What C.J Miles gifted Raptors' Chris Boucher in Toronto

On the latest episode of "Strictly Hoops," C.J. Miles discusses helping a few Raptors with basketball gear and the significance of Chris Boucher finding his NBA niche. Listen to the full podcast on the "Raptors Over Everything" podcast feed or watch on YouTube.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: Knowing your job. This is a great pivot right here. Thank you, CJ. Chris Boucher, this man knows his job now. OK?

CJ MILES: Knows his job.

AMIT MANN: He knows his job. And I, on the Hustle Play episode that we recorded with Christian Koloko. I was talking to Chris, because I'm like, oh yeah, we're doing the show with CJ. And he said--

CJ MILES: Come on the show, Chris.

AMIT MANN: Well, he said he would. And he also said, he's like, yeah man, I love Thad. It's like, he was my vet. He was one of my vets, when I was in-- when he was in Toronto. And he said that you gave him stuff. Can you tell the people what you gave him? And as I've learned, other players as well?

CJ MILES: The biggest thing, I mean, I gave him a bunch of shoes, bunch of Jordans. Those guys like to play in Jordans, in retros and stuff like that. And that's what I played in when I was in Toronto.

I was, because I was obviously a big sneaker guy. That's one of the things people knew about me too. And getting to a team that was red, black, and white, it was like, opening up a golden door to all these shoes that I had.

AMIT MANN: Oh, those are sweet colors.

CJ MILES: I was just running. I was running through all my retros and all the things.

AMIT MANN: Did you have purple?

CJ MILES: And getting new ones I could finally play in. I had the purple, the Raptor, what are they, 07s? I didn't get to play in the-- I didn't get the old-school jersey, though. It came the year after. I was mad pissed about that.

AMIT MANN: Oh, right.

CJ MILES: I didn't get that.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: But I wore them in like, media day, though. They still match the jersey, obviously, and it's symbolic. But the biggest thing we were-- like, we talked about off air is when I try to do a young guy, a lot of things present themselves.

And any way I could be a service and could be available, I am. But my biggest thing was I felt like being myself, which was when they got to the gym early, they saw me. When we shot after, they saw me. Whether I was playing good, bad, not playing, coming back off injury, hurt, off day in there working on my body, even if not the workout was not long.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Like, this is the way I can give you all the keys to this.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: I can say everything to you, every day. I can say whatever I want to you. It doesn't matter if you don't see it. Doesn't matter. So that was how I always felt, as far as like, leading and helping a young guy any way that I could. And we got a chance to talk and work out together, and then I gave him everything I could in that too.

AMIT MANN: Did you know you're impacting Chris, that way?

CJ MILES: I did not. I mean, I-- it wasn't not like a one-on-one thing, intentional thing. But like, we had our moments, we're cool. Like, we chopped it up, laughed.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Like, joking there like I did with everybody in the locker room. But I didn't know, like, I didn't expect to hear that, what he said to you, about me. I did not.

AMIT MANN: Hmm. Who else did you give shoes to on the Raptors?

[LAUGHTER]

CJ MILES: Alfonzo, and Jordan Loyd.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: They were the young boys that year. Like, the younger young boys. Obviously like, there was Fred, OG, and Pascal. Like, we were doing the-- but they were like, the young, young boys. They were like, coming on. And like, all wore the same size, similar size. And--

AMIT MANN: That's fortunate.

CJ MILES: I just-- yeah, I was just showing love, you know what I mean? Like, I knew they liked them and I know they liked. And then, Fonzo, being from Chicago, so you know how they are about Jordans. So like--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: --I just shared as much as I could with them. And it was one less thing that they didn't need to be spending money on. Because some of that stuff, you're not going to get from like, your Nike, whatever, whatever. And I had what I had, so I gave it to them.

AMIT MANN: Right. What were your impressions of Chris, when you met him for the first time? And I guess we'll get to how he's playing now. But yeah.

CJ MILES: Story, story, story's amazing, right? He's one of them other guys, that stories is-- should be talked about and will be talked about. But he is-- he's fearless.

The best thing about it, so we talked about knowing your job. The best thing about Chris Boucher's job is he get to be Chris Boucher. Like, that's who Chris Boucher is.

