Raptors Father’s Day: Former Raptors Who Raised Future NBA Players

Father’s Day with a Toronto Raptors twist! Taking a look at the former Raptors who’s sons also made it to the NBA.

Happy Belated Father’s Day to all the fathers out there (including you, pet dads)!

Making it to the NBA is an incredible feat, there are only 450 roster spots at any one time each season. Having played in the NBA is a resume standout on its own, but being able to do so AND raise a child to grow up and do the same is another accomplishment on its own. So, in the spirit of the day, let’s take a look back at some of the former Raptors who have fathered a child all the way up to the NBA.

Leo Rautins

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I’m cheating here a bit on these first two. Although Leo Rautins never played for the Toronto Raptors - the team played its first NBA game 11 years after Rautins played his last - I would be remiss if I didn’t include him on the list.

Standing at 6’8”, Rautins was a big wing born and raised in Toronto. After a freshman season at Minnesota he finished out his NCAA career with three years at Syracuse, leading him to be drafted 17th overall by the Philadelphia 76ers in 1983. He accumulated 32 games of NBA action across two short seasons, suiting up 28 times, including three starts, for Philly as a rookie. A trade to the Pacers in the fall of 1984 eventually led to Rautins being waived and then signed by the Atlanta Hawks, where he would play four more NBA games before being waived again a month into the season, thus ending his NBA career.

Obviously, no games played here for the Raptors, so why is he on this list? Upon leaving the NBA, Rautins returned to his alma mater of Syracuse and began doing radio and TV commentating for their basketball games, leading to a job commentating the 1984 Olympics with CBC. The basketball-player-turned-commentator would end up taking a lengthy break from his new profession, returning back to the court and playing professional basketball in Europe until 1992.

After retiring from basketball for good, Rautins would return to the commentary booth in 1995 with the introduction of the NBA’s newest team: the Toronto Raptors. Nearly approaching their 30th season in the NBA, the Raptors haven’t gone a single season without Leo Rautins involved in broadcasting their games. Once for Sportsnet and now for TSN, Rautins has been a long-term Raptors broadcaster for those of us following the team up in Canada.

Speaking of Canada, Rautins also had a short stint as the head coach of the Canadian men’s national team. He led the senior men’s team from 2005-2011, unfortunately they did not qualify for the 2008 Olympics but the team did qualify for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in 2010. Across his experiences playing, broadcasting and coaching in the sport, Rautins has received a number of accolades for his contribution to Canadian basketball. In 1997, he was inducted into the Canada Basketball Hall of Fame, followed up with inductions into the Ontario Basketball Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2016.

Enough raving about Leo - time for his son! In November of 1986, Leo and his now ex-wife Maria had their second son, Andrew. Born and raised in New York, Andy Rautins would follow in his father’s footsteps with his love of basketball, and in his NCAA career. A 6’4” shooting guard, Rautins committed to play at Syracuse and played all four years of his college eligibility. Although he wasn’t a standout, he was good enough to warrant the New York Knicks taking a flyer on him in the second round of the 2010 NBA Draft. Rautins appeared in five games in the 2010-11 season for New York, marking the only NBA games of his career.

He would bounce around as a bench/minors player for a couple of years, before also venturing to play pro in Europe. The Raptors would sign him for a couple of pre-season games in 2017, before waiving him and returning back to Europe where he only ended his career a year ago. Andy did play for Canada as well, actually playing for his father Leo after first being named to the senior men’s team in 2006 and playing for them until 2010.

Despite the closest Leo Rautins ever got to playing for the Raptors was his son signing with them for three weeks in pre-season, his contributions to the legacy of Raptors broadcasts and Canadian basketball gives him enough credibility to make the list as an honorary-former Raptor in my books.

Adrian Griffin

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I’m not cheating as much with this one, as Adrian Griffin was legitimately a Toronto Raptor - just not ON the court, but off to the side of it.

