{"id":643105,"date":"2026-05-01T16:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/643105\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T16:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:43:10","slug":"in-nba-year-17-garrett-temple-is-invaluable-to-toronto-raptors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/643105\/","title":{"rendered":"In NBA Year 17, Garrett Temple is invaluable to Toronto Raptors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garrett Temple<\/a> and his wife, Kara, were walking around the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas last summer when they noticed a nearby commotion. The stir was caused by the presence of the NBA\u2019s all-time leading scorer and current oldest player, LeBron James.<\/p>\n

After Temple was initially kept at bay when he tried to say hello to his longtime contemporary, James eventually made eye contact with the NBA\u2019s fourth-longest active player, and mutual respect was offered.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis whole entourage was moving people out of the way,\u201d Temple, 39, said. \u201cSomebody pushed me out the way and \u2018Bron said, \u2018Whoa, whoa, whoa.\u2019 We chopped it up. \u2018Bron told me congratulations when I complimented him on playing 23 years in the league. I said, \u2018Twenty years, bro, this is crazy.\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018Man, 17 for you now.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIt meant a great deal for [James] to compliment me. I made a point to make sure I got his jersey signed when we played the Lakers. Who knows how much longer he\u2019s going to play? Who knows how much longer I will play? Obviously, I knew him when I was in training camp with him in Miami. So, he knows my journey better than most. He\u2019s always shown a lot of respect, and obviously I have the utmost for him, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Temple and the Eastern Conference\u2019s fifth-seeded Raptors are also earning respect in their first-round series against the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers broke a 2-2 series tie with a Game 5 win in Cleveland on Wednesday. In what could potentially be Temple\u2019s last NBA game, the Raptors must win in Game 6 in Toronto tonight to keep the series alive. A Toronto win means a do-or-die Game 7 in Cleveland on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to come out and fight and make it a gritty game,\u201d Temple said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t defend, then we have to try and beat them at their own game, and that\u2019s not to our advantage. I don\u2019t want this to be my last game. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that we have to protect home court. We need to play our defense. Our backs are against the wall. We have to do whatever we can to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GarrettGarrett Temple has played in 793 regular-season NBA games with 12 teams.<\/p>\n

Vaughn Ridley\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Whether these are the last days of Temple\u2019s NBA career, his story of going from undrafted to playing 17 seasons in the NBA is motivational.<\/p>\n

A four-year starter at LSU who played in the Final Four as a freshman, Temple was not one of the 60 players selected in the 2009 draft. He signed with Houston later that summer and played most of his first professional season in the G League with the Rio Grande Vipers before making his NBA debut with the Houston Rockets on Feb. 9, 2010. <\/p>\n

More than 16 years later, Temple has played in 793 regular-season NBA games with 12 teams: the Rockets, Raptors, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Milwaukee Bucks, Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets), Washington Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers, Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls and New Orleans Pelicans.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-5 guard has averaged 5.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists for his career. He averaged a career-high 10.3 points per game during the 2019-20 season with the Nets, and career lows (0.8 points, 0.4 assists, 0.4 rebounds) with the Raptors this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son asked my wife, \u2018Why is dad always on the bench?\u2019\u201d Temple said. \u201cMy wife explained to him, \u2018Daddy has played for a long time. So now, the younger guys are really good and it\u2019s their time to play. Do you want to see video of when Daddy was playing a lot?\u2019 So, we pulled up some YouTube clips.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GarrettGarrett Temple said the key to his longevity is staying healthy and staying active.<\/p>\n

Vaughn Ridley\/NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

So, what is the key to Temple\u2019s longevity?<\/p>\n

\u201cJust staying healthy,\u201d Temple said. \u201cEating decently. But honestly, staying active. It\u2019s obvious this is my job, so it\u2019s easy. I shouldn\u2019t have a reason to get out of shape. I stay in shape for a living. So just building habits while I\u2019m playing now for when I finish that I can continue to do. Eat protein, lift a lot of weights and run as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other keys for Temple are humility and accepting a reserve role for most of his career. He logged just 22 games this regular season. The only game he has played in the series against Cleveland was Game 3. <\/p>\n

