A Time To Be Proud

A lot of us have had the opportunity to watch and play various types of sports throughout our lives. Depending on where you are in the world, some sports are a little bit more important than others. I personally grew up in the city of Toronto. Sadly, this is one of the few cities in Canada that is somewhat known to our neighbours south of the border (the United States) and the rest of the world. You may be reading this from Stockholm or Shanghai and have the same feeling about the rest of the world's knowledge of your hometown. A lot of people do not actually know that basketball has strong roots stemming from Canada. If you stumbled upon this article, I'm sure you'll figure out how to do your homework online and see the history of basketball within Canada.

Growing up in the city of Toronto in the late 80s and throughout the 90s was a great time. One of the things I love about Toronto is the fact that it is very multicultural. I have travelled to different cities through the United States during my grade school and high school years and the closest two cities to Toronto in terms of diversity were Chicago and New York City. Not many people in the world can say they have close friends from Sri Lanka, Abu Dhabi, Somalia, Vietnam, India and throughout the Caribbean / South America just from grade school and high school. That alone is life experience that you cannot really put a dollar value on. Not only are you exposed to people from different countries, but also their cultural traditions and their food (which I love a lot of the food). People sometimes wait until college or after to travel the world and get some experience from different cultures we've been blessed with living in Toronto. 

Coming from a Jamaican family soccer (football) is a big sport, and the first sport I played. Baseball was the second sport I fell in love with, and by the age of eleven started to take basketball a lot more serious. To certain people, basketball is a basic sport because all you need is a ball and a hoop. It really has less equipment requirements than soccer. If you've played basketball on a court outside, at your local community centre (or YMCA), school or various minor leagues you'll realize there is a lot more to the sport than meets the eye. There is necessary strategy, footwork, "vision" and sometimes a silent communication with your teammates as just a small part of the keys to success in the sport. The neighbourhoods that I lived within the city of Toronto, basketball was a HUGE deal and something that would have you hop on public transportation and go all the way across town just for some good competition. Depending on how much you loved competition, you would probably end up in some parts of town that you usually wouldn't go to otherwise. The sport in school and outside of school brought a lot of people together within the city. There are so many people that I have met just because of basketball. A lot of us have or had dreams of going to college south of the border and having a chance at making it to "The League". Things have changed so much and it's great that Toronto, and Canada on a whole has more visibility for sports which is allowing our talent to dream of being great where they are and then make the move to where they are requested as opposed to moving somewhere to be seen. 

I have always wanted to experience an NBA All-Star Weekend, and NBA Finals series live. I never though that Toronto would be the host to the All-Star Weekend. I hope that this really isn't a once in a lifetime event for my lifetime, since I'm currently writing this from South Florida. For those of you that are watching the festivities on TV, online and through social media, just know that there is a lot more to Toronto and Canada on a whole, other than Drake, Maple Syrup, Bacon and "Cold Temperatures". If you're in the city, bundle up (it's colder than normal) and get out and soak up some of our culture. If you're not in the city, and the opportunity arises for you to visit Canada, definitely do it. It is a large country and is diverse with regards to the makeup of our population and even the layout of the land; prairies, mountains and metropolitan cities.