Canadians in the NBA

There really haven’t been many of them. Only 32 total, in fact. Here’s a list of all the Canadians who have played in the NBA, and their achievements.

*Those in bold are active NBA players

Joel Anthony- 2-time NBA champion with the Miami Heat

Norm Baker

Anthony Bennett– 1st overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft

Sim Bhullar

Hank Biasatti

Ron Craver

Samuel Dalembert- 2010 NBA Citizenship Award

Tyler Ennis

Rick Fox- 3-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers, NBA All-Rookie Second Team 1992

Stewart Granger

Lars Hansen

Bob Houbregs- NBA Hall of Fame inductee, 1987

Cory Joseph- 2014 NBA Champion with the San Antonio Spurs

Kris Joseph

Trey Lyles

Todd MacCulloch

Jamaal Magloire- NBA All-Star in 2004

Steve Nash- 2-time NBA MVP (04-05, 05-06), 8-time NBA All-Star, 3-time First Team All-NBA selection, 2007 NBA Citizenship Award

Andrew Nicholson

Kelly Olynyk- NBA All-Rookie Second Team in 2014

Dwight Powell

Andy Rautins

Leo Rautins

Robert Sacre

Mike Smrek- 2-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers

Gino Sovran

Nik Stauskas

Tristan Thompson- NBA All-Rookie Second Team in 2012

Ernie Vandeweghe

Bill Wennington- 3-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls

Andrew Wiggins- 1st overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, Rookie of the Year in 2015, NBA All-Rookie First Team in 2015

Jim Zoet

Q&A with TRU’s own Ken Olynyk

As mentioned in the my previous post, TRU’s Athletic Director, Ken Olynyk, came to the school with an impressive basketball pedigree. His wife, Arlene, worked as a scorekeeper for the Toronto Raptors, his son Kelly starred at Gonzaga University and became a starter for the Boston Celtics last year, and his daughter Maya played CIS basketball for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. Ken, himself, was a former Coach of the Year at York University in Toronto and a former Canadian national team coach.

I sat down to talk with him about the future of Canadian basketball.

Q: Since arriving in 2003, what kind of growth have you seen in the local basketball scene here in Kamloops?

A: “I think it’s grown in a variety of areas–there are a few more clubs now. When [TRU] hired Scott Reeves, he started the Kamloops Basketball Academy; and then there are people who’re working with youth in the community with different camps and different clinics, offering different individual work. Then, of course, programs being offered through the schools are continuing to grow. So I think there has been a significant amount of growth in the basketball area within the community.”

Q: Talk to me about the growth and the impact of the ‘Olynyk Klynyk’ since it started up a couple years ago.

A: “I mean I have a vested interest, obviously, because Kelly [Olynyk] is the primary person involved in that, but I think it’s a great learning clinic for youth. We don’t play games in the camp right now–I don’t think we will–it’s all individual work; small group work. And also, I think one of the things that makes the camp unique is Kelly is there every single minute the camp’s on, so I think that’s great that the kids get to have someone of his calibre and stature to be at the camp all the time. He’s giving the advice, he’s demonstrating the drills and he’s working with the kids regularly.”

Q: What has TRU, specifically, done to grow the game of basketball in Kamloops?

A: “We try to be an advocate as much as possible for all sports so any way that we can help, we will. We’ve hosted provincial championships, regional championships, Okanagan championships for the schools–we’ve hosted national championships here–so anything we can do to help profile the game. If we can help profile it and bring it to the forefront then we will continue to do so.”

Q: In your estimation, what sparked the Canadian basketball revolution…especially since your son has been such a big part of it?

A: “Number one was Steve Nash had a huge influence on Canadian basketball–his influence I don’t think can be understated. And then, without a doubt, the Grizzlies in Vancouver and the Raptors in Toronto. When you have teams that are first hand and that close and kids can go to games and see the players, they start to believe that’s where they can be. I think that’s what’s happened is great club growth in the Toronto area, great club growth in the Vancouver area, and now across the country. those kids that played in this clubs saw those players first hand and I think they hoped to become those players. They were their role models and that’s who they wanted to become and I think that’s a big factor in terms of where Canadian basketball is going.”

Q: What does the future hold now with all these Canadian stars emerging in the NBA?

