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Kevin Pillar defends the city of Toronto after former Toronto Raptor bashes the city
Former Toronto Blue Jays player Kevin Pillar recently defended the city of Toronto after former Raptor Thad Young bashed the city in an interview.
Many former player have mixed feelings about Toronto as some such as Kevin Kiermaier and Justin Turner absolutely loved it, others hated being in a cold climate and north of the border.
Kevin Pillar defends the city of Toronto after Thad Young bashes it in a recent interview
During a recent interview, former Raptors player Thad Young decided to bash on the city of Toronto claiming that playing here was very tough on him and his family while saying it is a cool city to visit but not to live in.
«I ain't gonna lie, being in Toronto was kinda tough,» Young said. «It's cool to visit, be there for like four or five days, but to live there, it was tough. It was tough on my family.
«It's almost like you're at a disadvantage. We had to go through the airport every single time. You gotta go through the airport, it's the customs part of it. It's like, you mean to tell me I just paid for the package, and now I've got to pay more money to get my package from you? Like, c'mon, man. Customs? Then getting stuck at the border. I got stuck at the border for like three or four hours.» -Young
«It's almost like you're at a disadvantage. We had to go through the airport every single time. You gotta go through the airport, it's the customs part of it. It's like, you mean to tell me I just paid for the package, and now I've got to pay more money to get my package from you? Like, c'mon, man. Customs? Then getting stuck at the border. I got stuck at the border for like three or four hours.» -Young
Young is not the first player to feel this way since former Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams and Goran Dragic both also did not enjoy their time in Toronto.
Young was the most recent former Raptor to voice his disapproval of playing and living in Toronto. Lou Williams, who won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award with the Raptors in 2015, and Goran Dragic have also had rather negative views of the city in the past. -Pankiw
On the JD Bunkist podcast, former Blue Jays Kevin Pillar was asked about this comments stating that he never dealt with the same issues
«I've never really understood when people complain about that,» Pillar said. «I never saw [those issues] as enough to not want me or my family to be able to play there. There's an additional challenge for your families to travel and have to clear customs. I could see how some people could see how that's an issue. -Pillar
Pillar added that while travelling might come with some issues, athletes in Toronto are treated like movie stars and they are die hard fans which you do not find in many other places.
«There's not a lot of places where you're generally a big deal, like movie star status in a city I felt like as an athlete in Toronto, you're at the top of the totem pole in terms of popularity and the ability to just have access to anything that you want to have access to. I thought that was well worth the price of occasionally having a little more difficulty travelling.» -Pillar
Clearly Pillar and Young had different experiences in Toronto but there is no surprise Pillar stood up for Toronto as he was adored by the fanbase while he was here.
| POLL | ||
MARS 28 | 3465 ANSWERS Kevin Pillar defends the city of Toronto after former Toronto Raptor bashes the city Do you agree that Toronto can be a tough place to play for? | ||
| Yes | 1980 | 57.1 % |
| No | 1485 | 42.9 % |
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