Why Clippers' Nicolas Batum and Blazers' Rayan Rupert share 'the same story'

PORTLAND, Ore. — Rayan Rupert reaches into his Trail Blazers locker to fetch his “French” cellphone, the one he uses when he’s back in his homeland, and the one with pictures from his youth. He scrolls and finds a photo from 2015 when he was 11.

In the photo, he is standing next to NBA forward Nicolas Batum, who had just concluded his 10-day youth basketball camp in Le Mans, France. Twenty minutes before the photo, Batum had announced Rupert as one of three recipients of his most valuable player award, which meant an all-expense paid trip to Charlotte, N.C., to watch him play for the Hornets.

“All the kids were sitting on the court, and he called my name,” Rupert remembered. “I was so surprised. So happy. I cried.”

The camp, the photo, the tears and the trip to Charlotte planted the seeds of a growing bond. Batum, now 36 and playing for the LA Clippers, says he texts or talks with Rupert — now 20 and in his second season with the Blazers — at least once a week.

“He’s pretty much become like my little brother,” Batum said.

Their friendship runs deeper than the camp or their French connection. Their fathers were standout basketball players, and both fathers died when their sons were young. When Batum was 2 and watching from the stands, his father, Richard, died at 31 from an aneurysm while standing at the free-throw line. When Rupert was 8, his father, Thierry, a heralded French forward, had a heart attack at 35. Eight months into a coma, he died.

“We have the same story,” Batum said.

Throughout the years, as they trained together and corresponded through text and calls, they chuckled at their similarities: their slight build, their elegant playing style, their introverted personality and that 15 years apart, the Blazers were the franchise that first took chances on them. But in all those conversations and all that time together, neither dared pry into the dark space each guarded so closely: the corner where they store memories and wonderment of their fathers.

“It’s hard to explain,” Rupert said. “He’s like me; he doesn’t like to talk about his dad. But I think it’s why we have a very good relationship. He understood what I was going through and same with me for him. I think we have a connection because of it.”

Batum, who played against Rupert’s dad in the French League, said he tells Rayan stories about his father. How physical he was when he played. How he was idolized by many French players. But his death … and his father’s death?

“We haven’t talked about that subject yet,” Batum said.

Instead, Batum says he and Rupert engage in a different outlet, a different quest.

“We have that thing where we are chasing something,” Batum said. “When your dad passes away while playing basketball, you want to finish something.”

When Rupert signed up to attend Batum’s camp in Le Mans in 2015, there was a problem: Rupert, 11, was too young. Batum’s camp was for kids 13 and above.

However, Batum knew Rupert’s backstory.

“When his dad passed away, the whole French basketball community rallied around his family,” Batum said. “It was a tragedy because his dad was beloved. He was a big-time player. So, with the history of his dad and everything, we said OK, let the kid in.”

By then, as a kid growing up in Le Mans, Rupert had come to idolize Batum. Not only was he a Frenchman in the NBA, but Batum once played in Rupert’s hometown, for the French League’s Le Mans Sarthe, from 2006-08. Although Rupert has no memory of watching Batum play — he was only 4 when Batum left Le Mans to play for the Blazers — the lore of Batum hung thick around town.

“Everyone knew of Batum. I was a big fan … he was a big model for me,” Rupert said.

So when the 10-day camp started in Le Mans, a bespectacled Rupert took the court, shy and unsure of his standing against kids two years older. Batum missed the first five days of the camp because weeks earlier he had been traded from Portland to Charlotte. When he arrived for the final five days of the camp, which featured five-on-five games, the camp instructors told him Rupert was not only holding his own, but he was standing out.

And when Batum watched five days of scrimmages, it became clear: Rupert was going to be one of his three MVPs who would get a trip to Charlotte in February.

“I didn’t give it to him because of what happened to him,” Batum said. “No, he earned it. He was the best.”

With parents in the bleachers and campers on the floor, Batum announced his MVPs. He saw Rupert shed tears.

“He was shocked. Surprised, I could see him crying,” Batum said. “I told him, ‘You are the MVP, bro, because you earned it. You are young, yes. But you are good.’ And, I think he needed that.”

For Rupert, the camp remains one of the highlights of his life.

“So many memories … the last day of the camp, he jammed from the free-throw line,” Rupert said. “But when I won the award … I had never been to America. That’s why I cried.”


Rayan Rupert on his 2016 visit to Charlotte to see Nicolas Batum in Charlotte. (Courtesy Rayan Rupert)

When Rupert visited Batum in Charlotte in February 2016, the mentorship began.

As the other two winners would gawk during the tours of the locker room and practice facility, Rupert would hang on every word from Batum, soaking in the advice: Be unselfish … make the extra pass … play defense … don’t try to do too much … work hard.

“He was a big motivator for me,” Rupert said.

One night, they went to dinner in downtown Charlotte, where Rupert picked his brain some more. They had wings, fries and burgers.

“It was like a sports place, with TVs everywhere. … I gave him the full American experience,” Batum said.

Between the fried food and games overhead, Rupert would listen to more tips.

“I told him, there is one thing about the NBA: You have to be different, in your own way,” Batum said. “The NBA, a lot of guys are pretty much the same players. Everybody wants to take 20, 25 shots, and they want to score 15 points. You need to be different.”

For the next week, Rupert would watch Batum execute exactly what he told him. The Hornets went 3-1 during his stay, including an upset of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and two near-triple-doubles from Batum — 26 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists in a win against Washington, and 19 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists in a win against Chicago.

“It was a great week,” Batum said. “And I had a nice week, too. Some really good games.”