A: “I think it’s on great footing. It’s moving forward. You have more and more great players coming out of Canada. Right now Canada has the largest representation, other than the United States in the NBA, so you look at that–that means we are on a world stage in terms of where we can be with our national teams. Our women’s national team has qualified for the olympics and hopefully our men do so next summer. I think that growth and the number of kids playing the game and aspiring to play at a high level– it only bodes well for Canada and for all regions in the country in the future.”

Ken Olynyk, Courtesy TRU

Thompson Rivers University Basketball History

TRU, formerly University College of the Caribou, has carved out a path as a legitimate basketball school both in the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) and now in the CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport).

UCC became TRU in April of 2005 when the Sun Demons became the WolfPack and the school expanded from a college to a university, allowing the sports teams to jump up in competition.

The UCC basketball programs had been a part of the school from the start of the athletic program, but it wasn’t until the early to mid 2000s that the school really started seeing annual success.

In 1997-98 the men’s basketball team won its first ever bronze medal at the CCAA championships which set the table for the years to come.

In 1999-00 the women’s program captured BCCAA gold but were unable to medal at the CCAA national championships.

2000-01 saw the UCC men host and capture the BCCAA title once again and in 2001-02, the last season of his career, Ryan Porter would win CCAA Player of the Year honours. Porter, from Cranbrook, B.C. had a very impressive tenure as a Sun Demon winning multiple All-Canadian awards and an Academic All-Canadian award before being named Player of the Year, and is arguably one of the best players ever to wear a UCC uniform.

In 2003-04 UCC would introduce Ken Olynyk as its new Athletic Director. Olynyk came with a sparkling basketball pedigree, having won Coach of the Year during his time at York University in Ontario, and coaching the Canadian men’s national team. The late Skye Buck was named an All-Canadian this year.

The Sun Demons would go on to win a CCAA national championship in their final year before making the jump to CIS competition on the back of their new star, Sean Garvey. 

The following year, Garvey –a Kamloops product– would win Kamloops Male Athlete of the Year.

Fast forward a few years past the golden age and TRU is once again fighting for success on the national stage with new stars like Reese Pribilsky and Kamloops-born Josh Wolfram, who is the first TRU player to represent Canada at the World University Games, turning over a new leaf of success for the basketball programs at TRU.

As for Mr. Olynyk, success has followed him every step of the way as his son, Kelly, came out of the Kamloops high school system and went on to become a 14th overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft. He now starts for the Boston Celtics, following in his father’s footsteps, and even one-upping him along the way.

History is said to repeat itself, and if that stands true, the TRU WolfPack under Olynyk’s direction are in very good shape for the foreseeable future.

Hoops History in Canada

The following story is from NBA.com that gives a history of basketball in Canada. Most people think Canadian sports culture revolves solely around hockey, but we are too quick to forget how deep the roots of basketball are entrenched in Canadian soil.

This story can be found here on NBA.com

The roots of basketball are firmly embedded in Canada. In 1891 the game was invented by Dr. James Naismith, a Canadian who hailed from Almonte, Ontario.

Having been given the task of creating a new indoor sports activity while conducting a physical education class at the international YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts, Naismith designed what we now call basketball. The original game involved 13 rules and a peach basket hung ten feet above the floor. Even though it took place in the United States, at least ten of the players who participated in the first-ever game were university students from Quebec.

Basketball played by school and local amateur teams has been part of the Canadian sports scene since the turn of the century. Hoops teams representing Canada have participated in Olympic Games since 1936 and in the World Championships since 1954.

One of the most storied amateur teams in Canadian basketball history is the Edmonton Commercial Graduates (Grad’s), a group of Canadian women who dominated the sport in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Over 25 years, the Grad’s played 522 games at home and abroad, against both women’s and men’s teams. The Grad’s accomplished a record-breaking winning streak of 147 games and throughout their basketball tenure won a remarkable 502 times.

The National Basketball Association also has origins in Canada. The NBA’s first game was played in Toronto over fifty years ago, on November 1, 1946 when the New York Knickerbockers defeated the Toronto Huskies 68-66 at Maple Leaf Gardens. The teams were part of the Basketball Association of America, the forerunner to the NBA.
The Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies joined the NBA beginning in the 1995-96 season, becoming the first non-U.S. cities to join the league since the Toronto Huskies were one-year members of the BAA. In summer 2001, the Grizzlies relocated from Vancouver to Memphis, Tennessee.

