Not long ago, it would have been tough to name three Canadian players in the National Basketball Association. On Sunday, three of them were gathered in the same gym, looking out on a crowd of young players with dreams of becoming the next one.
Canadian NBA rookies Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Ennis and Kelly Olynyk joined Toronto Raptor point guard Kyle Lowry at the Air Canada Centre to hold a clinic with 50 Toronto-area boys and girls. The four pros just inked endorsement deals with BMO Financial Group to help grow grassroots basketball across the nation at a time when its popularity is exploding in the midst of a crucial year.
This is a summer packed with momentum-generating events for Canadian basketball. It began with medals at the Pan Am Games for both the men and women, and the inspiring performances of fiery youngsters such as Kia Nurse and Jamal Murray. There was the dominant effort of the Canadian women at their qualifier in Edmonton for the 2016 Rio Olympics, and now the men’s team – already called the best collection of Canadian basketball talent ever assembled – is preparing to try to qualify for its first Olympics since 2000.
“We’re at the most important stage there is; we’ve got to qualify and it’s not going to be easy with so many good teams there,” said Mr. Wiggins, the 20-year-old Minnesota Timberwolves star. “Yeah, there is a little pressure, but it’s always positive pressure. It makes us hungry, makes us work harder. We don’t want to disappoint anybody.”
Mr. Wiggins scrambled around playfully under the hoop, rebounding basketballs as fast as the kids could toss them up. The 2014 first-overall NBA draft pick, and the central figure in Canada’s flourishing basketball movement, looked like a kid all over again as he played the role of ball boy while overseeing a shooting drill.
“For me, I would have loved something like this when I was a kid, even though I was really shy, so I wouldn’t have asked them any questions,” said Mr. Wiggins. “It’s been crazy the last few years, with so many Canadian players who have been successful in the NBA, but it all started before us with guys like Steve Nash opening doors for us. Now we’re opening doors for the younger ones.”
The kids squeaked across the hardwood of the Raptors’ practice gym in their lavish, bright-coloured sneakers. They hailed from local neighbourhoods corresponding to the various NBA stars: Mr. Wiggins leading players from Vaughan; Mr. Olynyk those from Scarborough; the American Raptor Lowry with kids from Toronto; and Mr. Ennis with CIA Bounce from Brampton, the powerhouse program that also produced Mr. Wiggins and other NBA players like Tristan Thompson and Anthony Bennett.
“I think they’re really showing how good Canadians are at basketball,” said 11-year-old camp participant Jared Spence of CIA Bounce. “My dream is to make it to the NBA, too, and hopefully play with LeBron James.”
Mr. Ennis, who played at Syracuse University and has two older brothers who also played college basketball, was joined at the clinic by his six-year-old brother, Tyylon, already an avid player.
“I was a kid in Brampton running around in camps a few years ago,” said Mr. Ennis, a 21-year-old point guard from the Milwaukee Bucks. “This is a pivotal point in Canadian basketball with all the success we’ve had over the past few years, and we want to show people that it wasn’t just a good two-, three-year period, but that we’ll have talent growing up and coming out of Canada for a long time.”
Last season, there were a record 12 Canadians on NBA rosters, including the top overall draft picks from 2013 and 2014. It’s tough for Canada Basketball to keep track of the increasing numbers of Canadians suiting up for Division I teams at U.S. universities, but 26 men appeared in the NCAA tournament, while 21 Canadians took part in the women’s instalment, including Ms. Nurse in her freshman season, winning a championship with the University of Connecticut.
Mr. Wiggins and Mr. Olynyk are among those in a Toronto training camp this week as the Canadian men prepare for the Olympic qualifier in Mexico City, where they will work to secure a bid to appear in the team’s first Games since Mr. Nash led Canada to the Sydney Olympics back in 2000.
“A lot my best friends in the world I met through basketball. I’ve had opportunities to travel the world and experience life,” said the 24-year-old Mr. Olynyk of the Boston Celtics. “It’s fun to see basketball on the rise in this country and to see kids super excited and having more and more opportunities to play here now.”
The long-haired Celtic made kids gather around his 7-foot, 238-pound frame as he oversaw their layup drill. Mr. Lowry showed them the finer points of ball-handling and demonstrated the perfect wrist movement on a shooting release. Mr. Ennis showed them how to bend low, move their feet and get their hands up on defence.
The kids fired questions from the crowd like “Kyle, who’s better: you or DeMar?” or “Hey Andrew, are you gonna go in the dunk competition next year?”
The NBA has recognized Canada, and more specifically Toronto, as a premier target market, too. The NBA all-star game will be held in Toronto this winter, and the NBA Development League expanded into the market by awarding the Raptors their own franchise – Raptors 905 – which will play in Mississauga, another youth basketball hotbed.
If it’s possible, there are even bigger expectations on the shoulders of Mr. Wiggins over the next year as he comes off his NBA rookie-of-the-year season. He will be relied upon to lead the Canadian men in the qualifier and – should they make it – next summer in Rio. The shy and humble youngster doesn’t mind the pressure.
“You have to learn to set your own goals and expectations and achieve those; because no one in the world can live up to everyone’s expectations, so you have to set your own,” said Mr. Wiggins. “Back home, working with kids, I always love it. They support me, I support them, it’s all love.”