Born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, Adrian Griffin was a 6’5” wing who would attend Seton Hall University in New Jersey. After playing all four years of his college eligibility, Griffin went undrafted in the 1996 NBA Draft. Taking an unconventional route to the NBA, the Kansas native spent the first three years of his pro basketball career with a cup of coffee in Italy and then a decent stint in the Continental Basketball Association, a minor league in the USA.

Finally getting picked up by an NBA team, the Boston Celtics signed Griffin for the 1999-2000 season. In his rookie NBA year, he played in 72 games for the Celtics, starting in 47 of them and averaging nearly seven points. Griffin would go on to play eight more seasons in the NBA, but only eclipsed his rookie season totals once. In 2001-02, he would average slightly over seven points per game with the Dallas Mavericks, and the following year he would play in 74 games and start 48 of them for the team. Griffin would then play for a different team every year for the rest of his career, moving onto the Houston Rockets, going back to the Mavericks, two short stints with the Chicago Bulls, and he would end his career apart of the final season of the Seattle Supersonics.

Immediately after retiring from the NBA, Griffin was hired to be as assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks, beginning his coaching career. He’d stay in Milwaukee for two seasons before moving on to the Chicago Bulls for five years. While a part of the Bulls coaching staff, he would be selected as part of Team USA for the 2014 FIBA World Cup where the team won the gold medal. After his tenure in Chicago, Griffin spent one season with Orlando, followed by two in Oklahoma City.

Exactly one week after trading for superstar wing Kawhi Leonard, the Toronto Raptors hired Adrian Griffin as an assistant coach. An instrumental part of their playoff run in the coming season, Griffin and the Raptors won the 2019 NBA championship under first-year head coach Nick Nurse. Nurse and Griffin would work together leading the Raptors for four more seasons after the championship, making the post-season in four of their five seasons in Toronto.

Both would leave the team at the conclusion of the 2022-23 season, venturing off to lead rivalling Eastern Conference contenders. Nick Nurse would end up in Philadelphia, while Adrian Griffin would be named head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks - the franchise that first gave him a shot at coaching in the NBA. To the public, Griffin’s early tenure in Milwaukee appeared to be going well, as the team got off to a 30-13 record just over halfway into the season. However, I pick that 43 game mark for a specific reason, as that was the point in the 2023-24 season where the Bucks fired Adrian Griffin.

With rumours of turmoil behind the scenes and with superstars Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo, Griffin got the boot only 43 games into his rookie head coaching season, despite winning 30 of those games. Pointing to the champion 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers as the inspiration for the move, who brought in Ty Lue to replace David Blatt after starting the season 30-11, Milwaukee did not see the same success. The Bucks would end the season with a 19-20 stretch under new head coach Doc Rivers, and would lose in the first round to the Indiana Pacers.

Griffin does not currently have a coaching job in the NBA, or anywhere else for that matter, but with the success he had in both Toronto and Milwaukee - and the immediate, precipitous falloff the Bucks had after he left - I would not be surprised to see Griffin scooped up this off-season.

Who does have an NBA job though, is Adrian’s son, AJ Griffin. Born in Dallas while his father was playing for the Mavericks, AJ would grow to be a 6’6” wing and attend Duke University. A five star recruit out of high school, Griffin would go one-and-done in the NCAA and be drafted by the Atlanta Hawks 16th overall in the 2022 NBA Draft. The young wing showed flashes of greatest in his rookie season, appearing in 72 games and starting in 12, but took quite a step back in his sophomore year, only managing to appear in 20 contests. Heading into his third season in the league, Griffin is expected to contribute more to an Atlanta Hawks team that needs its young talent to step up and help get back into the playoffs.

I know this article is about the NBA, but AJ isn’t the only of Adrian Griffin’s children to be elite basketball players. Aubrey Griffin, Adrian’s daughter, announced she will be returning to the University of Connecticut for her fifth season of NCAA basketball after she suffered an ACL tear in January of this year and missed the remainder of the season. Also a five star recruit coming out of high school, Griffin and star teammate Paige Bueckers will look to lead UConn back to their championship ways in 2024-25 before entering the WNBA Draft in 2025.

