Great moments in Canadian hoops history
It all started here, you know. The NBA debuted in Canada.
In fact, without the influence of Canadians who owned National Hockey League teams, it’s quite possible the NBA may never have come to be.
“It was immediately after Second World War and the owners of the six NHL teams were looking for another attraction to fill their buildings,” recalled Windsor, Ont.- born Gino Sovran, a Troy, Mich. resident who at 90 is the oldest- living Canadian NBA player.
Sovran, who played university ball at Windsor’s Assumption College, suited up for the 1946- 47 Toronto Huskies in the inaugural season of what was then known as the Basketball Association of America.
The plan was for all teams to open the season Nov. 2, 1946, a Saturday night. There was just one flaw in that blueprint.
“There was another team that played every Saturday night at Maple Leaf Gardens,” Sovran pointed out. And the Huskies weren’t about to usurp the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Thus, the Huskies opened Nov. 1, 1946 at the Gardens, dropping a 68- 66 decision to the New York Knicks.
“By fluke, the first NBA game was in Canada,” Sovran said.
Toronto finished 22- 28, the same record as the mighty Boston Celtics, but the team folded after one season.
“They tried to sell basketball as the fastest game in sports, but that wasn’t going to work in Toronto with all those hockey fans,” Sovran said.
CANADIAN GLOBETROTTERS
When Windsor’s Assumption College stunned the mighty Harlem Globetrotters 49- 45 on Feb. 23, 1945, the Globetrotters were so impressed with Assumption star Fred Thomas they eventually recruited him to play with the Clown Princes of Basketball. Thomas also played in the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts. Chatham, Ont.’ s Ferguson Jenkins, the 1971 Cy Young Award winner, played for the Globetrotters from 1967- 69.
WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS
Four Canadians have won NBA titles and three of them have earned multiple championship rings. Toronto’s Rick Fox ( 199920, 2000- 01, 2001- 02 Los Angeles Lakers) and Montreal’s Bill Wennington ( 1995- 96, 1996- 97, 1997- 98 Chicago Bulls) won a trio of titles, while Mike Smrek of Welland, Ont. won back- to- back titles with the Lakers in 1986- 87 and 1987- 88. The most recent Canadian winner was Toronto’s Cory Joseph last season with the San Antonio Spurs.
OLYMPIC METTLE
Only one Canadian basketball team has earned an Olympic medal and it was the Windsor Ford V- 8s at the 1936 Summer Games in Berlin, the first Olympiad in which basketball was included as a medal sport. One thousand people gathered outdoors around a lawn tennis court to watch the U. S. topple Canada 19- 8 in the gold- medal game played in a driving rain. Canadian Dr. James Naismith, the man who invented the game of basketball, was on hand to present the medals at the conclusion of the game.
DR. ERNIE
Montreal’s Ernie Vandeweghe was the first Canadian to be selected in the NBA ( then known as the Basketball Association of America) draft when he was picked 29th overall by the Knicks in 1949. Vandeweghe played with the Knicks from 1949- 54 and was called Dr. Vandeweghe by New York fans because he was attending medical school at Columbia while playing for the team. However, he’s likely best known as the father of two- time NBA all- star Kiki Vandeweghe.