http://www.thestar.com/sports/basketball/2014/04/23/nba_draft_greater_toronto_area_basketball_stars_muscle_in_on_nhl_prospects.html
NBA draft: GTA becoming hotbed of hoops talent
In terms of raw numbers, hockey is still king for young athletic talent in the Greater Toronto Area. But the number of elite basketball stars following in the footsteps of their hockey-playing counterparts is
TRAVIS HEYING / MCT FILE PHOTO
Kansas' s Andrew Wiggins could be one of three Canadians selected in the first round of the NBA draft in June.
More than a dozen GTA-born hockey players have stickhandled their way into the first rounds of NHL drafts over the last few years.
A handful of basketball stars born and bred in the Greater Toronto Area are following in their footsteps when the NBA goes shopping.
In raw numbers, hockey is still king for young athletic talent. But the comparative numbers may surprise you.
If you include the projections for this year’s NHL draft, 16 GTA-born players have been, or are about to be, picked in the first round since 2011.
If you include the three players likely to go in the first round this year —Andrew Wiggins, Tyler Ennis and Nik Stauskas — the NBA has, or will have, taken eight first-round picks from the GTA since 2011.
While that number is 50 per cent less than their hockey counterparts over the same time period, you have to consider that the NBA has only had a team in Canada since 1995.
Top basketball officials are excited by the development.
“As of this year, we have nine Canadians in the NBA and that’s second only to France, which has, I believe, 10,” said Wayne Parrish, president and CEO of Canada Basketball, which oversees the sport in this country.
“By next season, we will almost certainly be the No. 2 nation to the U.S. in terms of NBA players.”
There’s no secret sauce. It’s a blend of sauces.
Parrish recalls a discussion he had a few years ago with Jerry Colangelo, who runs USA Basketball. Colangelo said he envied Parrish.
“What do you mean?” Parrish asked. Canada was getting routed by the U.S. in a game in Las Vegas.
“I envy you for where you are going down the road,” Colangelo replied. “The cross-cultural influence, the ethnic mix that you have in Canada, there’s going to be a day down the road when you are competing on a similar footing in world championships and the Olympics.”
The accessibility factor comes up.
“If you look at the cost of playing hockey, it really has reduced the athlete pool,” Parrish said. “With basketball, all you need is a pair of sneakers and a pair of shorts.”
Other factors cited for the growth of basketball talent in Toronto include:
“It’s a bunch of factors that have come together at a very good time for us,” Parrish said.
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Scott Oakman, executive director of the Greater Toronto Hockey League, which supplies talent to major junior hockey, said it’s no coincidence that the current crop of basketball stars was born when the Raptors started up in 1995.
Hockey had a similar jumping-off point.
“If you look at when Wayne Gretzky went to the L.A. Kings,” Oakman said, “and when you started seeing hockey players getting drafted out of Southern California, there’s actually a really direct comparison.”
As basketball elbows in on Toronto’s hallowed hockey heritage, one OHL general manager expressed concern that hockey could price itself out of the market.
Mike Kelly, GM of the Guelph Storm and a former NHL scout, said there are fewer rinks on a per capita basis in Toronto than in most other smaller centres and that the cost of ice is more expensive here.
“If we’re not sensitive to that and trying to allow the middle-class kids the opportunity to play, then we are going to lose good athletes,” he said.
Oakman noted that the trend away from publicly funded arenas is adding to the cost of the game.
“When you are purchasing ice from a private entity, which has other expenses like taxes, then the cost goes up,” he said.
Oakman said participation rates in the GTHL haven’t declined markedly. Although the final numbers aren’t in, he expected they will show a 1 or 2 per cent drop-off from last season.
However, Toronto-born players still carry more than their weight at draft tables.
At the OHL draft this year, for instance, 10 of the 20 first-round picks were from the GTHL, compared to four in 2013 and 11 in 2012.
In the NHL this year, no fewer than five players from the Toronto area could go in the first round.
Sam Bennett (Toronto), Michael Dal Colle (Woodbridge), Nicholas Ritchie (Orangeville), Josh Ho-Sang (Thornhill) and Robert Fabbri (Mississauga) are on most top-round projection lists.
Bennett, Dal Colle and Ritchie are projected to be picked in the top 10.
Toronto is expecting a windfall this summer in the NBA draft as well.
No fewer than three Toronto-area born players are expected to go in the first round, including Wiggins (Thornhill), Ennis (Brampton) and Stauskas (Toronto). Some think all three could be taken in the lottery (top 14), with Wiggins projected in mock drafts as the No. 1 overall pick.
The GTA is reaping the seeds planted 15 to 20 years ago, Parrish said.
“You’re just seeing those green shoots coming through the surface in this moment,” he said. “This is far from a blip.”
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