In NBA Year 17, Garrett Temple is invaluable to Toronto Raptors

Garrett Temple and his wife, Kara, were walking around the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas last summer when they noticed a nearby commotion. The stir was caused by the presence of the NBA’s all-time leading scorer and current oldest player, LeBron James.

After Temple was initially kept at bay when he tried to say hello to his longtime colleague, James eventually made eye contact with the NBA’s fourth-longest active player, and mutual respect was offered.

“His whole entourage was moving people out of the way,” Temple, 39, said. “… Somebody pushed me out the way and ‘Bron said, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa.’ We chopped it up. ‘Bron told me congratulations when I complimented him on playing 23 years in the league. I said, ‘Twenty years, bro, this is crazy.’ He’s like, ‘Man, 17 for you now.’

“It meant a great deal for [James] to compliment me. I made a point to make sure I got his jersey signed when we played the Lakers. Who knows how much longer he’s going to play? Who knows how much longer I will play? Obviously, I knew him when I was in training camp with him in Miami. So, he knows my journey better than most. He’s always shown a lot of respect, and obviously I have the utmost for him, too.”

Temple and the Eastern Conference’s fifth-seeded Raptors are also earning respect in their first-round series against the fourth-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Cavaliers broke a 2-2 series tie with a Game 5 win in Cleveland on Wednesday. In what could potentially be Temple’s last NBA game, the Raptors must win in Game 6 in Toronto tonight to keep the series alive. A Toronto win means a do-or-die Game 7 in Cleveland on Sunday.

“We got to come out and fight and make it a gritty game,” Temple said. “If we don’t defend, then we have to try and beat them at their own game, and that’s not to our advantage. I don’t want this to be my last game. …

“We know that we have to protect home court. We need to play our defense. Our backs are against the wall. We have to do whatever we can to win.”

Whether or not these are the last days of Temple’s NBA career, his story of going from undrafted to playing 17 seasons in the NBA is motivational.

A four-year starter at LSU who played in the Final Four as a freshman, Temple was not one of the 60 players selected in the 2009 draft. He signed with Houston later that summer and played most of his first professional season in the G League with the Rio Grande Vipers before making his NBA debut with the Houston Rockets on Feb. 9, 2010.

More than 16 years later, Temple has played in 793 regular-season NBA games with 12 teams: the Rockets, Raptors, Sacramento Kings, San Antonio Spurs, Milwaukee Bucks, Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets), Washington Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Clippers, Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls and New Orleans Pelicans.

The 6-foot-5 guard has averaged 5.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists for his career. He averaged a career-high 10.3 points per game during the 2019-20 season with the Nets, and career lows (0.8 points, 0.4 assists, 0.4 rebounds) with the Raptors this season.

“My son asked my wife, ‘Why is dad always on the bench?” Temple said. “My wife explained to him, ‘Daddy has played for a long time. So now, the younger guys are really good and it’s their time to play. Do you want to see video of when Daddy was playing a lot?’ So, we pulled up some YouTube clips.”

So, what is the key to Temple’s longevity?

“Just staying healthy,” Temple said. “Eating decently. But honestly, staying active. It’s obvious this is my job, so it’s easy. I shouldn’t have a reason to get out of shape. I stay in shape for a living. So just building habits while I’m not playing now for when I finish that I can continue to do. Eat protein, lift a lot of weights and run as much as I can.”

Other keys for Temple are humility and accepting a reserve role for most of his career. He logged just 22 games this regular season. The only game he has played in the series against Cleveland was Game 3.

But by accepting his role as a great teammate, mentor and motivator, Temple, at 39 years and 358 days old, has survived to become the fourth oldest active player in the league behind James, Grizzlies forward Taj Gibson and Philadelphia 76ers guard Kyle Lowry.

When asked about how he learned humility, Temple said: “Honestly, how I was raised, my parents and hard work. But I also say at this age — just with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as an actual person that believes in Christ — the No. 1 thing, you have to be humble. And we do affirmations with my kids every day and one of the things we say is, ‘I’m a servant leader.’

“So, if you’re a servant leader, your main focus is to serve others and show people how you should go about life by serving others at the end of the day. So, I try to spread the gospel about how I live. And I think if I’m being conceited and arrogant and cocky all the time, that’s not showing people what Christ-following is. The opposite of that is humble.”

Temple also credited mentors like Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and Manu Ginobili as well as former NBA players Antonio McDyess, Trevor Ariza and Drew Gooden for teaching him about work ethic, professionalism and keys to longevity. Now, Raptors general manager Bobby Webster says Temple has been a key mentor for their young players.

“He’s invaluable,” Webster said. “Three years ago, when we met him in Vegas, we didn’t have a great personal relationship with him. There is nobody on the team I trust more about the pulse of the team, what I need to watch and what messaging you can help us with, especially in today’s NBA with so many young kids coming in.

“He’s been [mentoring] Scottie [Barnes] for a couple years; we have this young kid Collin Murray-Boyles. He’s a huge mentor and invaluable to us.”

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Temple is in the last year of his contract with the Raptors and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, but his “hope” is to play another season. He definitely would love to remain in Toronto, as he is enjoying playing for the franchise and his wife and three children are enjoying living in Canada as well. Temple added that his love for playing in the NBA is at “90 percent,” with the missing 10 percent centering around missing his family on the road.

“In terms of being around the guys, the work every day, the grind every day, the travel and camaraderie … I see so many people who came into [the NBA] with me or after me that tell me, ‘Stay as long as you can.’ And I understand,” Temple said.

At nearly 40, Temple said “it’s crazy” that he is nearly twice the age of some of his teammates (Murray-Boyles is 20). Nine of the 14 players on Toronto’s playoff roster are 25 or younger, and one way Temple has connected with them is by being the old-school R&B DJ on the plane during road trips.

“They let me have the aux cord for the last couple of flights,” Temple said. “I’m putting them on some Sade. Putting them on some Sam Cooke. What’s old to them is so crazy to me. Early 2000s is old to them. So, I’m putting them on some D’Angelo. I might put some Ginuwine on next flight.

“I’m DJ’ing the flights. I’m a slow jam guy. Dudes on the team are like, ‘I can see why you got three kids with all these slow jams you’re playing.’ So, I’m putting them on some nice Baton Rouge rap, some Lil Boosie, old-school stuff, Lil Wayne. But it’s great to just be around them and they keep me younger and younger every year.”

Temple’s hope is that he will have one more DJ gig on a Raptors team flight Saturday, which would mean Game 7 is on the horizon in Cleveland.