Gary Trent

Photo credit should read CARLO ALLEGRI/AFP via Getty Images

This one you probably saw coming. And yes, we’re finally into people who actually played for the Toronto Raptors.

Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Gary Trent would play three seasons of NCAA basketball at Ohio University before being drafted 11th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in 1995. His Bucks tenure was extremely short lived, being traded on the draft floor to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Debuting for Portland in 1995-96 (does that season sound familiar to anyone?), the 6’8” power forward made an immediate impact as an NBA player. One of the first player’s off of Portland’s bench, and an occasional starter, Trent spent his first two NBA seasons in the Pacific northwest. Then, halfway through his third NBA season, Trent was traded to the Toronto Raptors. Donning number 33, the big man would only play the remaining 13 games of the 1997-98 season in Toronto, averaging just over 12 points per game in his short stint up north.

Trent would go on to sign a three year deal with the Dallas Mavericks in the 1999 off-season, and finish the year as a nominee for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award. The Ohio native would finish that contract in Dallas, sign for three more years in Minnesota as a bench player alongside Kevin Garnett, and retire from the NBA in 2004. Trent played two more seasons of professional basketball in Europe before hanging up the shoes for good in 2007.

Five days before signing that aforementioned three year deal with the Dallas Mavericks, Gary Trent’s son, Gary Trent Jr., was born in Columbus, Ohio. A bit shorter than his father at 6’5”, Trent Jr. became a shooting guard and committed to Duke University for the 2017-18 season. Becoming known as an elite three-point sniper, Trent Jr. was one-and-done with the NCAA and entered the 2018 NBA Draft where, 23 years after doing the same with his father, the Portland Trail Blazers acquired Trent Jr. via a draft floor trade after being selected in the second round of the draft.

Trent Jr. didn’t see the immediate success his father did, struggling to make the lineup full-time in his first two seasons. However, his third season in 2020-21, Trent Jr. emerged as a great shooter and bench scorer for Portland. This didn’t last very long, as again, just like they did with his father, the Toronto Raptors acquired Gary Trent Jr. halfway through his third NBA season. Due to this history with the team, Trent Jr. chose to wear his father’s number 33 in Toronto instead of keeping his number two from his time in Portland.

Trent Jr. would continue his scoring success in Toronto, registering 15 points per game or more in his first three seasons with the club. He was also a mainstay in the lineup, starting over 75% of his appearances over three-and-a-half seasons with the Raptors. Now, a free agent at only 25 years old, many expect Trent Jr. and the Raptors to part ways as the guard will likely sign with a new, more playoff-ready team this off-season. Will he again follow in his father’s footsteps and sign a three-year deal with the Dallas Mavericks? I doubt it, but that would be funny.

Rick Brunson

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This one I bet you didn’t see coming! That’s right - Rick Brunson played for the Toronto Raptors (even if photo evidence was extremely hard to find).

Born in Syracuse, New York, the 6’4” point guard attended Temple University and played all four years of his college eligibility. Brunson went undrafted in the 1995 NBA Draft and began his pro career in Australia in 1995-96, before a year in the aforementioned CBA in 1996-97. Having grown his stock enough to impress NBA scouts, Brunson was signed to the Portland Trail Blazers and made his NBA debut in 1997-98. He’d play 38 games as a rookie, then be signed midway through the next season with his childhood team, the New York Knicks.

Although he didn’t play regularly, Brunson appeared in all four playoff series the Knicks played in 1999 as they made a run to the NBA Finals. The Finals run would be the furthest Brunson would ever make it in the playoffs, and the Knicks would be his longest tenured team despite only playing 69 games for the team across two-and-a-half seasons. Across his nine-year NBA career, Brunson played for the following teams: Portland, New York, Boston, Chicago, Toronto, Los Angeles Clippers, Seattle and Houston.

His stint in Toronto came in 2003-04, when he played in only three games as a Raptor after signing with them in August of 2003. Brunson would be traded to the Bulls, the team he had spent the previous season with, in December of 2003 and would be waived and then signed by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2004 offseason. In LA, Brunson played in 80 games, starting 39 of them and posting 5.5 points and 5.1 assists per game, all career highs. The following season he’d split between Houston and Seattle before retiring from playing professional basketball at the end of the 2005-06 season.

