Garrett Temple might be running out of runway, and he knows it. The 39-year-old veteran said he does not want Wednesday night to be his last game as the Toronto Raptors tried to save their season against the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 6.
The Cavaliers took a 3-2 lead in the first-round series with a Game 5 win in Cleveland on Wednesday, leaving the Eastern Conference’s fifth-seeded Raptors one loss from elimination. A Toronto win in Game 6 would push the matchup to a deciding Game 7 in Cleveland on Sunday, but Temple was blunt about what is at stake. “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,” he said. “I don’t want this to be my last game.”
For Temple, the moment carries the weight of a career that has stretched far past the path most players take. He is in NBA Year 17 and the fourth-oldest player in the league, with 793 regular-season games across 12 teams since he made his debut with the Houston Rockets on Feb. 9, 2010. He went undrafted in 2009, signed with Houston later that summer and spent most of his first professional season in the G League with the Rio Grande Vipers before becoming a durable veteran and, in Toronto, a respected mentor on a young roster.
That long road has produced its share of milestones. Temple was a four-year starter at LSU and played in the Final Four as a freshman. He has averaged 5.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.6 assists for his career, including a career-high 10.3 points per game with the Nets in the 2019-20 season. This year with the Raptors, his numbers fell to career lows of 0.8 points, 0.4 assists and 0.4 rebounds, a statistical line that captures how much his role has changed even as his value as a veteran voice has endured.
The contrast was not lost on his family, either. Temple said his son asked his wife why dad was always on the bench, and Kara Temple answered that the younger players were playing well and it was their turn. That private moment lands differently now, with the playoffs pressing on and Toronto needing one more win to keep alive both the series and the possibility of one more night for a player who has spent nearly two decades hanging around long enough to matter.
Temple also has another reminder of how rare his longevity is. Last summer in Las Vegas, he and Kara saw LeBron James at the Wynn Hotel, and James told him, “Man, 17 for you now.” Temple said the compliment meant a great deal because the two knew each other from Temple’s earlier training camp in Miami, and he made a point to get James’ jersey signed when the Raptors played the Lakers. “Who knows how much longer he’s going to play? Who knows how much longer I will play?” Temple said. “He knows my journey better than most.”
That is what makes Wednesday night more than another playoff game. The Raptors are trying to extend their season, but Temple is also chasing the chance to lace up again. If Toronto defends home court, the series goes on. If not, his own 17th season could end in the same building where a career built on persistence may have one last chapter left.
