Toronto Raptors training camp opened Tuesday at CARSA gym on the University of Victoria campus with Kyle Wiltjer in a familial homecoming writ large.
“I became a basketball player because of my dad [Olympian and Island hoops product Greg Wiltjer]. He is the one who put a basketball in my hands,” said Wiltjer, who with Andy Rautins, is one of two Canadian players trying to crack the potent Raptors line-up for the 2017-18 NBA season.
Dad Greg Wiltjer was raised on military bases in Germany and on the Saanich Peninsula, the latter where he dreamed of making the NHL before a rapid growth spurt in Grade 11 at Parkland Secondary sprouted him to six-foot-11. That negated any hopes of a career on ice.
“I guess he couldn’t find skates big enough to fit him anymore,” quipped son Kyle.
So Greg Wiltjer turned to the Parkland Panthers basketball team and a sport previously little-known to the hockey- and soccer-mad Wiltjer clan. It was a decision which got him to the semifinals of the 1984 L.A. Olympics with Canada against Michael Jordan and Bobby Knight’s American team, a national title with the University of Victoria Vikes with fellow-Olympian Eli Pasquale, and a 12-year pro hoops career in Europe.
It also put a round ball in Kyle’s hands at an early age. No pucks anymore in this family. Greg and his wife settled in Oregon and Kyle Wiltjer grew up starring in hoops in suburban Portland and went on to win an NCAA championship as a freshman with the 2012 University of Kentucky Wildcats before ending his collegiate career as a 2015 consensus second-team All-American with the Gonzaga Bulldogs powerhouse in Spokane. He inherited his dad’s size as the six-foot-10 forward played 14 NBA games last year, with 13 points and 10 rebounds in 44 minutes for the Houston Rockets in his rookie pro season, and also averaged 20.5 points and 6.4 rebounds in 22 games for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the NBA G League while showing a reasonably deft outside touch for a big man by going 81-for-214 from three-point range with the Vipers for a .379 percentage.
Although a dual citizen, Kyle Wiltjer said it was impossible not to feel the influence of his Canadian side of the family.
“I definitely feel Canadian. There were pictures in the house of my dad in his Canadian jersey. A lot of the gear I had [inherited from dad] had Canada written on it,” said Kyle Wiltjer, with a chuckle.
“It was Canada this, Canada that. That’s what I grew up around in the family. I remember visiting my grandparents often, catching the ferry in Port Angeles to Victoria, and thinking it was the coolest thing in the world to take a boat to see them.”
(Kyle’s grandparents retired to Duncan, where grandfather John lives, and grandmother Ella died in 2013).
It would make for a neat national story to have either Wiltjer, who won silver with Canada at the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games, or former Syracuse star, European pro and national-teamer Rautins make the Raptors.
“This is a great opportunity,” said Wiltjer, who was rumoured to be courted by European pro teams over the summer, before being signed by the Raptors last month to a one-year partially guaranteed deal to compete for the 14th roster spot.
“It’s a world-class vibe up here [with the Eastern Conference-contender Raptors]. It’s good to be back [in Canada],” said the 25-year-old Wiltjer.
“At the end of the day, I just want to play basketball. I am looking for the best opportunity available. Hopefully, the Raptors like what I can do. But what happens, happens.”
Andy Rautins, meanwhile, has played pro in Spain, Germany, Italy, Turkey and is also the son of a Canadian basketball icon.
“This opportunity came out of nowhere and I am excited for Andy to get it,” said dad Leo Rautins of Toronto, the former NBA and national team player, national team head coach, and now colour analyst on Raptors television broadcasts.
“Andy grew up with the Raptors, so this would mean a lot to him.”
Leo Rautins and Greg Wiltjer played with Ken Shields-coached Canada, against the original U.S. Dream Team in 1992 Barcelona Olympic qualifying, and the two talked by phone about the hand of fate that has brought their two sons together in Raptors camp in Victoria.
“Kyle [Wiltjer] tweeted that he and Andy should take on myself and Greg two-on-two,” quipped Rautins, who is in Victoria for the Raptors camp.
But don’t count out the old guys. There’s no guarantee who would win that inter-generational scrimmage.
“Greg was a very talented big,” said Rautins, who wasn’t a shabby player himself.
Meanwhile, old connections were also on Raptors head coach Dwane Casey’s mind as his club opened training camp in CARSA Gym, ahead of what is expected to be a strong season. Casey was an NBA assistant coach with the Seattle SuperSonics for 12 seasons and spends the off-seasons in the Emerald City.
“I live in Seattle in the summertime and pass by here all the time and read about it in the headlines in Seattle. [Victoria] is a great city and has got a lot of celebrities who live here in town, most importanly Steve Nash [the former two-time NBA MVP].Steve used to come down to Seattle from here. We always talked about coming on the ferry.”
Casey expressed satisfaction over the start of camp Tuesday at CARSA, which concludes with the sold-out intra-squad game Thursday night.
“This is a great city and a great facility. The University of Victoria has been a great host to us. We are happy to be here. ” he said.
“It was a good first day and very competitive.”
Raptors star point-guard Kyle Lowry was pleased to be “getting back into the rhythm.”
Lowry was also happy for Canada’s lone NBA franchise to be back in B.C., where the Raptors have held their last four training camps and five in total: “It’s great for the organization to come out here and touch fans and touch people and give them a chance to see us up close and personal.”
Practice sessions at CARSA are closed to the public.
The Raptors break camp after Thursday’s intra-squad game and leave for their first two NBA preseason games Sunday and next Tuesday in Hawaii against the Los Angeles Clippers.
