By Clint Lomax
What is the difference between Canadian and U.S. basketball? Is it night and day? Is it a lack of athletes? Is it a lack of interest? By now most of us know that Dr James Naismith was Canadian. What a lot of people don’t know is that he invented basketball in Springfield, MA! Not to mention that he also invented the first version of the football helmet (But that is another story all together). This creates another question in itself, since the origins of Ice Hockey are still being bounced around to this day! Anyway, we move to the issue of why is Canadian basketball not as far along as it should be? There are currently 4 NBA players from Canada in the league right now. Joel Anthony (Miami), Samuel Dalembert (Philly), Jamaal Magloire (Miami), and Steve Nash (Suns). The state of California, who’s population is relative to Canada in number), has 50! The state of Texas has 28. Even the State of Washington has 10, and Seattle is only about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Vancouver BC! How does this happen? Is it the lack of facilities? Is it the lack of popularity of the sport? Are there too many sports options for young athletes? To the point where basketball is more of a hobby than a passion? I’ll give you a few real life examples.
I started playing football when I was 5 years old. My first love and it still is. Yet I also played baseball and soccer. I did not seriously start playing basketball till I was 12 or 13. My sophomore year at Garfield High School in Seattle, WA, I was pushed to try out for the junior varsity team by my old flag football coach. I went to open tryouts unsure of what I was doing, and not knowing what to expect. Once I opened the door to the double full court gym, I almost walked right back out! To my amazement, I walked into a gym (which is usually sectioned off by a retractable wall) of over 100+ student-athletes! The only reason I didn’t walk back out was because my old coach stuck his neck out to even get me noticed when I walked through the door. Once the coaches came into the gym, it was announced that all of us were vying for 24 spots! I had never experience such a feeling of overwhelming pressure in my entire sports life! The last message coaches gave before tryouts started was…”If you give 100% effort and leave it all out on the floor this week (tryouts usually last a week), whether you make the team or not you will at least know that you gave it your all.” That statement didn’t really ease my nervousness, but at least I had a direction. A goal or an expectation of what I should be doing.
To make a long(er) story short (because I could write a book on just that tryout alone), gradually as the days went on more people stopped coming. Either because of fatigue, sickness, or the fact that the tryouts were so hard they didn’t feel it was worth it. By the end of the week, there were still 57 people left. That Friday afternoon after lunch, they posted the 12 Varsity players and the 12 Junior Varsity players that made the program. It took at least 3-4 minutes before I could even get to the Coach’s window to see if my name was on there. 7th from the top of the alphabetically ordered list was my name! CLINT LOMAX, junior varsity team member in bold letters! I didn’t know what to feel at the moment, but I knew I didn’t want to celebrate in front of the other 30+ guys that didn’t make it! Some of them so devastated by not making the team, which they just sat down with their heads between their legs sobbing! Yes….Sobbing! I didn’t understand why their emotions were so strong until the following week.
Throughout the school was a buzz that I had never experienced before. Pats on the back, words of encouragement, surprise and shock, and of course….the haters! In our first meeting, the coaches laid down the history of the basketball program and I thought my head was going to explode! League MVP after league MVP, numerous league titles, numerous state finals (or provincial finals for Canadians) appearances, and the most important one….The most state titles in Washington State history! I think I had butterflies in my stomach before every practice and game until my high school basketball career was over after that brief history lesson! It was not just the history lesson of the program, I had actually seen a lot of these past and current players play! These guys were absolute cut throat monster on the court! Lighting quick, precise, calculating, and every other high intensity adjective you can throw in there! Most of these games didn’t take place with referees either. These games were played any and everywhere from: Community Centers, Boy’s and Girl’s clubs, YMCA, outdoor court, backyards, etc. Any place where there was a hoop, ball, and competition these guys would be there. Competition, school, or neighborhood pride, whatever it was they had it. Seeing that on a regular basis made me want to be like them, if not like them…. Like that! No matter what competition or situation, I wanted to be known for always having that “Killer Instinct”!
In my experiences in and around the lower mainland with the younger student-athletes, I don’t see nearly enough of that! My second example is regarding tryouts and practice leading up to actual high school games and tournaments. The names will be changed to protect the innocent and guilt. I’ve witness and been told about a few tryouts that went on last season on the Varsity basketball level. At one secondary school, there were only 26 student-athletes in for varsity tryouts! 26! At a school with nearly 2,000 students! The tryout I attended on the first day, 20% of the players had to sit down for nearly half of the drills! By the end of the week, there were 13-14 players left. One of those players decided he didn’t want to play in favor of a different sport. Which is perfectly fine, but he was one of the better players throughout the week! The coaches had already made tentative plans on how they would use him during the season! Another player wanted to play, but had to find a job on orders from his parents. That is fine too. It happens like that sometimes. However, he was one of the top effort guys throughout the tryout period. The coaches knew what they were going to get with him, but yet again they had to look elsewhere. At another facility, the school had to resort to an all “Exhibition” schedule, because……only 3 students showed up for their school’s tryouts!!! They only were able to fill a team with the friends of players that were already on the team. In a nutshell, they had to “Network” though the school just to field an exhibition team in a school of over 1,500 students!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming the students solely on this. I’ve had some students tell me that their coach wouldn’t show up for practice if there was a hockey game on. The schools that have high student populations sometimes have lack of interest in adults as Full Time or volunteer coaches. I can’t tell you how many games I’ve seen where the head coach had no assistant coaches, and had to do everything to make sure his team could play. I’ve also seen teams almost forfeit games because their players were showing up late…..TO THEIR OWN HOME GAMES! I have never seen anything like that in Seattle….EVER! I still can’t wrap my head around that. It’s unheard of in a country where the inventor of basketball was born.
What do you guys think? Am I being too hard on Canada basketball in the lower mainland? I know hockey is king, but basketball is nearly as global as futbol is. It is played on nearly every continent on the globe, and the popularity grows every day. What am I missing in these few examples that I’ve stated? This is going to be a running dialog of dissection and group discussions on this subject. Ultimately, I would love to find solutions to fill the gaps that exist regarding basketball on the west coast of Canada. However, a healthy dialog of “baby steps” will work just fine too.
