LAS VEGAS — It did not go as planned.
The Toronto Raptors started the 2023-24 season with a new coach and high hopes and week by week, month by month, everything seemed to go various versions of wrong.
There were multiple franchise-shaking trades, multiple season-shaping injuries, multiple personal tragedies and even a history-making gambling investigation resulting in criminal charges.
By the time the season limped to its conclusion, 30 players had suited up for the Raptors, they finished the season on a 2-19 slide and, at one point, went more than a month between wins.
And yet, somehow things were held together. There was no evident infighting, sulking, finger pointing.
At the end of the season, to a man, the team’s key players — Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett — spoke determinedly and optimistically about the direction they felt the team was headed. Barnes and Quickley signed massive contracts in the off-season that should keep them in Toronto for the prime years of their career.
Every member of the team’s coaching staff is back.
And as the Raptors gather in Las Vegas for the beginning stages of what all concerned hope will be a bounce-back season and the foundation for long-term success, the one person who believes it most fervently is head coach Darko Rajakovic.
The 45-year-old Serbian never lost sight of that fact that people come first. He launched a successful community project with his wife, Gaga, where for every one of the team’s record-setting 2,335 assists, $20 would be donated to children’s hospitals in Toronto, Belgrade and Memphis, where Rajakovic worked as an assistant before being hired by the Raptors last summer. A total of $46,700 was raised.
That project, along with his determination to build a culture built on strong personal bonds caught the attention of Dove Men+Care, which announced Tuesday that it has brought Rajakovic on as its “Chief Care Officer” as part of a campaign “showcasing compassion, generosity and community sport” that will be unveiled throughout the summer and into the regular season.
It seems a good fit.
Rajakovic lived through as difficult a season as a first-year NBA head coach can possibly have had but comes into Year 2 more confident that ever in his approach, believing strong interpersonal connections will eventually translate into on-court success, in part because they helped get the Raptors through a season of on-court struggles.
“It definitely paid off. I think my relationship with players, with coaches, with anybody in our building, I think we’re creating something really special,” Rajakovic said in an interview with Sportsnet. “There is a lot of respect and a lot of care and a lot of understanding that we’re in this battle together. And I think it really brings the best out of all of us. … We all have the same goal and that’s to go out there and win, but I think those deeper relationships that we’re developing, I think, it really helps everybody to be the best version of themselves, on the court, off the court, it’s something that I believe. It’s very, very important to establish that type of culture, especially early on, especially now when we’re going into a rebuild and we have such a young team, and a team that is going to need a lot of leadership, a lot of mentorship, a lot of support. So, it’s something that I really believe can set us up for success in the future.”
It’s an apple pie sentiment, to be sure, but hard times are when core values get tested, and last season the tests came in rapid succession. In the space of a few weeks, the Raptors lost Barnes and Jakob Poeltl to season-ending injuries, needed to support Barrett, after the sudden passing of his younger brother and Quickley, who lost his uncle, and deal with the fallout of gambling investigation leading the suspension and eventual conviction on criminal charges of prospect Jontay Porter. Toronto endured a 15-game game losing streak, the second-longest in franchise history and finished year on a 2-19 slide.
But somehow the work kept getting done, younger players got their opportunities, the energy around the team never really flagged.
“It’s interesting to reflect back on that season because as we lived it, especially from a coaching standpoint, we lived a lot of [positive] things,” said Raptors assistant coach Jama Mahlalela, who is returning for his second year under Rajakovic, having met him last year during the hiring process. “We grew a lot as a staff, we grew with our players a lot. … It felt like, on the exterior, there was all these crazy things happening, stuff that was completely out of our control, stuff that impacted our winning and losing, no question. But it felt exterior, the interior actually really felt solid, it never felt disrupted, it never felt like, ‘Man, what are we going to do?’
“And I think a big reason for that was Darko’s ability to sort of guide us and sort of be that sort of benchmark of like, ‘This is what we’re doing today … there’s these like million things happening, but this is what we’re focused on,’ allowed the staff to [manage] it and all want to come back again, and for him to want to have us all back again.”
Rajakovic went above and beyond, in many instances. He made headlines with his fiery post-game rant in defence of Barnes, who he believed wasn’t getting the calls he deserved in a dispiriting loss on the road against the Los Angeles Lakers. As the losses and injuries mounted, he took his team on a bike ride along the ocean during a California road trip, offering a welcome reset. During Summer League a year ago, he took his new coaching staff on a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon. This year, it will be a tour of The Sphere.
But more important than any big gesture or group activity were countless team and staff meals and one-on-one conversations as Rajakovic made getting to know the people he worked with as individuals in addition to coaches, staff or players.
“Last season really took me back to my core beliefs, which is that we need to be there for each other,” said Rajakovic. “And when those situations were happening, unfortunate situations with RJ and Quickley, especially, I wanted to make sure that they know that we had their backs, that we were supporting them, and I think that really made an impact on them and they understood what kind of organization we are, what kind of city we are and how we look out for each other. It starts with me as a leader that I need to set the tone, but I was really proud how teammates and everybody in the organization that helped help them through the process and that process of healing is still ongoing, but they know and other players know that we’re going to be there for them, and I do believe that that creates a feeling of belonging. And I think that that’s going to really help those guys to understand that Toronto Raptors is the place they want to be for the long term.”
Rajakovic hasn’t been in Toronto for very long, but in the space of a single, tumultuous, difficult year for all involved, he’s made his mark.