Tucker, a Raptor reborn

Josh Lewenberg

TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - P.J. Tucker was on assignment with the Colorado 14ers of the NBA Development League when he got a call from then Raptors general manager Bryan Colangelo.

The date was March 24th, 2007, a decade ago now, but Tucker remembers the details of that conversation like it was yesterday. And he should - it changed the course of his life.

Tucker was just nine months, 17 games and 83 NBA minutes into his professional career before getting the worst news a young player could hear: he had been cut.

They spoke for a couple of minutes, at most, but there was one thing Colangelo had said that stuck with him all these years, something that's resurfaced in his mind recently.

"He said, 'Yeah, uh, it's not all a bad thing, we still like you and maybe you'll come back [to the Raptors] one day'," the 31-year-old recalls. "He really said that."

Toronto selected Tucker with the 35th overall pick in the second round of the 2006 draft. Funnily enough, he actually doesn't remember much about that day. He remembers being surprised by the Raptors' interest, at least initially. He didn't workout for them in the pre-draft process. Through his agent, who he shared with Andrea Bargnani - Colangelo's first overall pick earlier that evening - he learned they were planning to take him if he fell.

The Raptors admired Tucker's toughness, attitude and approach but, like a lot of teams, they weren't sure where he fit. The league was different then, something Tucker laments now. He believes he may have had more value if he were drafted into today's position-less NBA, where "tweeners" are coveted for their versatility instead of being red-flagged for their limitations. However, his game was also very different than it is today. 

"At the time, he wasn't an NBA player," said Sam Mitchell, Tucker's first head coach with the Raptors. "He didn't have enough skill set. You've got to bring something more than toughness, than the right attitude.​"

Generously listed at 6-foot-6, Tucker came in playing power forward. He only attempted four three-pointers in three seasons at the University of Texas.

"They wanted to make me a two-guard, like a straight two-guard," he said. "I can play some two now, but back then it was like [you had to be a] real shooting two-guard, which obviously I wasn't.​"

So they let him go to make room for someone that was: journeyman Luke Jackson, whose Raptor career lasted 13 mostly forgettable games. In hindsight, Tucker gets it and sees it for the humbling, character-building experience that it turned out to be but, needless to say, he didn't see it that way at the time. 

"No young guy ever gets it," said Tucker, who had never been cut before that day. "It's never understandable. It was different back then. What they were looking for and what I brought were just two different things. So looking back at it, I can understand it now, but as a player back then, no, I could not understand it."

"It kind of made me," he admits. "It kind of was the first time, you know - All-American in college, being the top of the top all the time, to get released and being at the bottom was tough, especially after not even a full year and not having a real chance to be able to prove [myself] and do what I do. It was tough but, like I said, I think it made me."

Inspired by some advice he got from Mitchell, who once followed a similar path, Tucker decided to go play overseas. That's where he could really mature and learn how to play the game the right way, Mitchell had told him, but he didn't understand that at the time either. He just wanted to play basketball.

"The thing about the NBA, the NBA is going to put you in a box," said Mitchell. "The NBA looks at you and says you can do this, this and this, but you can't do this, this and this, so we're going to put you in a little box and that's how you're going to play. You don't ever step outside of your box. When you go to Europe, you're generally the best player on the team, so you've got to do everything: you have to pass, you've got to shoot, you've got to play D, you've got to rebound. So it expands your game and that's the thing I try to tell a lot of young players, is that going to Europe, if you're successful there, it gives you confidence because now you have to work on your game and you can do things."

Over the next five years, Tucker would play in five different countries: Israel, Ukraine, Greece, Italy and Germany, each of them a culture shock to the North Carolina native.

"You go to some of those cities and they've never seen a black person before," he said of Ukraine in particular. "Everything is just different".

He was alone, couldn't speak the languages and missed the things and the people he had left behind in the United States, so he did what he came there to do. He worked.

Mitchell was right, which is something Tucker tells his former coach every time they cross paths. He credits that experience for turning him into the player and the person he is today. On the court, he reinvented himself, extending his range and learning how to make plays for himself and his teammates. Off it, he grew into a leader.

He wasn't sure if another NBA opportunity would ever come, but when it did he was ready to take advantage. In 2012 he was invited to play for Phoenix in the Summer League, where he impressed and ultimately earned a spot on the team. He carved out a niche for himself in four and a half seasons with the Suns, an organization that gave him his first big break, which is why it was so tough to say goodbye.

Tucker was in practice as last month's trade deadline approached and, like most players around the league, he had been keeping an eye on his phone all afternoon. Although his name was on the block, it appeared he would be staying in Phoenix after all, so he hopped in the shower. That's when a few teammates rushed in.

"You're going home," Tyson Chandler yelled.

"Raleigh?," he asked, in confusion.

No, his first NBA home. He had been traded to Toronto.

The past month has been surreal for Tucker. Being back in the Raptors locker room, seeing familiar faces around the Air Canada Centre, eating at the same restaurants he used to go to. He's only starting to get settled in his new place after living out of a suitcase in a hotel room for the first few weeks.

"It still feels like I'm going to leave at some point."

Not if Raptors fans have anything to say about it. Tucker was nothing more than a footnote in the franchise's history book the last time he was here, the second-youngest player on the team that year. Now, he's the oldest and he's making an immediate impact. Not only do they want him, they need him and, yes, that's a vindicating feeling.

"It's crazy," he said, reflecting on his journey. "It just brings it back full circle for me, man."

"He's always been one of my favourite players around the league," said his new coach, Dwane Casey. "You kind of go around the league and you see players that you like, their style of play, and he's one of 'em. What you see is what you get with P.J. He's a man, he's physical, he's one of the best defenders I've been around as far as getting the job done and understanding the game. He's a smart player, he's an experienced player. So I'm excited he's on our team."

For everything Tucker's experienced, there's at least one thing he's yet to check off his bucket list. When he was waived 10 years ago, with less than a month remaining in the schedule, Tucker just missed out on being apart of the Raptors' playoff roster. In a cruel twist of fate, he hasn't been on playoff team since. So, in roughly three weeks, the veteran forward will make his post-season debut. Only three active NBA players - Greg Monroe (527), DeMarcus Cousins (482) and Markieff Morris (439) - have appeared in more career regular season games than Tucker (408) without playing in the playoffs. With most guys in his shoes, you might expect there to be a learning curve - the playoffs are a different animal, as they say - but not Tucker. 

"It's still basketball," he insists. "I know the intensity and everything goes up, but my intensity never goes down. So for me, I'm excited about it. Playing all these years and not being able to go to the playoffs, it's been tough. So to actually be playing basketball after April 15th is surreal."

As he looks ahead at what's to come he can't help but look back at where it all started, and the irony is not lost on him. One of the first things he thought about after the trade was that conversation with Colangelo and what the former Raptors GM had said to him over the phone all those years ago.

"Maybe you'll come back one day."​