Fearless, come in, change the game, go at you. I'm gonna block shots and play hard, run. I'm trying to dunk on you. I'm gonna make 3. Like, he gets to be every bit of himself.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Which is just bring it. Like, there's no cap on it, because he's proven, obviously, that he can do all of these things. My favorite thing about him is like, whether he got in the game in a blowout, or close game up, he, he would step off the bench and shoot the first 3 that came around, no warm-up, no nothing, trailing into it. And make most--

AMIT MANN: You got to rep for that. You got to rep for it.

CJ MILES: No, no, and that was the impressive thing, is that he made most of them. He looked at the bench. Like, his favorite thing, he'd be, come on.

Like, what you thought? It wasn't going in? Like, that's my favorite thing about Chris, he has the utmost confidence in himself. And he works for that. He's earned that. Like, he's earned that through life, through his story, through his gym time.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Through his route to get here. With that team. He's done it. He deserves everything he's getting.

AMIT MANN: 12.4 points per game. Career high, 2.6 offensive rebounds. He had 22 and 13 versus Dallas. There was a point where he got an offensive rebound and he just like, pumped his chest. I'm like, this guy's energy, it's-- it's exuberating--

CJ MILES: Yes.

AMIT MANN: --out of him. And even when you meet him, like, he doesn't always have like that kind of energetic personality.

CJ MILES: Yeah, yeah.

AMIT MANN: But on the court? Fearless, energetic.

CJ MILES: Mhm.

AMIT MANN: It's such a pleasure to watch him, especially now that he's found his role in the NBA. And on "Hustle Play," he's talked about this quite a bit. That there was a Cleveland game, against Cleveland last season, when the Raptors were just decimated by COVID.

And he became the guy for the game. And he's like, man, this is hard. This is really hard. And slowly but surely, he understood how he's going to be effective in the NBA.

And then from then on, he just kept on doing it. Capped by that Game 6 versus the 76ers, where I think he had like, 24 and 12, or something like that. He was terrific. He was doing every single thing that you would want from him within his role. Hitting 3's, offensive rebounding.

CJ MILES: Mhm.

AMIT MANN: Providing energy. Attacking closeouts. He was doing all of it. And here he is, this season, doing the exact same thing. The man knows what his role is, and he's happy with his role.

CJ MILES: Mhm.

AMIT MANN: And like you said, he's able to be Chris Boucher. And what a gift that is, is that--

CJ MILES: Man.

AMIT MANN: --you are in a role where you get to be you.

CJ MILES: Yeah. That's-- and that don't happen for a lot of people. People fight or have to mold, or have to figure out how I can, inch by inch, put a little bit of myself more into this while I'm in this position. But like, his timing coming in was perfect.

The way that the system gradually changed, allowed him to just gradually flourish, and add more to his game and the freedom and things that he could do, were allowed to do, he could have been in other situations that kind of pinned him to being in the dunker, live threat, and you block shots. Like, none of this freedom, none of this things that allows him to become who he is. And--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: I couldn't imagine that bench right now, without him.

AMIT MANN: No.

CJ MILES: Like, not being-- not being as good as they are, or can be. And it lets you know how good it can be. Like, you're talking about adding Gary Trent to it.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: That happens. You know what I mean? Now you've got another shooter out there, you've got a guy that could be in actions with him. A scoring guy.

AMIT MANN: There aren't too many players off the bench who are as effective at their role as him. Because you normally think of effective bench players, and it's like the Lou Williams guys, who can just come in and hit buckets and get buckets, right? But what about a person like Chris, who does a bit of scoring?

Defense? Provides energy. And like, you, you walk away from your minutes and you say, every single time, damn near every single time, I did exactly what my job is.

CJ MILES: His-- 'cause it's to an extent like, his essence that's his presence is greater than his scoring. Like, I don't-- he didn't have to give me 20 every night. I'm going to feel his fingerprints, his hands on the game, no matter what. Somehow.

Even if even no matter what the box score says. He's-- there's something going to happen out there that's going to be like, that was Chris Boucher. Nobody else could have made that play but Chris Boucher. That's the type of energy he brings to the game and the type of person he is on that basketball floor.