{"id":291850,"date":"2025-11-18T21:42:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/291850\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T21:42:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:42:09","slug":"former-toronto-raptors-fan-fave-serge-ibaka-hinting-at-nba-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/291850\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Toronto Raptors fan fave Serge Ibaka hinting at NBA comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Raptors might have a pretty full roster right now, but one former player is looking to find his way back to the league.<\/p>\n<p>Serge Ibaka, a staple of the team\u2019s 2019 championship roster, has been sharing social media posts this week hinting at an NBA comeback after playing the last two seasons in Europe with Spain\u2019s Real Madrid and Germany\u2019s Bayern Munich.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A winner is just a loser who tried one time. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBAComeback?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#NBAComeback<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RQNdyJLARa\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/RQNdyJLARa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Serge Ibaka (@sergeibaka) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sergeibaka\/status\/1990591494018027996?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">November 18, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Would Ibaka end up with the Raptors?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not immediately clear what the market is like for Ibaka\u2019s services, given that it\u2019s been almost three years since the last time he wore an NBA uniform in a game.<\/p>\n<p>Ibaka last played an NBA game on Jan. 1, 2023, with the Milwaukee Bucks, before being dealt to the Indiana Pacers in February after sitting out for a month. The Pacers subsequently bought out Ibaka.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A winner is just a loser who tried one time.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBAcomeback?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#NBAcomeback<\/a> \ud83d\udcaa\ud83c\udffe <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KQJfRnZCLr\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/KQJfRnZCLr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Serge Ibaka (@sergeibaka) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sergeibaka\/status\/1990872051800830076?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">November 18, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But even if he is a diminished version of himself and no matter what uniform he\u2019s wearing, Ibaka will probably always get a big ovation from the Raptors crowds.<\/p>\n<p>During his four seasons in Toronto from 2016-17 to 2019-20, Ibaka averaged 14.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 228 games for the Raptors. His most memorable moments came in the 2019 NBA playoffs, where Ibaka averaged 9.4 points, six rebounds, and one block in 24 games, all of which he came off the bench for.<\/p>\n<p>Ibaka <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyhive.com\/toronto\/raptors-ibaka-calls-toronto-home#google_vignette\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">has frequently shown love to the city<\/a> since his departure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I come back here [to Toronto], people still make me feel like it was yesterday. Every time when I come back here I feel like, like you say, home,\u201d Ibaka said in a video<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qmkF4HAOGGc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> on his YouTube channel in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that, to me, is the most important thing. Sometimes life is more than just basketball. Of course, we have great memories [on the court], yeah, we won the championship. But at the end of the day, waking up every day to do the things I love to do is a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You might also like:<a href=\"https:\/\/dailyhive.com\/toronto\/raptors-toronto-sports-momentum\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Red-hot Raptors have a chance to ignite Toronto sports momentum again<\/a><br \/>\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Raptors might have a pretty full roster right now, but one former player is looking to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-291850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}