Living in Toronto ‘kind of tough’ for ex-Raptors player. Here’s why

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A former Toronto Raptors basketball player says it was hard to live in Canada in an interview posted online on Wednesday, but said it was a “cool” place to visit.

Thaddeus Young, 36, spoke about his experience in an episode of the Out of the Mud Podcast, hosted by retired NBA stars Zach Randolph and Tony Allen. Young’s time on the Toronto Raptors spanned three seasons from 2022 to 2024.

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“I ain’t gonna lie,” said Young, when asked about his time in the city, “being in Toronto was kind of tough.”

He continued: “It’s cool to visit, be there for like four or five days. That’s cool. But to live there?”

He said it was hard for his family.

“You gotta go through customs all the time,” added Allen.

“It’s almost like you’re at a disadvantage,” said Young. “Like, we’d have to go through the airport every single time. You have to go through the airport — the customs part of it. You mean to tell me I just paid for the package and I gotta pay you more money to get my package from you? Come on, man. Customs! Then getting stuck at the border?”

Young said, at times, he had to wait at the Canadian border for three to four hours.

“My wife was like, look, she said, ‘If you come back here, you might stay here yourself. We might stay at the crib,’” he said.

Randolph said he had a similar experience with Canadian customs, explaining how he used to get questioned “100 times” when he would travel to Toronto as a basketball player.

Allen called the Canadian city “cold as hell.” While he said he enjoyed Toronto’s nightclubs, he said he couldn’t see himself playing there.

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Former Toronto Raptors player Charlie Villanueva, who played for the team for one season in 2005, spoke out in defense of the city on the sports podcast To The Baha.

“My time in Toronto was nothing but amazing,” he said. “Shoutout to the city of Toronto. But I will say it is an inconvenience — but bro, you’re in the NBA making millions of dollars.”

He added: “Don’t be a little bougie, now. Don’t forget where you come from.”

He said that the comments Young made about Toronto were “a little Hollywood.”

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