May 30, 2019Culture

Basketball is Canadian

My parents weren't in a position to handle the financial and time commitments of putting me in hockey. When I was 10, I remember sitting in my room trying to muster up the courage to flat out asked them if I could play hockey. Eventually I did, but I knew what their answer would be before the question came out of my mouth.

Around the same time, my brother, who will forever be my sports mentor, got me hooked on college basketball and March Madness. We would cut out the bracket from The Toronto Star, glue it to a piece of cardboard and sit ourselves in front of our 24 inch television waiting to fill in the results.

In the early 80's we lived in Windsor, Ontario, which meant by default we became Michigan Wolverine fans. For the first part of my life that was my basketball team, that was the team I cheered for.

That all changed in 1995.

By the time the Raptors joined the NBA, I was playing basketball in my driveway every single day. The sport that my brother and I loved more than anything had a Canadian team in the National Basketball Association. Tonight, for the first time, that team will be playing for an NBA Championship.

To mark the occasion, we've created a t-shirt that not only celebrates the Raptors making the NBA finals, but lets the world know that Basketball is Canadian by birth (Shoutout to James Naismith). You can pre-order the Basketball is Canadian Tee now. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Jumpstart – a charity that helps make sport and play accessible to all Canadian kids.