1-on-1 with Raptors’ Alijah Martin: “Where I come from, I’m not supposed to be here”

1-on-1 with Raptors’ Alijah Martin: “Where I come from, I’m not supposed to be here”

We’re here with Elijah Martin, Raptors, 39th pick here. So, I want to start here. I heard you had a legendary workout with the Raptors. What can you tell us about this workout? Cuz I already know a couple details, but I would love to have the fans understand how you got to Toronto. First of all, I was already on the road doing my pre-draft workouts and I seen I had Toronto on my schedule and I’m thinking to myself like, “Dang, I need my passport, right?” Yeah. I get to the airport. I try to do try to finesse it a little bit. No, you can’t finesse. You need you need your passport. So, I’m like, dang. All right. So, I call called my agent. He called the Raptors. We figured it out. Flew me to Orlando to get my passport from Gainesville and then called the next flight to Toronto. Yeah. Made the same made the same uh made the same workout just a little later. Got in at 4:00 a.m. and had to be up at 7:00. So, so you barely slept. Barely slept. Went in there and got straight to it. Um, it was a guy that I I knew pretty well and we went at it. Um, just screaming. Um, competing really hard. Um, and it brought the best out of me. Yeah. I don’t know about if it did for him, but uh, it it was good cuz um, it was a I was able to show them what what they were going to be getting. So, Right. That’s the I you know, I didn’t even know the airport part about the the passport. not even sleeping cuz all I heard was we we’ll leave names out of this if you want to. You know what I mean? Cuz I don’t really want to out anybody, but I heard it was you another guy who won the first round versus the other two guys who also got drafted and and and you absolutely grind the workout. So, it’s a great first impression, you know. It was it was and um it kind of was the it’s kind of like the the emo like you know what what I do and what I bring. So, um I bring the best out of my teammates and also frustrate the others. So um with with also being poised mentally as well. So um I do that to a very good extent and I think they like that. Yeah. Well, I mean clearly you’re here, right? So um all right. So you probably spent a little bit of time now with Darko the last couple weeks. I’m sure he’s he’s talking to you every day. What has he told you about how do you earn minutes right away on this team and sort of what your role is going to be in this year and beyond? Uh we haven’t talked about that part. Honestly, I’m just trying to figure figure things out. Um the summer league go around. I mean, we had a really good mini camp and um you know, he he’s put his input in whenever he sees something, you know, he tells me and stuff like that and I just been a sponge. So, when we get there, that’s when I have those conversations like what what what I need to do, what I need to do this and that and what my role is like. Um but I already know my role is going to be a defender. Um I’m picking up full court 94 ft and uh keeping the game simple on the offensive end. I think my role is pretty universal. So, um, yeah, we haven’t got there yet, but I’m pretty sure with us, we will get Okay. Okay. So, I was listening to the OG’s podcast with Udonis Hlam and Mike Miller. You guys were talking about obviously, you know, uh, well, you guys winning at Florida. They they didn’t get it at Florida, but you guys got it at Florida. And you were giving your comps and I thought it was interesting. You said early in your career, you kind of envision like a DaVon Mitchell, like a Lud Door type of role, right? at your peak maybe a Drew Holiday and then on the offensive end you you feel like there’s a little bit of that Donovan Mitchell, a little bit of that Damen Lillard. Definitely. So, walk me through those comps and sort of like what you see in those each of the little like details. Um just early on like the first three years is just development um tuning up things and then the next three the next three or next six or you want to count it. Um it’s is when you’re you’re solidify and you’re you’re at your peak. you’re at your peak, you’re at your best, and there’s a lot more to your game. So, uh, that’s kind of what my mindset is is just trying to trying to stack stack days and keep getting better every day. And hopefully I get to to my peak pretty soon. I mean, those are all really really good names. And I can throw one out there cuz as a former Raptor who was also in Sacramento, Norman Power. How did you even know I was going to say Norm? Cuz he he was in my comp, too. You’ve heard that one before? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. You see a little Norman yourself? Norm’s a fan favorite, bro. He’s been on the show. Everyone loves Norman here in Toron. Definitely, man. Look, I got so much respect for that guy cuz um his journey is kind of the same as well and like you know being a a four or five year guy and just made a way in the league. So um I plan on doing the same thing. Yeah. Loki if if you’re Norm but you know norm low key like norm more of a score than a defender. I feel like you can be norm on offense and yourself on defense. I mean you know that’ be a great I’m always defend man. I love that. There you go. Okay. So, in your college career, so you’re at Florida Atlantic, and you took this huge jump between your freshman year and your sophomore year. Woo. What What went into that? What went into that? I heard I heard there was like a legendary pep mom that your a pep talk that your mom gave to coach at