Before the rebounds hauled in and before the swooping dunks over his opponents — even before the Dikembe Mutombo-esque finger wag that he puts on blocked shots — Bismack Biyombo is a thinker.

The Toronto Raptors’ centre is always looking at the bigger picture, always aware of the opportunity that being a pro athlete has afforded him. In the midst of his fifth year in the league, a breakout season that promises to open up the vault for the 23-year-old this summer, he continues to think of his native Congo.

Almost two weeks after setting a franchise-record with 25 rebounds in a game, Biyombo will use Wednesday’s date with the Atlanta Hawks to donate $1,000 for every rebound he gets. He’s encouraging fans to give online while he plays (https://pledgeit.org/bismack ), with funds being donated to actor Ben Affleck’s Eastern Congo Initiative, which helps children in his home country by having new schools built.

“I wanted to do a fundraiser, but I realized I wanted to do something that would be more exciting, that would be more than just me going out there and talking about the Congo,” Biyombo said after Tuesday’s practice.

Biyombo has been very open about his upbringing. He and his six siblings grew up poor in Lubumbashi, getting just a meal a day and walking two hours to get to school and back. Basketball saved him and his family, but Biyombo knows that escape isn’t available to every kid.

Through his basketball camps, he said in an essay he wrote on Monday at The Cycle, he’s helped 20 athletes get scholarships to play in the United States. As happy as he is for those young players, he knows there are many that sports won’t be able to scoop up and help.

“Not all kids are good at basketball, and the state of education in Africa is not very good right now,” he said. “Technically there is no future. It’s about giving them opportunity and having a chance to be in a better situation.”

Basketball took him from the Congo to Yemen when he was just 16, then Spain, where he played professionally before being drafted seventh overall by the Charlotte Hornets in 2011. The game has taken him around the world, but his mind and heart are always with his homeland. He reads obsessively at times about where he’s come from and that’s sparked some homegrown wanderlust in him. In off-seasons he’s taken to exploring the Congo, throwing caution to the wind about the dangers that could exist around him.

“I’ll go to places where people say it’s dangerous just because I want to see how it feels,” he said earlier this month, in a lengthy sit-down with the Star.

“If I don’t go, especially in the Congo, who will go there? Who will go and help those people?”

He’s heard the concerns of friends who worry he might get kidnapped or worse if he goes into dangerous places. To put them at ease, he now waits until he’s back from his latest trek to tell them where he’s been.

Last summer, he went to Virunga National Park in the Congo, where as of this month more than 150 rangers have died in the past decade at the hands of anti-government rebels. It was worth it, Biyombo said, to get a look at the nature that can only be provided by Africa’s oldest wildlife reserve.

“I went in the park,” he said, laughing, “and we had only one guy with a gun and we saw gorillas. It was literally a face-to-face with gorillas, no cage, nothing.

“I have videos and pictures of gorillas and it was just amazing. People were like, ‘You’re crazy man, they could have easily finished you in the park.’ It turned out to be the best experience of my life.”

Lowry sits out practice

Kyle Lowry didn’t take part in practice on Tuesday, giving his elbow a day of rest after having it drained after Monday night’s loss to Oklahoma City.

The Raptors’ point guard said that there’s fluid in the elbow and coach Dwane Casey referred to a bursa injury when (begrudgingly) discussing it Tuesday. The bursa is a small, fluid-filled sac that acts as a cushion between bones and tendons around a joint. Athletes commonly inflame it when a joint takes contact in play.

“He had his elbow drained (Monday) night,” Casey said. “He’s had a bursa, which a lot of players in this league have when you hit the floor so much and bump your elbow.”

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“It hinders me from getting full extension,” Lowry said, “but getting it drained and getting some treatment (Tuesday), it’s getting better.”

Casey sounded like he would use Lowry for Wednesday’s game against the Atlanta Hawks.

“He’s been playing with it, there’s no reason to shut a player down for that. He’s in great condition, his legs are fresh, his body is fresh it’s just that he’s got a bursa on his elbow that had to be drained,” he said.

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