( quality time )

court with a professionalcalibre rim for families staying there while their severely ill children receive treatment at BC Children’s Hospital.

“Occasionally the families or someone will come out, and of course I shoot hoops with them because that’s why we’re there, but often I just get 15, 20 minutes in to really process my thoughts,” Pass explains. “If I am working on a big project, sometimes I’ll shoot for half an hour or go on a weekend.”

At public courts, he looks for a solid backboard that doesn’t vibrate—otherwise he gets distracted wondering why the ball is bouncing oddly, disturbing his rhythm. The rim must be 10 feet high, with a mesh. “I shoot well enough that if it has mesh, then it’ll roll back toward me,” Pass observes. “If there isn’t a mesh, then the ball continues through its arc and I have to chase it too much.”

A basketball game that Pass still plays is horse. Players try to execute the same shots, getting a letter (h, o, r, s, e) if they miss and eliminated when the letters spell “horse.” “It’s just a shooting game, from proper shots, three-pointers and layups to behind-the-back and hook shots and little trick shots that I still can do, thankfully,” says Pass with a laugh.

Back in the day, he enjoyed playing basketball because it’s a full athletic exercise involving agility and stamina. “I liked it because it was a team sport, but there was an individual element, so you could mentally decide when to do your thing and when to pass the ball,” he recalls. “So it’s a real collective of team and individualism.”

Although Pass doesn’t watch sports in general, he takes an interest in a couple of NBA teams and follows the NCAA. He attends matches when travelling in the U.S, and when a dozen NCAA teams held a tournament in Vancouver last November, he went to the opening night and a few games.

That month his 26-year-old daughter, Jade, asked who his favourite basketball player is. His reply: Julius Erving, a former Philadelphia 76er. At Christmas she presented him with aw game basketball autographed by Erving, which now sits in Pass’s office. She asked if he would use it. “First of all, I’m blown away that I got this incredible gift, and then I said, ‘Absolutely not,’” Pass exclaims. “I might spin it on my finger, but that ball’s never touching the court.”