that time basically promising I’m going to make this big big jump. It was when we lost against Latte and that was my freshman year. Yep. Yes, sir. And coach miss see my mama and he think like she going to chew her out because I didn’t play as much. We lost this and that. Give myself more minutes. You know what I mean? Yeah. The typical mom stuff, right? No, she goes up to him like when you see him again, he’s not going to be the same player. Oh wow. Like we’re going to be in the gym. Simple as that, right? Like your mom was a coach, right? She used to be Yeah. She used to be a basketball coach, but she coached volleyball. Like my mom just loved coaching and like she coached the basketball like little league and summer league stuff like that. Right. But like just to have that as like my my my why um and my everything like my mom like just for her to have that whole mindset is just it explains like why I’m the way I am. Um because most parents go in that situation like oh we transferring oh this and that like no she was like took straight accountability on her and me like we’re going to be better similar as that. And um that jump man, we was in the gym three times a three three times a day. I was in New Orleans. I was in Houston. I was in Dallas. I was all over the place working with everybody that I can, you know, just trying to get just trying to figure things out, you know, trying to make that jump. And when I went back, it was no question that I made the jump and I was like one of the best players on the team. Yeah. No, that’s beautiful, man. That’s that’s that’s really beautiful. And that that’s why you’re here right now in this position. Uh, so I know at FAU it’s a different situation than Florida, but so you were playing some small forward and power forward kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Like you were guarding some threes and fours. You know what I mean? I guarded everybody. But but I mean like you know it’s kind of what I was matched up with. It wasn’t like my position but it was just what I was matched up at. Okay. So but you didn’t you know what I mean like if you’re guarding a four like you weren’t backing down or nothing like you’re under the one that started. For sure. For sure. I love guarding the base cuz they hate they hate guarding. They hate when I’m guarding cuz I’m under and I’m in their stuff and they can’t do what they want to do. So, I’m I’m pretty comfortable in that in that area. Okay. Okay. Um you then obviously you transferred to Florida last year, had this tremendous success, obviously national champion, but I actually I I in my research I found this one thing where you had put together this photo compilation and you sent it out to the whole team. This is before the NCAA tournament started and I think the caption was never forget where you came from. Right. All right. Tell me about sort of like this thing that you put together. Like what was this and walk me through this idea? Honestly, we were just having so much success that that um that year and at any moment, you know, things could change with one loss. I know going to the Mars Madness and you don’t have you don’t have anything to fall back on, right? you know, SEC tour SEC championship wasn’t going to do enough um for our careers, but I had to get the guys focused, you know, cuz when you winning, you know, things are a little more happier, things are a little more loose. Yeah. And I was trying to trying to keep the guys reminded that, you know, um this is this is how we got here, right? you know, is that underdog mentality and that um that that slept on mentality that that fueled us to put the work in and play the way we play. Um so I had my my guy Cory Reynolds put up the um the slideshow, you know, I I told him what to do, but he he really put the vision up together and I sent it to the guy. So I can’t take all the credit cuz he put all the work in. Okay. But uh shout out to Cory Reynolds and the whole Florida staff, man. He took it the way they took it the right way. Yeah. And you know, we we kept it rolling, you know. No, because the coaches there, I mean, they rave about it. I mean, Florida’s a great program always, right? Historic. It’s been a while since they won. And I think the the quote was from day one when you walked in, you changed the program. Yeah, definitely. You know, when you when you hear that, like what does that mean to you? Uh, that just means that I have experience and I have success and I’m not afraid to speak up. Yeah. Because um it was my last year of college and and I wanted to go out with a bang, with a win, and um that’s what we did ultimately. But it started that first day, right? Um it was it was the first day but honestly I didn’t like how things were going like obviously like it’s a loose like it’s loose. Um, but you want to set the effort, the effort got to be there. You know, if we’re going to be loose, we got when we there, we got to be extremely focused, extremely playing hard and together. And everybody on the sidelines got to be on the same accord. Like, you’re not supposed to be on the sideline just hands in the pocket on your phone, stuff like that. You know, I’m not saying they were doing that there, but how I envision things is just everybody’s pulling into into one, and that’s and that’s the court. So if you on the sideline coaching us up, uh being being loud, being mindful, you know, motivating, stuff like that, you know, cuz everybody lives going to change when you win, you know? So why not just have a have an imprint, you know? Yeah. I mean, that’s hard to do, too, cuz again, I think the context is like you’re new to the team. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? And you come in and put the stamp in right away. Um, you know, I want to go even before your college career and I just want to walk through sort of how you grew up. So, obviously I’m from Toronto, so I don’t I’m not necessarily familiar with some of the the smaller cities, smaller towns. Yeah. Tell me about Summit, Missouri. I looked it up. It said the population Mississippi. Mississippi. Sorry. My bad. Summit, Mississippi. There you go. Uh 1,500 people there. 1500. Yeah, that’s what the population that’s. That’s what it said on Google. At least it got to be at least 5,000. 5,000. Okay. But that’s still pretty small. Well, we talking about something. We talking about something something. Maybe like 2 or 3,000. But 1,500 is crazy. Uh, but it is small though. It’s small. But growing up, man, look, it’s it’s typical. It’s just it’s just small. You know, you you you know everybody. Uh, everybody knows you. So, you really can’t do too much. Uh, cuz you going to tell your mom and tell your dad this and that. Um, but growing up in those small towns, small cities and stuff, like when they say like it it takes a village to raise a child, like that’s really what it is. And um I grew I was fortunate to grow up on the road where we’re a straight family. I got cousins next door neighbors across the street, two houses down. Like we was a real family. So uh after school, you know, you get on your bike, you go down the street, you go play 21 uh knockout. Yeah. Um until the street lights come on. The street light come on, you better be inside. Your mom going to get on you. Uh but um man, growing up it was fun cuz we were so connected, you know. Um and we just kids, you know, not having to care in the world what’s going on and just what what we doing the next day. See you at school tomorrow, things like that, you know. It was just it was fun. That’s great. That’s great. Uh so you played a lot of sports, multi-port athlete growing up, so I think you you obviously basketball. You’re a great football player, too. I think you probably could have gone to college for football as well. Yeah, definitely. You play quarterback and then you’re also a track star. So track and baseball. And baseball. Yeah. So like does all your time is just playing sports like all day every day? Yep. That’s it. Okay. What you play baseball doing, bro? Um I play center field. Center field. Center field. Center field, bro. That’s crazy. Yeah. I mean a special athlete. That’s a special athlete right there. If you can It goes back to my mom, though. My mom always kept me active, right? And I was blessed with athletic gifts and stuff like that. So I was I was pretty good at all of them. So I I kept it going. Kept it going until I had to make a decision. And you know, that’s what it led up to. You you mentioned your mom a couple times now. You know, I remember cuz I don’t know cuz the night you got drafted, like it was like a Zoom with us reporters and stuff like that. Uh one of the questions I asked was just like, you know, when you reflect back on like your whole journey, all the work that it took to get there, you’re sitting there, you’re drafted. Um you know, sort of like are you soaking in the moment of sort of how much this means to you? And you said basically like I’ll give you a better answer at a different time cuz like right now you’re so focused on that moment. But when when I ask you this question now, especially with all the sort of the community that built you, your your mom, you know, everything that gone into this, your former teammates, like how do you feel now sitting in this chair? Oh, man. Extremely blessed. Um cuz where I come from, you’re not supposed to be here. Um my statue, like I’m not 67. Mhm. Um but I’m athletic. So, but where I come from, you know, I’m not supposed to be here. So, um, everybody that poured into me, like my mom made all the sacrifices growing up, uh, like give you perspective, like she’s she’s a school teacher. She always been a school teacher. So, it wasn’t it wasn’t that much financial stability, stuff like that. But, but she made a way, you know, um, uh, traveling to Louisiana every two days for AU tournaments and, uh, we we found it. We figured it out, you know. even taking even taking donations from my uncles or donations from my aunts stuff like that my grandma rest our soul but um everybody like I said it took a vis took a village and um I can’t thank everybody enough and even my teammates you know right met them all along the way you know shaped me who I am uh helped me become who I am so um can’t thank everybody enough it it just wasn’t me you know and my agent and my trainer they did of course amazing job with development and putting me in the right position. So, got to thank them as well. Well, you know what? Last is your village is going to grow, man. Cuz now that you got Toronto and Canada behind you, like it’s it’s everything. But I want to say welcome to the team. You know what I mean? Like you’re going to do great and we know you’re not going to lack for motivation and we know you’ve been a winner at everywhere you’ve gone. So, thank you so much for your time, bro. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Best of luck. Thank you.

Toronto Raptors rookies guard Alijah Martin discusses the dominant workout that landed him with the Raptors at the 39th pick, his progression from unremarkable freshman to national champion, and his heartwarming story fo playing for his mother.

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