But by accepting his role as a great teammate, mentor and motivator, Temple \u2014 at 39 years and 358 days old \u2014 has become the fourth-oldest active player in the league behind James, Grizzlies forward Taj Gibson and Philadelphia 76ers guard Kyle Lowry.<\/p>\n

When asked how he learned humility, Temple said, \u201cHonestly, how I was raised, my parents and hard work. But I also say at this age \u2014 just with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as an actual person that believes in Christ \u2014 the No. 1 thing, you have to be humble. And we do affirmations with my kids every day, and one of the things we say is, \u2018I\u2019m a servant leader.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if you\u2019re a servant leader, your main focus is to serve others and show people how you should go about life by serving others at the end of the day. So, I try to spread the gospel about how I live. And I think if I\u2019m being conceited and arrogant and cocky all the time, that\u2019s not showing people what Christ-following is. The opposite of that is humble.\u201d<\/p>\n

What it takes to stay in the NBA \u2013 AndscapeRead now<\/a><\/p>\n

Temple also credited mentors like Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and Manu Ginobili as well as former NBA players Antonio McDyess, Trevor Ariza and Drew Gooden for teaching him about work ethic, professionalism and keys to longevity. Raptors general manager Bobby Webster says Temple has been a key mentor for their young players.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s invaluable,\u201d Webster said. \u201cThree years ago, when we met him in Vegas, we didn\u2019t have a great personal relationship with him. There is nobody on the team I trust more about the pulse of the team, what I need to watch and what messaging you can help us with, especially in today\u2019s NBA with so many young kids coming in.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been [mentoring] Scottie [Barnes] for a couple years; we have this young kid Collin Murray-Boyles. He\u2019s a huge mentor and invaluable to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Temple is in the last year of his contract with the Raptors and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, but his hope is to play another season. He wants to remain in Toronto, as he enjoys playing for the franchise and his wife and three children enjoy living in Canada. Temple added that his love for playing in the NBA is at \u201c90 percent,\u201d with the missing 10 percent centering on missing his family on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn terms of being around the guys, the work every day, the grind every day, the travel and camaraderie \u2026 I see so many people who came into [the NBA] with me or after me that tell me, \u2018Stay as long as you can.\u2019 And I understand,\u201d Temple said.<\/p>\n

At nearly 40, Temple said \u201cit\u2019s crazy\u201d that he is nearly twice the age of some of his teammates (Murray-Boyles is 20). Nine of the 14 players on Toronto\u2019s playoff roster are 25 or younger, and one way Temple has connected with them is by being the old-school R&B DJ on the plane during road trips.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey let me have the aux cord for the last couple of flights,\u201d Temple said. \u201cI\u2019m putting them on some Sade. Putting them on some Sam Cooke. What\u2019s old to them is so crazy to me. Early 2000s is old to them. So, I\u2019m putting them on some D\u2019Angelo. I might put some Ginuwine on next flight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m DJ\u2019ing the flights. I\u2019m a slow jam guy. Dudes on the team are like, \u2018I can see why you got three kids with all these slow jams you\u2019re playing.\u2019 So, I\u2019m putting them on some nice Baton Rouge rap, some Lil Boosie, old-school stuff, Lil Wayne. But it\u2019s great to just be around them, and they keep me younger and younger every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Temple\u2019s hope is that he will have one more DJ gig on a Raptors team flight Saturday, which would mean Game 7 is on the horizon in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Marc J. Spears is the senior NBA writer for Andscape. He used to be able to dunk on you, but he hasn\u2019t been able to in years and his knees still hurt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garrett Temple and his wife, Kara, were walking around the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas last summer when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-643105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}