Kamloops Hoops

The city of Kamloops has had a lot of basketball success over the past decade or so, with many success stories ranging from university title runs, to players being named All-Canadians, to our newly-crowned poster boy Kelly Olynyk.

Courtesy http://www.kamloopshoops.com

I think it’s safe for the city to start calling itself a bit of a basketball hotbed in some ways, but that’s right now. What about the future?

This is where developmental programs need to step in; to bolster young kids’ interest in the sport, and in Kamloops, Ryan Kerr is your guy.

Kerr is the entrepreneur behind the ‘Kamloops Hoops’ program, which offers personalized training to kids at all stages of their youth basketball careers.

“It was a bit of an experiment. I started training one kid, just as more of a hobby, and it kind of surprisingly grew–very slowly but very surely–to two kids, ten kids, 20 kids and now it’s up to about 80 to 100,” said Kerr.

Born and raised in Kamloops, Kerr grew up around the local basketball scene, playing for a successful Westsyde Secondary School program before graduating and pursuing a career as a person trainer.

“It started out as one to one training and now it’s evolved into two or three kids at a time. Then to make it more affordable I started working with groups of ten to 12. Right now I’ve got 24 kids in one group, which is probably a bit too much.”

“I’m just trying to meet the demand. Kids are saying ‘I want full court games’ or ‘I want to jump higher and get stronger’ so I just try to keep providing that opportunity for them,” said Kerr.

In terms of where the game is at in Canada right now, Kerr’s opinion mirrors that of most Canadian sports fans

” I think it starts with Steve Nash showing that a Canadian kid can make the NBA. It gave us some attention. Then Vancouver and Toronto getting franchises was a huge boost. That planted the seeds, and then when we became competitive and caught everyones attention with Vince Carter. Everyone started going ‘hey look at Canada, Canada’s for real’. I think that’s what planted seeds for guys like Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett. Then those guys got old enough to get drafted first overall, and I think it’s started snowballing.”

For the generation of kids Kerr works with, Wiggins, Tristan Thompson and especially local boy Kelly Olynyk will be the fuel for the next generation of Canadian  basketball stars.

Having personally played against Kerr and some of the kids he’s worked with, I can attest (hat in hand), to the butt-whoopin’ a 14-year-old kid under Kerr’s guidance can put on a 21-year old life-long athlete.

Kerr is doing fantastic work for the Kamloops basketball scene and it will be told in the next three to four years when Kerr’s protégés become old enough to play college or university basketball how impactful his training really is.

For the record, Kerr’s first student, Evan Helgason, was just awarded a full-ride basketball scholarship to Kamloops’ own Thompson Rivers University Wolfpack.

“I was a little bit surprised that the first kid I started working with got a full ride scholarship to a university,” said Kerr with a chuckle.

“I think it’s a good start.”

The Golden Boy, Steve Nash

I feel like I did Steve Nash somewhat of a disservice in my last post, so I’ll make it up to him by trying to chronicle the greatest Canadian basketball career of all time into about 500 words.

I’ll start off by saying he wasn’t actually born in Canada. He was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1974, and moved to Regina, Saskatchewan when he was 18 months old.

Eventually his family would move out west to Victoria, B.C. and he would become the pride of the Vancouver Island sporting scene. This is where Nash would become a standout athlete on the soccer pitch, and the hard court. You could make a good case for him as a professional footy star had he chosen that route, but evidently his passion was basketball.

Nash attended Mount Douglas Secondary school and lead his senior basketball team to a AAA provincial title (averaging just shy of a triple-double in his final year), which caught the attention of Santa Clara University in California.

He was awarded a scholarship by the Broncos and suited up for them for the first time in the 1992-93 season.

Nash had tremendous amounts of success at Santa Clara, winning the conference title and even one game in the March Madness tournament against the #2 ranked Arizona Wildcats in his rookie year.

His accomplishments at Santa Clara forced the hand of the Phoenix Suns in the 1996 NBA draft who took him 15th overall, in arguably the strongest draft class in NBA history.

Nash’s first stint in Phoenix wasn’t exactly a memorable one as he was stuck behind well-established starters Kevin Johnson and Sam Cassell and after two season he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks where he started to make a name for himself playing with superstar-in-the-making, Dirk Nowitzki.

In Dallas, Nash was good but not great, and when his contract expired prior to the start of the 2004-2005 NBA season, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban decided not to re-sign the then 30-year-old point guard. Big mistake.

