5
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