{"id":603621,"date":"2026-02-15T00:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/603621\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T00:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T00:00:17","slug":"everything-i-had-was-stuck-in-customs-rudy-gay-on-the-worst-part-about-his-trade-to-the-toronto-raptors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/603621\/","title":{"rendered":"“Everything I had was stuck in Customs” – Rudy Gay on the worst part about his trade to the Toronto Raptors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rudy Gay<\/a> played for five teams during his 17-year NBA career. One of his stops was with the Toronto Raptors<\/a>, albeit only for 51 games, where he averaged 19.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.7 steals per game.<\/p>\n

Still, what Gay remembers most about his short Toronto stint is his troubles with Canada’s Customs office.<\/p>\n

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“When I went there, it was weird because Toronto’s a different country. I had most of my stuff stuck in Customs for a straight year, even after the trade had happened. So, I had to go buy new clothes. Like everything I had was stuck in Customs, my cars and everything. And I had to figure out life without everything up to that. That was tough for me,” Gay said during a recent \u201cNBA on Prime\u201d episode.<\/p>\n

No preferential treatment in Toronto<\/p>\n

Gay refers to the Canadian Border Services Agency, the federal government agency responsible for managing and protecting the country’s borders. One of its primary roles is trade enforcement \u2014 preventing the smuggling of prohibited items and ensuring that duties and taxes are properly collected on imported goods. As a result, Gay\u2019s belongings were detained for inspection.<\/p>\n

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It’s unclear, though, why it took him a year to retrieve his belongings. However, during the show, he mentioned that he eventually retrieved them after learning the proper procedure. That detail is important because, while NBA stars are accustomed to preferential treatment at American airports, Canada’s CBSA does not grant exemptions to anyone and diligently screens everyone entering and leaving the country.<\/p>\n

Gay was traded by the Memphis Grizzlies to the Raptors on January 20, 2013, and despite his problem with his personal belongings, he went on to set a then-franchise record with 74 total points scored in his first three games. But not long after, he was traded again.<\/p>\n

Similar experiences in Canada<\/p>\n

Gay isn’t the only American NBA player to have a bad experience at the Toronto Airport. 13-year NBA veteran Quentin Richardson, who never played for the Raptors, but played there many times as a visiting player, had issues with Customs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Meanwhile, Thaddeus Young also had a similar complaint to Gay’s when he played for the Raptors from 2022 to 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like you\u2019re at a disadvantage,\u201d Young said<\/a> on the “Out the Mud” podcast in 2025. \u201cWe had to go through the airport every single time. You gotta go through the airport, it\u2019s the customs part of it. It\u2019s like, you mean to tell me I just paid for the package and now I\u2019ve got to pay more money to get my package from you? Like, c\u2019mon, man. Customs? Then, getting stuck at the border. I got stuck at the border for like three or four hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young should consider himself fortunate that his delay at the airport lasted only four hours. One can only imagine the inconvenience of having a vehicle held at the border for an entire year, or being compelled to purchase a completely new wardrobe because personal belongings remained in Customs for that same duration.<\/p>\n

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NBA players are usually immune to stringent regulatory procedures.\u200b But obviously, that\u2019s not always the case.<\/p>\n

Related: Shaquille O’Neal explains why some men are forced to cheat: “You’re not taking care of your man”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Feb 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rudy Gay played for five teams during his 17-year NBA career. One of his stops was with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,80488,177,6,80489,27546,681,1373,80487,14121,680,80491,476,3820,80490],"class_list":["post-603621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto-raptors","tag-basketball","tag-canadian-border-services-agency","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-nba","tag-personal-belongings","tag-quentin-richardson","tag-raptors","tag-rudy-gay","tag-stuck-in-customs","tag-thaddeus-young","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-airport","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-torontoraptors","tag-trade-enforcement"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116071709023305475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}