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Most basketball fans in the Toronto market know Leo Rautins as the analyst for the Raptors’ TSN and Sportsnet broadcasts.

Others might remember him from his tenure as head coach of Canada’s National senior men’s basketball team or for his many years as a playing member of that same team from the tender age of 16.

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Others of a slightly older vintage might remember him as the second Canadian player ever drafted into the NBA in the first round or before that his college career, first at Minnesota and then after a transfer for three more years at Syracuse.

And there are still others that won’t forget his years at St. Mike’s under Dan Prendergast and the St. Michael’s College basketball team where it all really began for Rautins.

It is only recently that Rautins has discovered just how unlikely all of that was.

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“I don’t even know how to put that into words,” Rautins says back in his familiar spot courtside before Friday’s Raptors/Phoenix Suns tilt. “It feels like you cheated. Somehow you had this life that you shouldn’t have had. It’s pretty bizarre. There’s a lot of emotion right now.”