The Phoenix Suns gobbled up the free agent Nash and it immediately payed dividends that nobody would’ve expected. Try back to back MVP awards.

He had a shot at a third too, but was robbed by his former teammate, Dirk Nowitzki. Nash actually posted better numbers in 2006-2007 than he did in the previous two seasons. Unfortunately for him, Nash starred in an era dominated by other Western Conference powerhouse teams, the L.A. Lakers, San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks and he was never able to capture the elusive NBA Championship.

He became known for his uncanny court vision, ridiculous handles and efficient shooting. Leading the league those categories several times each. Nash earned membership into the 50-40-90 club, which means he shot over 50% from field goal range, over 40% from the three point line and over 90% from the free throw line. Only a handful of NBA players have ever shot with this kind of efficiency. Nash did it in four separate seasons.

The long and short of it is Steve Nash may have been a sort of late bloomer in the NBA, but he came on like gangbusters in his 30s and put together a Hall of Fame career. He led the league in assists five times, was an eight time NBA All-Star, holds the record for the highest career free throw percentage at 90.4 per cent and helped make Canadian basketball relevant for perhaps the first time ever.

His career fizzled out as he aged and became plagued by injuries, and after an unsuccessful stint with the Lakers from 2012-2015, Nash retired as one of the greatest point guards of all time.

Nash has now set his focus on building on Canada’s newfound youth movement as he was recently named the General Manager of the Canadian senior men’s national team.

Steve Nash became known for his greatness on the hardcourt and his class off the court. He runs his own charity and is a co-owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps MLS soccer team. He has proven to be a true leader in whatever he does, and for that reason I believe Nash has done nothing but help grow the game of basketball in Canada while showing what it means to be a reputable human being as well.

 

 

The Suddenly Great Debate

Canadian basketball has never been as prominent as it is right now. The NBA is suddenly laden with budding stars like Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Olynyk, Tristan Thompson and Corey Joseph, not to mention key contributors like Nik Stauskas, Anthony Bennet and Robert Sacre, to name a few.

All these players are within only a few years of each other age-wise, which makes one wonder what sparked the golden age of Canadian hoops.

Historically, the Canadian basketball scene has been terribly bleak. Just look at the catastrophe that was the Vancouver Grizzlies…

A Bleacher Report article on the downfall of the Grizzlies

In 1995 the NBA expanded north of the border into Canada with the addition of the Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies, under the presumption that the success of the NHL franchises of each city would translate well to the hardcourt. While the Raptors were never a great team through the 90s (and really up until 2013), they weren’t quite the through-and-through disaster the Grizzlies became.

Blame it on bad drafting, or perhaps bad business moves, but whatever it was the Grizzlies didn’t do a whole lot to spark interest in up-and-coming athletes to put away their skates and pick up a pair of Air Jordan’s instead. They finished with the worst record in the NBA for the six seasons they were in Vancouver (101-359).. and ultimately made the move in 2001 to Memphis.

I should note that at this time there were very few Canadian-born players in the NBA.

The Toronto Raptors weren’t a whole lot better, but in terms of growing basketball in Canada, they can be credited with one big piece to the puzzle: Drafting ‘Air Canada’, Vince Carter 5th overall in 1998.

Half man, half amazing…what more need be said? Carter took the league by storm, winning Rookie of the Year in 1999 and putting on arguably the best Slam Dunk Contest performance in NBA history in 2000.

He was the poster boy the Canadian basketball scene needed.

 

 

Steve Nash will be remembered as one of the greatest Canadian basketball talents of all time, but while he was doing his thing down in Dallas for the Mavericks, Carter was someone Canadians could watch on TV every couple of nights and be amazed each time.

The showmanship and raw athleticism of Carter was something that Canadian kids could see on TV and say “that’s what I want to do when I grow up”.

Those kids are now grown up and are tearing up the NBA. Anthony Bennett became the first Canadian selected first overall in the 2013 NBA draft, and was followed up the next year by the phenom, Andrew Wiggins.

Back to back years with a Canadian first overall. Wow.

These young men, all in their early to mid-20s are causing an uproar in a country that is now seeing success on the international stage. Canada just missed their first chance to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio (though they can still enter the backdoor next summer). Couple that with the recent success of the Toronto Raptors, who have finally become a perennial playoff contender, and we have a full-fledged revolution.

Vince Carter set the table for Canada’s basketball boom, and with a talent-rich list of Canadians taking over the NBA (14 active players and growing), the revolution doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.

