Raptors’ Chris Boucher launches scholarship at TMU: ‘I wanted to help people’

Chris Boucher knows a thing or two about getting a second chance.

Before he became a centrepiece of the Toronto Raptors‘ second unit and signed a three-year, $35 million (U.S.) contract, a young Boucher lived in abject poverty in suburban Montreal. He was once homeless. He dropped out of school. He washed dishes at restaurants.

Boucher also played pickup basketball, and when someone offered him a chance to play in an organized tournament, he shone brightly. Then he bounced around college programs before going undrafted to the NBA. But his luck changed when the Golden State Warriors signed him to a two-way contract, and he was eventually waived after his team won the NBA championship in 2018. That’s when the Raptors brought him on board with a two-year deal. He’s been on a stellar progression since.

It’s the complexity of Boucher’s personal journey that pushes him to want to give back to the community and it’s culminated in a new collaboration with Toronto Metropolitan University.

With an undisclosed amount of money disbursed through his SlimDuck Foundation, Boucher is launching a new scholarship scheme that will offer financial support to five students of Caribbean descent. Every year for the next five years, the scholarship will be offered to a student who intends to pursue a university degree but faces gaps preventing them from fulfilling requirements to get admission through the traditional channels.

“These people are going through the same thing as me,” Boucher told the Star as he recalled the tough days in his young age after he and his mom moved to Montreal from Saint Lucia.

“It took me a minute obviously as my career was full of ups and downs but I knew that if I ever made it I wanted to help people in my community. I am thankful and blessed to be where I am at now, but it wasn’t always easy.”

TMU will channel the SlimmDuck Scholarship funds through its Spanning the Gaps program, which provides mentoring, tutoring and guidance to candidates who want to go to university but have educational gaps that make their admissions incomplete.

“Chris Boucher has demonstrated firsthand how high an individual can reach when they are given the opportunity,” TMU president Mohamed Lachemi said in a statement. “Basketball, like life, is a team sport — it’s through working together that we win.”

The 30-year-old Boucher is signed with the Raptors for two more seasons beyond this one. He’s averaging nine points and 5.7 rebounds in just over 20 minutes per game this season.

Boucher hopes those who will benefit from his scholarship will find ways to pay it forward.

“Consider the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “I am grateful to be in this situation to be able to help other people, and I hope they can take this opportunity and go with it and succeed at whatever they want to do.”

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