Finding a passion you can make into a career isn’t something many people get to experience—especially during their post-secondary years. But Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold men’s assistant basketball coach Moustapha Youssouf has always known his passion—making a career out of it was a matter of fate. 

As a former student who studied marketing at TMU from 2019 to 2021, Youssouf joined the Bold men’s coaching staff in 2023 as an assistant. Less than three years later in November 2025, he announced he would be joining the Raptors 905 of the NBA G-League—the developmental affiliate to the Toronto Raptors—as an assistant coach. From the outside looking in, it might seem like a quick ascension but Youssouf has been tied to the Raptors organization since their championship 2018-19 season when he was 19 years old.

He started his professional career young. When he was just 15, he shot games as a photographer, making connections to the Toronto basketball world, and  gaining him access to shoot for Raptors’ media day and an NBA game against the Philadelphia 76ers during the 2018-19 season four years later. 

“I always feel like I’ve been so close to the organization for the last 10 years,” said Youssouf. “It just felt like something that almost was, I don’t want to say destined, but it felt like it just made sense…a lot of the people have been there for a long time and have seen me grow up since I was 15.” 

In his first season on the Raptors 905 coaching staff, Youssouf helped the team win their first 16 games of the season, which was a franchise record. The season started on Nov. 7, 2025 and they didn’t lose a game until three days before Christmas.

“I had gone into the season with the expectation that, regardless of the record this year, this is a learning opportunity for everyone involved…Being present and having fun regardless of whether we won or we lost games,” said Youssouf. “And then we ended up having the best start ever. For me to walk into this in my first year, I felt so grateful and a little spoiled.”

Youssouf said he credits the beginning of his coaching journey as well as a lot of his growth in the profession to TMU Bold men’s basketball head coach David DeAveiro. 

When Youssouf was playing basketball for the Centennial Colts in 2023, he met DeAveiro for the first time and they talked hoops for over three hours during lunch. When Youssouf finished up his playing career a few months later, DeAveiro gave him a call and asked if he was interested in transitioning to coaching by joining the Bold’s staff. 

“I learned so much from a basketball standpoint and to work with someone who has 26 years of head coaching experience and one of the winningest coaches in Canada, you pick up on a lot of good things,” said Youssouf.

Between the Raptors 905’s 50-plus game season and the Bold’s deep playoff run that has resulted in 39 games, Youssouf will be involved in more games than a full NBA regular season. He said he’s splitting his time evenly between the Bold and the 905 this season, learning from DeAveiro at TMU—who was recently named the 2025-26 Ontario University Athletics Head Coach of the Year—and people in the Raptors organization like assistant coach Jama Mahlalela. 

“The energy that [Mahlalela] brings, alongside everything else he does really well, that’s a goal of mine. To be where he is one day, being the best assistant in the NBA would be really, really cool,” said Youssouf. 

It’s a goal that’s not far off, considering his rise through three years of coaching and Raptors connections. Youssouf has been organizing the BGR8 summer basketball runs for professional Canadian hoopers, Raptors players and TMU Bold athletes the past few summers. Raptors such as Scottie Barnes, Serge Ibaka and Chris Boucher were routinely playing with and against members of the Bold’s roster at Kerr Hall’s Upper Gym during the past two summers.

BGR8 runs are just another example of Youssouf’s mindset to be great, the Canadian basketball network he has been working on for over a decade and his commitment to elevating developing athletes.

“To me, basketball and coaching is my service to the world, and it’s how I contribute to people. I just use basketball as a means of service,” said Youssouf. “As of now I am healthy enough to do it, and I love it.”