The season after retiring, Brunson would work as an assistant coach with the Denver Nuggets, beginning his now 15+ year coaching career. From 2007 to 2022, Brunson worked as a coach for the Nuggets, Hartford Hawks (Division 3 NCAA), Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Bobcats (now Hornets), Minnesota Timberwolves and Camden High School. Since June of 2022, Brunson has worked as an assistant coach with his former team, the New York Knicks.

Turning now to his son’s career, the words “Brunson” and “New York” become all too familiar. Born only a few miles away from New York in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the Brunson family welcomed their son Jalen in August of 1996. Standing at 6’2”, Brunson took up his father’s position of point guard and attended Villanova University. After two NCAA National Championships and being named National College Player of the Year in 2018, Brunson was selected in the second round, 33rd overall in the 2018 NBA Draft.

Selected by the Dallas Mavericks, who had traded up for another point guard - someone named Luka Doncic - in the first round, meant Brunson would slot in either as a backup or a shooting guard. The move was perfect for Brunson’s career, as it allowed him the time to develop other skills and grow as a player, so much so that he finished fourth in Sixth Man of the Year voting in his third season of 2020-21, followed up by an 11th place finish in Most Improved Player voting the following season. Brunson and the Mavericks finished the 2022 season on a run to the Western Conference Finals, but Dallas was unwilling to pay their blossoming combo guard the money he deserved as his rookie deal came to an end.

Who was willing to give Brunson a big pay day? His hometown New York Knicks. In a move many criticized at the time, the Knicks signed him for four years and $104 million. The deal has been a smashing success for both parties. The point guard put up 24 points and a hair over six assists per game in his first season with the Knicks in 2022-23, finishing third in MIP voting, fourth in Comeback Player of the Year, and 12th in MVP voting. Brunson’s second season in the Big Apple saw improvements across the board. He made the All-Star game, registering nearly 29 points and seven assists per game, along with an All-NBA Second Team nod and finished fifth in voting MIP, CPOY and MVP. If not for injuries to many of their starting lineup, New York may have made their first trip back to the Eastern Conference Finals since 2000, when Brunson’s father was still on the roster rather than the coaching staff.

Dell Curry

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Finally, the big name everyone was waiting for. The man who’s retro jersey Drake famously wore during the 2019 NBA Finals: Dell Curry.

Born in Harrisonburg, Virginia, the 6’4” sharpshooter attended Virginia Tech University for all four years of his NCAA eligibility. His tenure in his home state’s university was enough for the Utah Jazz to select him 15th overall in the 1986 NBA Draft. Curry would play 67 games for the Jazz as a rookie, marking his only season with the team.

The Cleveland Cavaliers would acquire the young guard shortly before the start of the 1987-88 season, which turned out to be a pretty acquisition in the short term. Curry played 79 games that season, starting only 8, but managed 10 points per game on nearly 35% shooting from behind the three point line. I’m sure Cleveland would’ve liked to keep their young bench sniper, but the NBA had different plans.

In 1988, the NBA introduced the Charlotte Hornets as an expansion team. In their expansion draft, the Hornets selected Curry from the Cavaliers, beginning a 10-year tenure in Charlotte. The Virginia native wound up playing 701 games for the Hornets franchise and developed into one of the league’s best shooters and bench scorers. From 1993 to 1997, Curry finished in the top seven of Sixth Man of the Year voting, winning the award in 1994 and finishing as the runner up the following season. In Curry’s final seven seasons in Charlotte, he scored more than at least 13 points per game and shot better than 40% in each of those seasons.

Curry would move on in 1998, signing a one-year deal with the Milwaukee Bucks for 1988-89. He again finished in the top five for Sixth Man of the Year voting, and this time led the league in three-point percentage, shooting at a 47% clip from three which is currently still the 26th highest single-season mark. Coming off of his season with the Bucks, Curry signed a three year deal with the Toronto Raptors beginning in the 1999-2000 season.

