So I went to a brunch with Allison McNeill, Masai Ujiri and the godfather himself, Mr. Gherardini. It was for Basketball Ontario and the event was awesome (basically Mau told and Masai told us what we needed to do to fix Canadian basketball). Lots of big timers from Canada Basketball and such but I thought ya'll would enjoy this picture. He just looks so pimping, "Just when i thought i was out, they pulled me back in."
What do you get when you place the Godfather of European basketball, the founder of Africa’s famed big man camp, one of the most successful national team coaches in Canada and a room full of eager and inquisitive basketball minds? Basketball Ontario’s inaugural Development Forum was held at the Holiday Inn (Toronto Airport East) on January 27 and gave members of the basketball community a unique opportunity to rub elbows and pick the brains of top of the line experts. The event was emceed by Toronto Raptors radio play-by-play man, Paul Jones. After feasting on a buffet brunch, guests listened intently to presentations from women’s national team Head Coach Allison McNeill, Director of International Scouting for the Toronto Raptors Masai Ujiri and Raptors Vice President and Assistant General Manager Maurizio Gherardini. The morning started with a message from Canada Basketball’s Executive Director and CEO Wayne Parrish. “Just talking to people around the room before we went for brunch, it seems like there’s a tremendous amount of excitement here. This reflects the excitement and passion I’ve experienced across the country about where basketball in Canada can go in the next five-to-ten years and beyond,” Parrish said. “There’s a lot of opportunity here. Ontario has some of the best athletes this country has produced. We think there’s an opportunity for the athletes’ developed in this province to be standing on a podium at a world championship or Olympic games, within the foreseeable future.” After Parrish, McNeill told the crowd how we need to expand our definition of success. “Don’t aspire to be one of the best players in your city or country but one of the best in the world…we have to do it at the grass roots level.” McNeil noted the changes in international ball, such as women staying in the game longer and how teams like Australia have been successful because they aren’t afraid to blaze their own trail and don’t look to emulate American teams. “They don’t have American envy,” McNeill said. A common theme through out the morning was how coaches must push their players to aid in their development. “We have to quit telling them they’re great. At some point you have to let them know that they need to get better.” Ujiri engaged the crowd with his story of coming to America from Nigeria and his return trips home where he established the Top 50 big man camp. “Nigeria is one of the craziest countries in the world. It’s a third world country but one thing we do have is talent,” Ujiri said. “You can walk around a Nigerian town and before too long you’ll see a 6’9” kid, then a 7’0” kid…they’re everywhere. There’s nowhere for kids to go play, nowhere for them to shoot hoops. There’s nowhere for coaches to go learn more about coaching.” The lack of facilities inspired Ujiri to find a way to develop talent from his homeland. “With the top 50 camp, we try to select kids from all over the country. We’ll travel through the towns gathering kids and bringing them to one spot where they can play together.” Ujiri then expressed his views on Canada’s basketball situation. “Canada has it. You have the people, the wonderful country – you don’t have the wonderful weather but it’s not all bad. Unbelievable people with great spirit, a great player in Steve Nash and a great NBA franchise with the best basketball minds in the world. Growing the game here you have to be very creative and use initiative. You have to be very aggressive and think outside the box.” The final speaker of the day is the man responsible for reshaping basketball around the world. Before assisting Raptors President and General Manager Bryan Colangelo in remaking the city’s NBA club, Maurizio Gherardini led one of the most successful franchises in Europe, Benetton Treviso. However, like McNeill, he stressed a different definition of success. “When I got there (to Benetton) we had won eight championships out of the previous ten years,” Gherardini said. “I don’t want to win championships anymore. I want to develop players. I don’t care about having the little crest (from winning a championship) on my shirt.” “I said, let’s change our philosophy, let’s create players. Now let’s ensure that our coaching, management and scouting reflect our change in philosophy.” “We need to realize that talent comes from anywhere and it can be around any corner. And once we find the players it’s not simply a matter of bringing them to the arena…it’s a matter of designing a path that we want to follow with the players. We want our players to dream, we want them to go all the way and become basketball players at the highest level.” A question and answer period followed as the crowd lined up to get the experts insight and further expand the discussion. “Rick and I learned a great deal about the Canadian Basketball world and the exchange of ideas was fascinating. It was a pleasure to be associated with this event,” Allan Langvee, President of Coach Depot said following the event. Basketball Ontario would like to thank OES Inc., the Hoop Factory, Screen Savior Entertainment and Coach Depot Inc. for their support at the Development Forum. undefined
i can't disclose any secrets but i'll say this much ... Canada basketball is in good hands with Wayne Parrish. He's a guy who is willing to listen and ready to shake our system from the ground up. These guys expect Canada to be a top five basketball country within the next 12 years and are willing to put in the work to make it happen.
That sounds great. I play on some house league teams, I want to try and get to a junior national level at basketball. Once Parrish can take over, I know he'll do great things. Good article shook.
Oak Ridges, which is 15 minutes north of Basthurst and Steeles where I lived for 13 years. I go there every weekend because my grandparents live near there. It's around the same area at Newtonbrook. I used to live at 765 Steeles avenue west, then I moved to Oak Ridges. I'm moving back down in September, which I like.
I played in a IEM league in Newmarket, but it's almost over. I want to play in Vaughn in the summer and see if I can find my junior national Canadian team try-outs.
