Edmonton Stingers forward Grandy Glaze (front) runs into Demetrius Denzel-Dyson of Hamilton Honey Badgers during a Canadian Elite Basketball League game at the Expo Centre in Edmonton on June 14, 2019.John Lucas
Midway through the third quarter last Friday, the North’s most famous hoops fan took a seat next to the Edmonton Stingers bench.
Drake’s unexpected appearance at a Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) contest prompted smiles from the home team and caused a buzz inside the Hive, the arena on the city’s exhibition grounds across from the now-shuttered Northlands Coliseum.
“I got the inspiration for this at the last game,” Dayna Mitchell says. She sits beside the court holding a mixed beverage in one hand and a giant cardboard cut-out of the rap artist in the other.
“I thought, ‘Why not bring Drake to see the Stingers?’”
She has attended each of five games at the Edmonton Expo Centre and was not the least bit downcast after the Stingers lost to the Hamilton Honey Badgers 90-87 in that game on June 14.
“I love the action,” she says.
Even if it is not the NBA, there is a lot to like about the first-year CEBL. Its six teams spread across four provinces are largely made up of home-grown players. It is summer’s answer to the National Basketball League, which operates in winter with 10 teams from Ontario to Newfoundland.
Edmonton Stingers forward Travis Daniels (right) battles for the ball with Mike Fraser of the Hamilton Honey Badgers on June 14, 2019.John Lucas
Tickets to watch the Stingers start at $20. A Drake seat a few metres from the floor is $89, slightly less than the $1,200 one has to cough up in Toronto.
Dancers rock the hardwood to Hollaback Girl. A mascot named Buzz entertains while wearing a wasp costume. An Edmonton player scoops up a loose ball and heaves it toward the basket 70 feet away. It barely ripples the net as it glides right through.
“I would love to say I pulled out a pen and a piece of paper and calculated that,” Brody Clarke, a 6-foot-8 forward, says. “I just heard someone yell ‘Shoot’ and launched it.’”
He is 22 and recently graduated from the University of Alberta with a degree in civil engineering. He was Canada’s top collegiate rebounder this season and helped the Golden Bears reach the national championships for the third year in a row.
His U Sports coach, Barnaby Craddock, also coaches the Stingers.
“The atmosphere here is fantastic,” Craddock says after the close loss. The Stingers are 5-4 on the season with a game Saturday in Abbotsford, B.C., against the Fraser Valley Bandits. “When Brody hit that three-pointer, it blew the roof off the place.”
If fans are not exactly storming the doors, they are not ignoring the CEBL either. A respectable crowd of 1,453 turned out on June 14 even though the CFL’s Eskimos were playing their opening game less than a kilometre away at Commonwealth Stadium.
“The interest has surpassed what we expected,” says Lee Genier, the Stingers president and the chief operating officer of western operations. Before this, he spent 19 years in management with the Calgary Stampeders and established the Saskatchewan Rush of the National Lacrosse League. “We are growing and it is healthy.
“It is incredibly exciting putting your fingerprints all over something and trying to make it successful.”
The Canadian Elite Basketball League was founded last summer. Never did anyone imagine that the Raptors would take off on a historic run and that Canadians would fall in love with a sport other than hockey.
Edmonton Stingers and the Hamilton Honey Badgers during a Canadian Elite Basketball League game at the Expo Centre in Edmonton on June 14, 2019.
The Stingers hosted a Raptors watch party on June 13 and 3,000 people showed up at the 4,000-seat arena to watch them clinch the NBA championship. A big screen was brought in and Edmonton players signed autographs and mingled with the crowd.
“As much as the Raptors have been great for a groundswell of energy, it also caused us to be overshadowed,” Genier says. “It is up to us now to gain momentum from that.”
He believes the landscape of sports in Canada has changed along with the cultural makeup of the country. Basketball is more of a global sport and much less expensive for kids to play than hockey.
“All you need is a pair of sneakers and a basketball,” Genier says. “You don’t need a $1,000 stick.”
The team is named after the fighter jets that are deployed from 4 Wing Cold Lake, the Canadian Forces Base 300 kilometres northeast of Edmonton. The team’s logo combines the characteristics of attack planes and a hornet.
Ten of the Stingers’ 13 players are from Canada. Teams are limited to dressing three players from another country. Players from out of town live together in apartments paid for by the teams.
It is not exactly Toronto’s upscale Yorkville neighbourhood, but it’s not chopped liver, either.
The calibre of play is surprisingly good. Last Friday night’s game seesawed back and forth. The Honey Badgers, whose top player is Ricky Tarrant, secured the victory in the final two minutes. He is a three-point-shooting dervish who played in the NCAA at the University of Memphis.
The Stingers’ top player is Jordan Baker, a 6-foot-7 forward who is happy to extend his career in his hometown. Baker, 27, leads the team in every offensive category. He is an assistant coach at the University of Alberta under Braddock.
Edmonton Stingers guard Jordan Baker (top) rejects the ball against two Hamilton Honey Badgers on June 14, 2019.John Lucas
He has already played professionally in Germany, Portugal, and most recently Japan, where he took an elbow to the face and had his jaw wired shut for three months.
Right after that, the Stingers called.
“I was hoping to get back into it,” he says. “I was lucky to have an opportunity in Edmonton.”
There may be a few dreamers among them, but most of the CEBL’s players are simply happy to be doing what they love.
Grandy Glaze, a 6-foot-7 forward for the Stingers, has played for teams in Sudbury, Ont., Chile, St. Johns, Nfld., and Australia in the past seven months.
“I have a thing for expansion teams,” Glaze, who is finely chiselled and 27, says.
Edmonton Stingers forward Grandy Glaze does a fly past of Hamilton Honey Badgers on June 14, 2019.John Lucas
The Stingers are the third first-year team he has played for and he isn’t fooling himself about making the big time.
“The day I wake up and feel like this is work is the day I stop doing it,” Glaze, who is from Toronto but played collegiately for St. Louis University and Grand Canyon in the United States. He played the past couple of years in Greece and Mexico, too. “For now, this is fantastic.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story stated the Golden Bears won three national championships in a row.
Marty Klinkenberg