On the night of the 2023 NBA Draft, Batum was glued to his television. By now, he knew the quiet, bespectacled kid from his camp had become a 6-foot-6 menace with long arms and sharp instincts.

And although he was unproven and only 20, he was confident Rupert would get drafted.

Throughout high school at INSEP Academy, Rupert said he would receive texts from Batum asking about his progress. When Rupert turned 16, he signed with the same agent as Batum — Bouna Ndiaye — and in 2020 during COVID-19, Ndiaye arranged for some of the top players in France to workout at a gym in Paris.

So for two weeks, Batum, Victor Wembanyama, Bilal Coulibaly and Rupert trained at 6 a.m.

“I told him, 6 a.m., don’t be late, and he was on time, every day,” Batum said. “And after two hours, he would say, ‘You done?’ And I was like … it’s been two hours. I’m going home.”

Batum made note of Rupert’s skills, dedication and professionalism. The kid reminded him of himself.

So three years later, when the draft arrived, Batum couldn’t stop thinking about how similar Rupert was to him on and off the court, and how their life stories intertwined. He knew he would be drafted, but where?

“When it was a pick away from Portland, and (Washington) didn’t take Rupes, I said, ‘Watch this! It’s happening … ‘ ” Batum said.

Sure enough, their stories became even more similar. With the 43rd overall pick, the Portland Trail Blazers selected Rayan Rupert, the same franchise that 15 years earlier made a draft-day trade to acquire Batum from Houston. (Batum was selected 25th overall by the Rockets and traded to Portland for the rights to Darrell Arthur and Joey Dorsey).

“Like I said, same story,” Batum said. “Same city, same size, same frame, quiet kid, my father was a pro and died, his father a pro and died … just funny that he ends up there. He had to.”

But as the two would find out, the stakes had changed. They were no longer compadres. Soon, they would be combatants.

And the kid would have his say.

Batum couldn’t believe his ears. Did Rupert say that?

It was October 2024, during a preseason game in Seattle between Batum’s Clippers and Rupert’s Blazers. In the first quarter, Rupert made a driving layup against Batum, and as he fell to the court, Rupert shouted “And-1!” in an attempt to coax the referee to call a foul on Batum.

“Oh man,” Batum said, shaking his head at the memory. “He drove on me and called ‘And-1!’ … I’m like, ‘And-1 too?!?’ OK. OK. Drive again, let’s see …”

Later in the second quarter, Rupert tried again.

“BANG!” Batum said, recalling the scene. “ ’Get outta here young kid!’ Not yet, bro. Not yet.”

Rupert said it was a surreal experience, playing against his idol and his mentor.

“Just crazy … but fun,” Rupert said. “Especially when he started to trash talk the first time we played him. He was like, ‘Get outta here, Rupe!’ That was a good moment.”

It was the first time the two had been on the same NBA court, as Rupert’s rookie season was mostly spent in the G League. Rupert averaged 16 minutes in 39 games his rookie season.

“Last year, when we first started with him, I said this kid has a chance to be a real, real, player,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said. “But he is probably two years away from being a year away.”

The work ethic Batum saw in Paris during the COVID-19 workouts — Rupert asking if they were done after two hours — carried over to Portland.

“He is the hardest worker on our team, and I can tell you that without a shadow of a doubt,” Billups said. “Nobody works harder, or more, than Rupes.”

Because of that dedication, Billups said Rupert’s timeline has been accelerated, even though he is averaging only nine minutes in 28 games this season. However, he  was widely credited as the hero of one of the Blazers’ 13 victories … and it happened to come against Batum and the Clippers.

In the fifth game of the season, the Blazers were in Los Angeles and trailing the Clippers 90-82 with 10 minutes, 46 seconds left. That’s when Rupert went on a seven-point scoring binge in the next 25 seconds, pulling Portland within 90-89.

Portland went on to win 106-105, and although Rupert played only 7:32, his seven points in that 25-second blur was widely recognized as the game-changing moment by both teams.

In the Clippers’ postgame locker room, assistant coach Shaun Fein, who played in France with Rupert’s father, approached Batum.

“He asked me if I was proud or mad,” Batum said. “I was like … ‘I don’t know. Both.’ ”

Batum said he waited 48 hours before texting Rupert.

“I was pissed. So I texted him, ‘You know I’m a hater, so I couldn’t text you,’ ” Batum said. “But then I told him, ‘You won the game.’ ”

It was a bittersweet moment. As mad as he was, Rupert executed everything Batum had instilled in him. Defense. Passing. Using his smarts.

“He knows how to play the game, and his teammates, the more he plays, the more they are going to love playing with him,” Batum said. “People liked to play with me because I was different. And I think that’s why I’m still playing in this league. He will get that way because he’s still young and he works very, very hard. He is always in the gym.”

At the same time, it was a stinging defeat for Batum and a Clippers team with deep playoff aspirations.

“That loss is going to haunt us, for real,” Batum said. “It’s going to be one of those games at the end of the year where you are like, ‘Damn! We should have had that game!’ But, we didn’t, and it’s because of him.”

On Thursday, the Clippers will be in Portland for a rematch. It is uncertain if Rupert will crack the rotation for the Blazers, but if he does, the Moda Center court will feature two sons, chasing after a proper ending to their father’s legacies.

“My dad started something. I have to finish it,” Batum said. “I have to do better than him, and I’ve made it in the NBA. For Rupes, this is just the beginning for him, but I know he is going to do well. Because we know there is someone looking out for us.”

(Top photo illustration: Meech Robinson /The Athletic; photos: Bruce Ely / Portland Trail Blazers)



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