Zach Edey got the kind of Toronto welcome you’d expect for a hometown giant.
The 7-foot-4 Memphis Grizzlies centre was met with a loud cheer from the Raptors crowd as soon as he stepped onto the floor at Scotiabank Arena on Monday night. It was only his second NBA trip to Toronto, and with plenty of family and friends in the building, the moment carried a little extra weight.
Edey, now 24, grew up less than a 30-minute drive from the arena in Toronto’s Leaside neighbourhood. He attended Leaside High School and spent part of his youth playing competitive baseball and hockey before his size and athleticism eventually pushed him toward basketball in Grade 10.
He made the most of the night on the court, too. In Memphis’ 118-102 win over Toronto, Edey finished with eight points, nine rebounds and a plus-11 rating in 23 minutes.
After the game, Edey said the feeling of playing back home still hits the same.
"It’s crazy. I really don’t know how else to put it. I didn’t get to play here last year, but I’ve been here twice now," he said.
"It’s always a lot of fun to come home, hear the anthem, and get into the atmosphere again."
Edey did not make the trip to Toronto last season when Memphis came to town, because he was recovering from several surgeries to repair and address excessive ligamentous laxity in his left ankle.
He entered the 2026-27 season healthy and has appeared in nine of Memphis’ 10 games, helping the Grizzlies to a 7-3 start.
Before Monday’s game, Grizzlies head coach Tuomas Iisalo said he sees plenty of upside in Edey, but also stressed the need to be careful with his workload after the injury issues.
"We’d be very dumb right now to push him to the extreme. He didn’t play a lot of basketball last year and needs to build back his pace," said Iisalo.
Even with that caution in mind, Iisalo gave Edey a season-high 23 minutes against Toronto, a longer run that fit the night and the setting. For Edey, it was another chance to play in front of the people who knew him long before the NBA did.
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