It’s an age-old mantra: Everything happens for a reason.
And it’s one that new Los Angeles Clippers centre Serge Ibaka believes wholeheartedly, citing the famous phrase on Thursday when discussing his off-season decision to leave the Toronto Raptors in free agency, a franchise he had been a part of for more than three seasons and with whom he’d captured his first and only NBA championship in 2019.
But while the big man is now fully committed to aiding the Clippers in their title hopes after inking a two-year, $19 million deal (complete with a player option in the second season) with them on Nov. 21, he was quick to admit his present position was not one he expected to be in.
“Even before free agency started,” Ibaka said in his first Clippers media availability Thursday, “I never thought I would leave the Raptors.”
Certainly, the Raptors, too, would’ve liked to have brought the 31-year-old back into the fold. But their off-season priority of retaining salary cap flexibility likely meant that they wouldn’t offer Ibaka anything beyond a one-year contract, and that they also wouldn’t be able to guarantee anything in the near future.
With Toronto looking ahead and having locked up its core for the ensuing years in Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby (he will enter restricted free agency next off-season), the allure of a team in win-now mode is certainly understandable for Ibaka at this stage of his career.
“When I said I wanted to stay with the Raptors, it was true. But last minute, things change,” he said. “People see things differently.”
