	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NBA FINALS: WARRIORS VS. RAPTORS

May 29, 2019

Patrick McCaw

Toronto, Ontario - Practice Day

PATRICK McCAW: It's kind of crazy. I think putting everything in perspective, you know. Going against my former team, the very next year, it's definitely going to be a different experience, so I'm excited, I know my teammates are excited and just ready for what's ahead. All it is is just basketball at the end of the day. Just going out there and competing and trying to win a championship.

Q. What's this year been like for you?
PATRICK McCAW: It's been great. I think it's been great for me so far as growing, as a young man. I took on a huge challenge for myself because I felt it was right for me. So a lot of kids at 21, 22 years old, doing what I did probably never would have took that chance, and I kind of just bet on myself and let the chips fall where they may. And I'm here now, I'm blessed, I've done so much growing as a player and as a young man, so I can't look back on the decisions I made and just continue to move forward and continue to keep getting better.

Q. Looking back at all that saga, are there any things that you thought you would have done differently in hindsight or things that you feel pretty strongly about?
PATRICK McCAW: Like I said, I'm here now. The decision I decided to make I made them for myself and from the outside looking in you can say it was right or wrong, but for me I'm here, I'm in a great position. Toronto embraced me and my teammates, coaching staff, so it's been great.

It's been an up-and-down year for me just handling everything as a kid and figuring out the business side of basketball and how everything works, but like I said, I've done so much growing, and I feel like coming into this summer and just being here with the Raptors has been great.

Q. Have you received any opportunities here that you think maybe you wouldn't have gotten in Oakland?
PATRICK McCAW: No, I feel like it's about the same. About the same. Everything that kind of transpired this entire year was kind of crazy for me. I seen a lot in the past four, five months that people don't really get a chance to see because they don't take that chance, take that risk. So from going from Cleveland, getting waived and then coming to Toronto, it was just a lot going on for me.

Q. You said you learned a lot about business. Was it strictly a business decision?
PATRICK McCAW: No, not at all. I think that was the biggest thing for me is I was a 21-year-old kid going into the summer and just trying to figure out what I wanted and it was all like a personal, from a personal standpoint. Like I said, it's tough when you're that young and you see things only your way and I kind of wasn't too aware of how everything worked, but I knew what I wanted for myself and I just stuck with that.

So like I said, I can't go back and try to change things, but only go through what I've been through and learn and grown. So I'm grateful, I'm really honored to be here and to be a part of my third straight Finals.

Q. When the Warriors won the championship last year you were in the locker room, Chelsea Lane was next to you. It looked like you were in deep thought. What was going through your mind at that time?
PATRICK McCAW: Oh, man, last year I had the severe back injury, it could have been career-ending, probably could have never walked again. And it was tough, man, my whole second year was kind of up and down and then that injury just kind of really put everything in perspective. I think people really don't know the severity of the injury and how my life could be totally different, I probably wouldn't be here talking to you right now and so it was just a lot. And to go back to The Finals again and not be able to compete and be out there with my team but also, just to dress, but there was just a lot of emotions of going through something so drastic. I had to kind of deal with it on my own, and I felt like that was a huge turning point for me, just knowing, like, seeing life from a whole different perspective.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297