Jonas Valanciunas returns to Toronto with no crowd allowed. But the local Lithuanian community will be cheering

When the Raptors host the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night, Stan Kuliavas received’t be cheering for Toronto.

Although he has supported the Raptors by means of the years, the pinnacle of the Canadian-Lithuanian Sports activities Federation might be a Pelicans fan this time. Final season, it was the Memphis Grizzlies.

No matter jersey former Raptors large man Jonas Valanciunas is carrying, Kuliavas will root for.

One week after the return of Serge Ibaka with the Los Angeles Clippers at a near-empty Scotiabank Enviornment, the Raptors will face Valanciunas in Toronto for the primary time since he was traded to Memphis on the 2019 deadline.

This received’t be the massive man’s first time again within the area, although. On the town to tie up unfastened ends after the Grizzlies missed the playoffs that 12 months, Valanciunas confirmed as much as assist the Raptors throughout the first spherical of their NBA championship run. The pre-pandemic crowd erupted when he was proven on the Jumbotron.

Drafted fifth total in 2011, he arrived from Utena, Lithuania at age 19 and endeared himself to Raptors followers by competing onerous on the court docket, and exhibiting his character off it. Whether or not it was flashing a makeshift signal after DeMar DeRozan’s career-high 52-point efficiency — then repurposing it for a then career-high 22 by Fred VanVleet — or flashing his trademark smile earlier than letting you in on the joke, Valanciunas made each encounter lighter.

By no means was this extra evident than throughout the post-game meet-and-greets he hosted on Lithuanian Heritage nights. He did them for the group, however appeared to take pleasure in them as a lot as anybody.

“I consider he actually noticed himself as a member of the group and never only a customer passing by means of,” Kuliavas stated.

They first met the day after Valanciunas’ introductory press convention. With pals on the Lithuanian basketball scene, Kuliavas had change into a useful resource for the Raptors within the months previous to the draft.

“Right here’s a child who had, you understand, 20 microphones in entrance of him,” Kuliavas recalled. “That’s rather a lot — to go from a small nation to the NBA highlight and be a top-five choose, and have all types of questions thrown at you in not your native language. I keep in mind, he was simply form of standing there, and I went over to him and stated in Lithuanian, ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ And his eyes, they only lit up like, ‘You converse Lithuanian? I’m going to stick with you.’”

That marked the start of a friendship that continues lengthy distance, with Valanciunas now based mostly in New Orleans after a three-team commerce in the summertime. Kuliavas organized these Lithuanian Heritage nights at Scotiabank Enviornment. Although most are conscious of Valanciunas’s connection to the group, Kuliavas noticed it lengthen far past the court docket.

“Toronto is, by far, the most important Lithuanian group in Canada and he jumped two ft in,” Kuliavas stated. “He would come and take part in a variety of group occasions simply ’trigger, whether or not they had been group sporting occasions or in any other case.

“Going to church — a Lithuanian church that we've got (at) Islington and Bloor — someday afterwards, as a part of a Lithuanian custom, you go downstairs and serve Lithuanian meals. Someday everyone went down and he handled everyone to lunch. He would go on a Saturday to go to the youngsters at school occasions ... and typically within the evenings he would go to the group centre, watch individuals play basketball.”

An NBA participant watching pickup basketball on a night off is a rarity. Much more uncommon is the flexibility to in some way mix in at six-foot-11.

“There have been instances the place he’d be there forward of time and he swept the ground (for them) when he obtained there,” Kuliavas stated. “He actually felt part of the group. He was simply one of many guys.”

Valanciunas proposed to his spouse in a airplane over Niagara Falls. Their first son was born in Toronto and has Canadian citizenship. Now a father of two, Valanciunas grew up right here in some ways.

“That is one thing past basketball,” he stated not too long ago on the “Raptors Beat” podcast with Josh Lewenberg and Nikki Reyes. “I’m grateful. That’s why I’m so anxious to return and see the town, really feel that vibe once more. It’s been a time. Seven years (as a Raptor) isn't a brief time period.”

On the day the Raptors traded him — to Memphis in a package deal for Marc Gasol on Feb. 7, 2019 — Valanciunas was anticipating to return to the court docket towards the Hawks in Atlanta, after lacking almost eight weeks recovering from thumb surgical procedure. As an alternative, he was dealt to the Grizzlies by the one NBA workforce he’d ever recognized.

“The robust half for him is that he by no means obtained to say ’bye ... to the followers of Toronto, typically talking, and he by no means obtained to say goodbye to the group,” stated Kuliavas. “That was a troublesome one.”

There’s a Lithuanian expression that, roughly translated, asks if somebody has modified or stays unchanged. Kuliavas stated it reminds him of Valanciunas.

“He’s a man that the NBA fame couldn’t change ... He has used his fame and the presents that his profession has given him to assist others,” he stated. “I believe that speaks rather a lot about him and his character.”