VICTORIA — Andy Rautins was just looking for a place to play some high-level pick-up. He wasn’t looking for a job.
As a veteran European pro he had offers in Turkey and Spain to consider. The money was good. It afforded him a beautiful condo in the heart of downtown Toronto, his off-season home.
No one knew better than him that being one of the 450 basketball players on the planet to draw an NBA cheque was about timing, as much as anything else, and at age 30, the New York Knicks’ 38th overall pick of the 2010 draft figured his was probably behind him.
He was just a veteran guy looking to shake the rust off in late August when he reached out through his father – longtime Raptors broadcaster and former Canadian national team coach Leo Rautins – and Raptors assistant coaches Jama Mahlalela and Rex Kalamian about getting in some pick-up games down the road at BioSteel Centre.
And Rautins proceeded to tear things up and the Raptors couldn’t help but notice.
“It all happened very casually between Jama, myself and even Leo, just letting us know that if we were working out, Andy was in town looking for a run,” said Kalamian. “And once he showed up he immediately made our pick-up games better. The spacing, the IQ, the passing and just the way he plays. He was a welcome addition.”
One day became another and another, and Rautins kept making shots, helping his team win in the ultra-competitive pick-up games that get the Raptors primed for training camp. Eventually Rautins was offered something he wasn’t even looking for: a training camp invitation and a chance to compete for one of the two remaining spots on the club’s 15-man roster.
“I came in for a couple of runs, I showed well and next thing you know there was a training camp invite,” said Rautins, who was a familiar sight running around SkyDome and then the ACC as a kid, occasionally with another youngster named Steph Curry. “I had a couple of offers in Europe, but I chose to do this instead because [the NBA] has always been a dream of mine.”
It’s been a dream deferred. After starring at Syracuse, Rautins made the Knicks out of training camp in 2010 but appeared in just five games before eventually being waived.
He played the following season in Europe before getting a training camp invitation with the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 2012-13 season, which is where he met Kalamian.
“He came in and played really well,” said Kalamian. “I think he had a great [exhibition] game with maybe five threes and he really helped himself, but for whatever reason we didn’t keep him that year. He could have easily made that team, he played really well.”
Instead of making the team out of camp, Rautins played for OKC’s D-League (now known as G League) affiliate, the Tulsa 66ers and led the league by shooting 43.7 per cent from the three-point line while making a league-leading 152 threes. But the call-up never came, a lesson in how fine the line is between playing in the NBA and not.
“I should have made that team, but there was some politics involved,” says Rautins now.
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What he did was make the best of it. He committed himself to playing in Europe, emerging as a star in Turkey for Royal Hali Gaziantep and experiencing life near the border of war-torn Syria. He grew out his beard as an effort to fit in a little more, but otherwise accepted the risks of being a Westerner in a part of the world where terrorist attacks aimed at targets popular with Westerners weren’t uncommon.
It was a learning experience, with basketball just part of it.
“The things that you worry about here are very shallow,” said Rautins. “It gives you a greater appreciation for everyday things and you realize that people and relationships are all that matter.
“There were times we weren’t supposed to go to certain places because they were targeting Westerners, there were times you couldn’t go to Starbucks or the mall but those were the small sacrifices you had to make to earn a good living.
“But it’s not as bad as the media makes it out to be, I will say that. The people there are very genuine, hospitable, I loved my time there.”
He’s prepared to go back if necessary and will go back happily, regardless of what happens in camp with the Raptors. He’s at the stage of his career where he knows he can only control what he can control. The prospect of having games called by his dad is fun to think about, but he recognizes that apart from playing his best basketball, the outcome is out of his hands.
“This has always been a dream that we’ve both shared,” Rautins said. “Whatever happens, happens. I’m grateful for the opportunity. If at the end of the day I’m here, then it’s a dream come true, but there’s no pressure, no feeling if I don’t make it it’s a failure, it’s just a good experience.”
The club needs what he brings as they try to integrate more three-point shooting and ball movement into their offence, which are the strengths of his game.
“The thing about him that is really impressive is how well he sees the next play and how quickly he moves the ball. He’s a really good passer,” says Kalamian. “Sometimes I have to tell him: shoot the ball, but he’ll say ‘I know, but the next guy was open. But when you shoot as well as he does you want him to look for every opportunity to step into a shot. The way we’re promoting threes, every shot is good for him. His range is deep.”
Rautins has ventured far afield to play professionally before, but he’s hoping now that the range he has with his game will keep him close to home.
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