A time and place to talk
Marner’s time to express himself comes on the ice Mitch Marner, left, joking with goaltender Curtis McElhinney, leads the Leafs with four points.
Ask Mitch Marner about his favourite NBA player, and you won’t get surprised right away. Auston Matthews loves Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, who is a spectacular blend of unrelenting ferocity on the court, and is a fashion icon of sorts. Marner? He starts with Steph Curry. Little guy, insane skills. That scans. The other one is LeBron James. Why? “I mean, I like Curry a lot,” said Marner, the day before his Toronto Maple Leafs played Game 4 against the Boston Bruins. “I think LeBron, just how he handles social media, the world, all that kind of stuff, how well he does all that stuff, same as Curry.” He referenced the 2016 ESPY awards, when LeBron, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony stood and delivered a message against gun violence.
“Standing up on that stage and just the world and what their beliefs are, that was pretty inspirational,” Marner said. “It takes a lot of guts to stand up there and do that.”
This conversation sprung out of Leafs coach Mike Babcock advising his young players to stay off social media in the playoffs, because it can affect them. Marner, 20, has 274,000 followers on Instagram, 115,000 on Twitter and, like many of his young teammates, he grew up with the internet. He joined Twitter when he was 13, but his first social media account came before he was in high school.
“I don’t even know if I asked (my parents),” he said. “I think I went to school, people had it, I made it at school, and that was that.”
Marner deleted Facebook at some point as his friends left, too; his first experience with tidal waves of negativity came during his time at the world junior hockey championship in 2016, when Canada lost to host Finland in the quarterfinals and finished sixth.
He says he’s gotten used to the social media tides over the years.
“Social media in summer’s a great thing,” Marner said. “During the season it’s a horrible thing.”
It’s not like he would get bad reviews right now from anyone sensible. Marner has a teamleading four points in the first three games, and now has eight points in his first nine career playoff games despite mononucleosis last year that was bad enough that Marner took IVs between playoff games. The line with fill-in Tomas Plekanec and Patrick Marleau was as- signed to the monster Patrice Bergeron-Brad Marchand-David Pastrnak line in Game 3 and outscored them 2-0 at even strength.
Marner has also been the subject of Bruins hits that got Nazem Kadri suspended for avenging Marner, and got Ron Hainsey in a fight. But as he puts it, he’s been the small one forever. That’s nothing new.
“I like his will,” said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. “He’s got a lot of second effort. I mean, in Boston, Kevan Miller hit him, Tim Schaller, I thought good clean hits, and he kept coming back. The kid’s obviously very competitive. He seems to see everything going on, and the game slows down for him. I don’t enjoy playing against him, because he’s a good player, but I enjoy watching him play the game.”
Still, Marner is staying off social media, staying low-key. Hockey players and basketball players come from different planets culturally, and in how the sport allows personality and opinions to be expressed. Marner is fascinated by the differences.
“I think hockey players, we’re just try to stay out of all the extra stuff,” Marner said. “We just talk about hockey, talk about going home and playing video games and that. Nothing crazy, like politics.
“We can walk around really anywhere, even in Toronto, and barely get noticed. But LeBron James, I think, can’t walk five steps without getting noticed, and he’s completely comfortable being that role model for people. How he talks in front of those crowds is pretty crazy. It’s pretty breathtaking, I’d say.
“You went to the Raptors last night, right? So you went to the post-game with Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan? They’re joking around after games, joking with each other in the media. I don’t think we’ve done that ever, once. I mean, if I walked over to Matt (Martin) and put a towel on his head and started rubbing his face, I mean, social media might like it, but I just think it’s a different culture. We’re more serious, I think. Those guys really enjoy it.”
Martin, the veteran, looked up and grinned. He asked what Marner was talking about.
“OK, would it be OK if I did what Kyle Lowry does and throw something on your face during an interview?” asked Marner.
“Would it be OK with me, or would it be OK with the team?” asked Martin.
“Just in general, would it be OK?” asked Marner.
Martin shrugged. “It’s different,” he said.
Mitch Marner isn’t asking to be an NBA player; he doesn’t feel a big need to talk politics. But he thinks it’s cool that NBA players get to dress how they want before games. “They get to express themselves more.”
Mitch Marner, hockey star, will have to express himself on the ice.