Context: On March 25, 2021, after 6 years in Toronto, Powell was traded from the Toronto Raptors to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for Gary Trent Jr. and Rodney Hood. This is his farewell letter to the Toronto Raptors.
Wow this is beautiful, I recommend reading all of it
>It was straight-up waterworks. I started breaking down crying … all the memories that I’d been holding back for those last couple of days, they came rushing back in.
>Jama and I took a walk down the hall, had a heart-to-heart, talked about my future, talked about how it’s okay to have these emotions, talked about how so many changes in life can end up being blessings in disguise.
>Then we ran into Kyle, and I’ll be honest ... I had to cry some more. Kyle, along with DeMar, he’s been my true vet, so there’s a lot of history there. And when I saw him, he just embraced me — let me get those emotions out. And then he gave me one final piece of Kyle wisdom.
>He said, “You will always be a part of this history.”
>Damn.
>And then I ran into Fred.
>So by the time I ran into Fred, it had been a minute now since those waterworks. But if you’ve ever cried like that, you know: even after that sh*t dries ... you’re still not fooling anyone.
>And Fred obviously doesn’t miss a thing.
>First thing he says when he sees me, he goes, “Oh, man. You was crying?”
>And I just sort of hang my head a little, and laugh. And then Fred laughs.
>He’s like, “It’s alright, brother. Thugs cry too. It’s cool, bro.”
>That moment with Fred, it meant a lot. He’s my best friend. But beyond that, I feel like he’s been this driving force behind a lot of how I’ve grown as a player ... and vice versa. That’s just how it’s always been with us. We’ve pushed each other. As competitors, for sure — it’s that second-round pick / undrafted dude hunger, I think. That underdog mentality. I mean, we had to stop playing one-on-one against each other, there had to be a ban on it, because of how competitive we got, all the little scraps we would get in. But it was always about friendship with us first.
>Freddy’s my Day One.
"Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right..."