Although in the twilight of his career, Curry continued to be a reliable three point threat for the upstart Raptors. Making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history in 2000, the team would be back in the mix again the following two seasons. Curry retired in 2002 after a 16 year NBA career, appearing in over 1000 games.

Everyone likely knows who one of his sons are, but did you know he technically has three sons in the NBA? Debuting in 2017-18 for the Atlanta Hawks, Damion Lee would go on to play 201 games with the Golden State Warriors across the next four seasons, winning the 2022 NBA championship with the team. Lee would play the 2022-23 season with the Phoenix Suns, and though he is not retired, he is currently a free agent and has not played pro basketball since 2023. So what does Damion Lee have to do with Dell Curry? Curry’s daughter, Sydel, is married to Lee, making Dell Curry his father-in-law.

Now to the brothers: Steph & Seth Curry. The brothers have a lot of similarities, such as their names, looks, height and three-point shooting, but still a number of differences. Steph was born in Akron, Ohio in 1988 while his father was apart of the Cavaliers, and Seth was born in Charlotte, North Carolina while, you guessed it, his father was apart of the Hornets.

As the younger brother, Seth has always had a big reputation to live up to. It appeared that he would after his freshman season at Liberty University, leading the nation in scoring with more than 20 points per game. This NCAA notoriety led to a transfer to Duke, where the younger brother played out his college eligibility. Curry was a solid NBA prospect, but still went undrafted in the 2013 NBA Draft. The Golden State Warriors organization gave him his first shot with an NBA and D-League (now G-League) contract, but that was short lived and Curry was waived within weeks. To this day, the Curry brothers have never played together.

Despite playing 10 seasons in the NBA, Seth Curry has bounced around a lot. Nearly every season of his career he’s played for a new team, and he’s had multiple stints in the G-League. The NBA teams he’s played for include: Memphis, Cleveland, Phoenix, Sacramento, Dallas, Portland, Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Charlotte. At this past trade deadline, the Mavericks sent Curry to the Hornets in a trade, returning to his hometown and father’s old team. The hometown guard’s contract runs through the 2024-25 season, and at this point in time, he remains a member of the Hornets organization.

Seth’s career has gone closer to his father’s than his brother’s, being a reliable bench scorer and elite three-point shooter. Currently, Seth Curry holds the eight-highest career three-point shooting percentage. He’s had an impressive role player career, with the only downside of it being the intense shadow of his older brother.

Steph Curry. Really, that’s all I need to say. He’s been a household name, even in non-basketball households, for a decade. Starting at Davidson College for three years, Steph led an underdog run in the NCAA Tournament that impressed scouts so much that he was selected seventh overall by the Golden State Warriors in the 2009 NBA Draft.

Finishing as the runner up for the 2010 Rookie of the Year award, Curry was legit at the NBA level despite some skeptics around the time of his draft. Those skeptics, however, would return as ankle injuries plagued him in his second and third seasons in the NBA.

But we know how the story goes. Curry would return, sign a deal with Under Armour, never deal with the ankle injuries ever again, and explode into stardom. Starting in 2013-14, Curry would make 10 All-Star games over the next 11 seasons, the only one he missed being 2020’s when he was injured and only played five games. He became the first unanimous MVP in 2016, winning the award for a second straight year, after leading the Warriors to the NBA’s best record of all time going 73-9. Instead of going through Steph Curry’s career, it’s easier to just list his impressive accolades:

NBA 75th Anniversary Team

10x All-Star

4x NBA Champion

1x NBA Finals MVP

2x NBA MVP

2x Scoring Champion

1x Clutch Player of the Year

4x All-NBA 1st Team

4x All-NBA 2nd Team

2x All-NBA 3rd Team

Curry is widely regarded as the best three-point shooter of all time, possibly the best point-guard of all-time, one of the most wealthy and well-known athletes in the world - and at one point lived in Toronto thanks to his father being a former Raptor.

Happy Father’s Day!