Canadian stars ready to take NBA final by storm. It wasn't always like this

Global News

2 days ago

For the second straight year, there will be four Canadians taking the court when the NBA Finals tip off Thursday night, but the Canadian content in this year's showdown between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder is very different from that of 2024.
In last year's finals, Canada was represented on the victorious Boston Celtics by Torontonian Oshae Brissett, while A.J. Lawson and Dwight Powell, also from Toronto, suited up for the Dallas Mavericks alongside Montreal native Olivier-Maxence Prosper. Those four players are not exactly household names and were, for the most part, depth at the end of the bench.
Fast forward to Thursday night and you will see the Thunder being led by recently crowned NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Hamilton alongside Montreal native Luguentz Dort, one of the best defenders in the game. At the other end of the floor, Aurora, Ont.'s Andrew Nembhard starts for the Pacers, while Bennedict Mathurin of Montreal plays a key role off the bench for the Pacers.
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At least two of these players will win a title this year, joining Brissett and nine other Canadians who can boast that fact on their resume. And going forward, they all could play a key role for the Canadian men's national squad, a team that seems to be growing deeper yearly.
The man who runs Canada's senior men's teams, Rowan Barrett, was once considered the best high school player in Toronto, before going on to star at NCAA basketball power St. John's in the early '90s.
His move south of the border for college came at a time when, outside of former Chicago Bulls centre Bill Wennington, there were very few Canadians playing at the highest level of college, let alone in the NBA.
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But things began to change after Barrett's time at St. John's. While he was professionally around the globe with stints in France, Spain and Brazil in a decade-long professional career, he began to first notice a change in the Canadian landscape when he was coming home after each season abroad.
'Where there was always just hockey nets on the driveways as you're flying in, you could see the basketball hoops,' he said. 'All of a sudden, there were more and more basketball hoops on the driveways and I just think the participation level grew.'
Around the same time, the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies brought the NBA to Canada, and while the latter's time out west was short-lived, it still had an effect on future Canadian ballers.
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'You have heard it, I think from a number of our players, saying they went down to the Raptor game, they went out to the Grizzly games, and they realized, 'OK, this is who I am as an athlete,'' Barrett said.
Barrett said another factor in the Canadian growth was the explosion in the number of clubs playing basketball.
While many were just playing in high school programs in the winter, kids began to also play for clubs in the summer and would travel to the U.S., which has allowed them to get increased exposure and hone their skills.
'I think it's vitally important to have clubs that are there to receive those players that want to play and grow and more and more coaches out there trying to help,' Barrett said.
Plus, the internet has brought the world together, including those involved in basketball.
'I think the internet impacts things too, because now you can look and see another player your age and what they're doing in Indiana or in New York. It's not the first time you're seeing them sometimes or hearing about them,' he said.
Barrett also credited provincial programs for their efforts, while noting that over the past decade, Canada Basketball has increased its investment in youth programs.
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'We've put much more resources into the youth ages than we did previously,' he said. 'To uncover them, to put programming there, to help to guide them and stream them, get to their parents earlier, give them advice, support them. And I think you see less and less kind of falling through the cracks.'
Of course, Canadians often tout the fact that basketball was invented by one of our own, but the sport has been dominated by our American neighbours, which plays a role in the growth here as well.
'We're one of the best countries in the world for talent in and of ourselves and additionally, we're right beside the country that is the number one for producing NBA players in the world,' Barrett said.
'I think it's just a rich mix of things, kind of altogether, that is helping our players to get to these levels.'