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I tried out for the Raptors 905 — and barely survived

I tried out for the Raptors 905 — and barely survived Raptors

The annual 905 tryout draws dreamers, diehards — and the delusional. Three hours later, Star reporter Libaan Osman knew which one he was.

Libaan-Osman

By Libaan OsmanStaff Reporter

An awkward silence fell over the crammed dressing room of basketball hopefuls at the OVO Athletic Centre.

Someone had made the mistake of saying: “We’re going to have fun today, right?” He was met with silence as hopefuls bolted for the court without a word, sizing each other up before battle.

That was when I realized what I was getting into.

Reporter Libaan Osman put his body to the test when he tried out for the Raptors 905, an NBA G League team based in Mississauga.

There were two extremes of people who showed up at the Raptors 905’s annual open tryout last month. Some were fighting for one last shot at their basketball dreams. Others paid $275 to find out exactly what separates a dreamer from a professional. Me? I wanted to experience what it was like to be a pro for a few hours.

One person brought his own basketball and refused to let anyone touch it. Another group savoured every moment, taking selfies with their 905 practice jerseys, capturing videos of the hallways and snapping pictures of posters of Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet, taken when they first joined the organization and won an NBA D-League title with the 905 in 2017.

I’ve seen the dedication and talent needed to become an NBA player. I have none of that, and knew my hopes of making the 905 were less likely than winning the lottery. I’ve been a washed-up basketball player for more than a decade, left to spin tall tales of my high school glory.

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Toronto Star reporter Libaan Osman in action at the annual Raptors 905 tryout.

Days before I took the court, head coach Noah Lewis warned me what to expect.

“The tryout is intended to be NBA workouts,” Lewis said. “We’re not trying to tone this down to fit the level. We want to see who can do this, who can play at this level and figure out how to play in the Raptors 905 systems and constructs.”

The 905 are the Raptors’ G League affiliate, which acts as a farm system for the main Toronto team, developing young players who are looking to crack an NBA roster. Training camp for its 12th season begins Oct. 26.

In the three-hour tryout, the 905 coaching staff put about 40 of us through a series of shooting, dribbling and defensive drills. We got a chance to learn a bit of the offensive and defensive principles that the big club uses and they tested our ability to apply them in live situations.

Players have made the 905 from tryouts and earned real court time. Tyreke Key, a former college basketball player, signed with the 905 after last year’s tryout and later joined the Raptors on a 10-day contract. Brampton native Jaden Bediako also made the 905’s opening-day roster from the open tryouts.

“I’m not looking to find a person to put the ball in the hands for 40 minutes a game,” Lewis said. “I’m looking for someone who can come in, be in a rotation, figure things out, play with (others) and be a high-character person. It’s people who can pick up and do all the little things really quickly.”

I thought Lewis might have been describing me. In my prime as a basketball player I once fancied myself a poor man’s Tony Allen, but gave up playing competitively after my sophomore year in high school when I realized I had no shot of making it professionally. Allen made a name for himself as a legendary defender in the NBA, and I loved the challenge of guarding the best players and talking trash when they couldn’t score on me. I didn’t care much for scoring.

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Toronto Star reporter Libaan Osman celebrates a teammate’s basket while Raptors 905 coach Noah Lewis (right) looks on at the team’s annual tryout.

After the first drill, I questioned if I could last the full workout. You needed to be in top shape to survive the three hours and I was far from that. I had wanted to work on my cardio, but those plans never materialized.

“We probably could have hydrated you a little bit better. You would have been a little more ready to go,” Raptors 905 general manager Scott Brown Jr. joked after seeing me go through the tryout. “A lot of people, when they hear the tryout, they probably think we’re going to walk them through some layup lines.

“This is a pro workout, and you can see exactly how you stand out.”

I took any chance I got to take a break during the tryout. I went last in most drills to catch my second wind and make sure I didn’t make a fool of myself. One participant even said to me: “You’re out of breath?” I almost quipped back: “You’re not?”

Getting to the final part of the scrimmage, an hour of five-on-five basketball, felt like a victory.

“You can obviously see from the skill set that you played this game before,” Brown said, assessing my play. “But I think a big part of it is the conditioning part ... It’s so easy for (the pros) to run up and down the court for 48 minutes.”

Others at the tryout knew their basketball dreams were long shots, but they weren’t afraid to try. One guy I spoke to drove from Ottawa, leaving at 4:30 a.m., and slept in his car beforehand. Another was bleeding from a toenail falling off. A local firefighter came straight from a 12-hour overnight shift and couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning.

“I’ve always wanted to (try out),” said Delfin Iii Lopez, who works for the Barrie Fire and Emergency Service department. “I said: ‘Why not?’ Even though obviously the odds are against me ... there’s an opportunity, right? Might as well try knocking the door and see if it opens.”

That kind of desire “shows how much this game means to people,” Brown said. “It takes you all over the world; it introduces you to people that you would have never met … That’s obviously why I’m working in it, but glad to hear that feeling is still the same for a lot of people.”

Brown closed out the morning session by informing everyone who tried out for the 905 that, over the next week, the organization would reach out to those who made it to the next stage.

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