Steve Nash is someone who will undoubtedly be credited with helping the growth of Canadian basketball, but his claim to that may still be a couple years out as his prime was during his MVP seasons in Phoenix in 2005-2007…leaving the kids who idolize him perhaps a couple years too young for the pros yet.

The addition of players like Jamal Murray, a Canadian freshman at the University of Kentucky who may well be the cream of the crop of this young talent, will likely give much more credit to Nash as a role model.

There may be no hard evidence to prove that Carter was in fact the one who got it all started, but if one man could inspire that many Canadians, imagine how many will be inspired as they get to grow up watching Wiggins and company…

Guess who’s back……

Hey gang,

I’m back at it again, but we’re shifting gears a little bit.

For the foreseeable future I’ll be focussing posts on the Canadian basketball scene, looking at everything from the history to the impact on my hometown’s basketball culture (and a bunch in between).

This happens to be for a class project but it’s something I’ve taken a keen interest in since the Canadian basketball boom kickstarted a couple years ago.

***

So just  a little background on my level of basketball knowledge…

First off, I was born and raised in Kamloops, B.C. which is the same place as Boston Celtics center, Kelly Olynyk. I played pick up ball at our local gym in Kamloops in the 11th grade and I had a couple friends who played on the high school team who suggested I come out for the team. At the time I was still playing organized hockey so I didn’t have time to join, but I tried out the following year and made the team as a 12th grade walk-on.

The school had a pretty dismal record the season before, but under the guidance of our new coach Ryan Porter, who is a former Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Player of the Year, we turned a lot of heads and came within a few points of a provincial tournament birth.

I still play recreationally at the same gym where it all started for me, but my passion has shifted from simply playing the sport to being a loud and proud supporter of the “Northern Uprising” movement (Go Raps), and broadcasting the Thompson Rivers University games.

Eventually I’d love to be broadcasting hoops for a living like the legendary Marv Albert’s and Gus Johnson’s, but for now I’ll just be blogging about all things to do with Canadian basketball.

I encourage you guys to engage with the content as much as possible. All opinions are welcome.

Cheers,

Brenden

Poppin’ Bottles

Quick rant here. Am I the only one who thinks it’s absolutely ridiculous that MLB teams pop bottles of champagne and throw a champion-esque party in the locker room after securing a playoff spot?! You haven’t won a damn thing! Your work just begun as far as I’m concerned. It’s particularly embarrassing for perennial playoff teams like the Red Sox or the Cardinals, for example, who are expected to contend for a World Series title every season, not just make the damn playoffs. I grew up playing hockey where you’re taught, firstly that your work isn’t over until the trophy is raised above your head, and secondly to have some class and act like you’ve won something before. Come to think of it though, there are several traditions in baseball that don’t make sense to a lot of people, such as throwing a 97mph fastball at a guy because he watched his home run leave the park. Seems to me that they want to instil a certain amount of respect into each other, but perhaps they should have a little respect for themselves and act like they’ve been there before when they qualify for the freakin’ ALDS for crying out loud. Yes, it’s a long season, and yes there are a lot of teams in the league, but come on guys. I, personally, don’t believe that justifies poppin’ champagne like you’re Manziel on his 21st birthday.

What’re your thoughts?

Getting the Ball Rolling

What’s up everyone? Welcome to the No Fun League, where despite the sad attempt at a humorous title, we like to actually have fun with sports instead of viewing them strictly as a business (yeah I’m looking at you, Mr. Goodell). My name is Brenden Escott and I’m a third year Journalism student at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, Canada. I decided to create this blog for three main reasons: I have a fiery passion for all things sports, I’m an extremely opinionated person, and I love to write. My intent here is to have a bit of fun writing informally about something I love, in hopes that I’ll squeak a cheap laugh out of you guys. And hey, if somewhere along the line something intelligent emerges, then I guess we all win. I’m going to try to post as frequently as ridiculous and/or newsworthy things happen in the wide world of sports, but understand that life happens, too. In case you were curious (which I know you weren’t), the biggest influences on my writing style would have to be Jay Onrait, Tim Micallef, Sid Seixeiro, and Mike Wilbon so if you have any issues with my edgy style, take it up with them…I’m sure they’d love to hear it. On that note, let’s get those pre-planned touchdown celebrations ready everyone, cause I promise there will be no penalty flags here.