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Monday, June 23, 2008

Oh Canada ...



As USA Basketball announced its Olympic roster, our basketball friends to the north - Team Canada - were starting up camp to prepare for the qualifying tournament to be held in Athens before the Beijing Olympics.

To that end, the Toronto Raptors and Basketball Canada are working together for the benefit of the national team. See this column from the Globe and Mail last weekend:

Raptors lend Canada Basketball a hand


by MICHAEL GRANGE

The Toronto Raptors are hosting what has been jokingly referred to in some corners as the "Second Annual Jamario Moon Talent Search" in homage to last summer's free-agent camp, which netted the club Moon, the longest of NBA long shots.

But you want to talk long shots?

How about the encouraging, sudden and continuing revitalization of Canada Basketball, the traditionally and typically no-hope umbrella organization for the sport?
And that one of the driving forces behind it is the country's only NBA franchise?
The relevance is that the men's national team opened training camp in Toronto yesterday in preparation for its last-chance Olympic qualifying tournament in Greece from July 14 to 20.

As has been the case in recent years, the national team will be holding its workouts at the Air Canada Centre practice court, a not insignificant courtesy the NBA club offers the national team program. But those gestures are going to get bigger, more lucrative and more meaningful in the years to come. Less than a year into the term of executive director Wayne Parrish, Canada Basketball, and this is strange to
write, seems to be getting its act together in subtle and surprising ways.

Consider:
-- In an underreported story, there was the announcement this month of the revamping of the Canada Basketball board of directors to include Toronto Raptors president Bryan Colangelo, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment chief operating officer Tom Anselmi and Bay Street heavyweight Jim Hunter.

-- In recent months, Canada Basketball and MLSE signed a new, three-year agreement for "support and co-operation" that included a financial lifeline to Canada Basketball from its cash-rich partner worth in the neighbourhood of $500,000, with "additional revenue opportunities to come."

-- Among the immediate benefits is the opportunity for the men's team to play two home games against New Zealand and Lebanon at Ricoh Coliseum, the MLSE-managed arena on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds in Toronto.

"What underpins the whole relationship is that both organizations have a shared desire to grow the sport in this country," Parrish said. "But it helps that Bryan has a deep respect and passion for the international game." Parrish was hired to replace Fred Nykamp last September and immediately stepped into a job that was even more challenging than he first thought. Instead of making plans to shore up the sport's shoddy foundation, he was on the telephone with creditors, making promises he could only hope to keep. Things were bleak. There is no truer friend than a friend who helps you pay the mortgage when you're broke, and that's why MLSE's cash infusion resonates even more than the mere dollar amount. The money came when it was needed most and allowed Canada Basketball to come in from the cold, shower up, have a warm meal and
stop planning in one-day cycles.

The planning is now spanning years and decades, and the potential will take your breath away, if you let it. One idea Colangelo has been working on is combining the Raptors' desire for a state-of-the-art practice complex and basketball operations office with a national basketball training centre and high-performance
institute.

Far-fetched? If Colangelo is behind it — and he is, with both feet — it's not.
Over the winter, Parrish met with NBA executives in New York, an introduction made by Colangelo.

One thought under consideration is developing a working relationship between Canada Basketball, NBA Canada (the NBA's Canadian marketing arm, which is operated for the league by the Raptors), Canadian Interuniversity Sport and the likes of equipment makers Nike and adidas to replicate the kind of co- ordinated approach to youth basketball development the NBA, National Collegiate Athletic Association,
Association of Atlantic Universities and the shoe companies announced for the United States at the men's college Final Four in March.

"This is just a basketball guy talking about a concept," Colangelo said. "It needs to be worked on, our board and the provinces have to be on the same page, but with the combined resources of the organizations we should be able to make it work and work fabulously."

There are still all sorts of hurdles.

Just having players in an NBA facility before they're draft-eligible, as was the case with the national team hopefuls not yet graduated from university at the Air Canada Centre yesterday, causes hiccups. The Raptors had to get approval from the NBA and Canada Basketball had to make the practices open to other NBA teams to adhere to the letter of the rules. Co-hosting a high-performance basketball institute with a national federation would mean even more complications, but willing parties can work that kind of thing out. A little cash in the bank helps.

But vision? That's the most important thing. That's how long shots come home.

And for the first time in a long time, Canada Basketball has a vision, which is how you get to the Moon in the first place.

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