Gilgeous-Alexander, Dort excited to grow the game at NBA pre-season game in Montreal
By Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press on October 12, 2023.
MONTREAL – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wanted to become an NBA star when he was a young boy growing up in Hamilton. Now he wants to do the inspiring and continue to grow the sport of basketball in Canada. Gilgeous-Alexander and Montreal native Lugentz Dort had the opportunity to do so Thursday night as their Oklahoma City Thunder took on the Detroit Pistons in an NBA pre-season game at Bell Centre. The two Canadians played key roles in the national team’s bronze-medal win at the FIBA World Cup in September and helped Canada secure a spot in the Paris Olympics next summer. Gilgeous-Alexander believes that was an important step for the sport in Canada, and inspiring more kids to pick up a ball and dribble is how they’ll carry the momentum. “I think Canada Basketball is headed in the right direction, and it starts with the youth,” he said. “Myself, Lu, all the guys on the team, we were kids dreaming and believing at one point, and as long as you do that you have a shot.” The impact he could have by competing in Montreal, a city that doesn’t have its own NBA team, wasn’t lost on him. “It’s super important, just for people to see the game up close, for kids to see that the NBA is not, I mean it’s far away and hard to get to, but it’s not out of your dreams and out of your reach if you try,” he said. Gilgeous-Alexander, 25, enters his sixth NBA campaign after blossoming into a superstar last season by averaging 31.4 points and 5.5 assists, and earning first-team all-NBA honours. While playing for Canada, he led the team with 24.5 points per game and 6.4 assists during the World Cup, including a 31-point, 12-assist performance in the bronze-medal game against the United States. His star turn helped Canada secure its first Olympic qualification since 2000. Dort, 24, contributed 8.2 points per game in the tournament while defending opposing teams’ best players, a role he also plays for the Thunder. Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault says it was special to watch Gilgeous-Alexander and Dort at the centre of Canada’s success. “That was a historic team this year,” he said. “Canada Basketball’s been emerging for probably the last 20 years, but it certainly seems to be coming together at a nice time, and the fact that we have two players that are in the thick of that is something that we’re incredibly grateful for. “It was really, really cool to see them accomplish what they accomplished.” DORT’S HOMECOMING Playing in Montreal was extra special for Dort, who grew up in the Montreal-Nord borough. He expected between 150 to 200 family and friends to attend Thursday’s game. Growing up in a city without an NBA team, he couldn’t have imagined taking the court at Bell Centre. “Dreamed of this? No, never, that’s never happened,” he said. “I remember when I came to a game here when I was younger, but I never thought that one day I’d be here myself, playing with my team, so this is pretty huge for me. “There’s a lot of people here who love basketball, it’s great that the NBA brings a game here every year.” Monday’s game was the seventh NBA pre-season game to be played at the Bell Centre since the league started its NBA Canada Series in 2012. QUEBEC ANCESTRY Turns out Dort wasn’t the only one coming home. Daigneault – perhaps unsurprisingly with a name like that – recently discovered he had a Quebec connection of his own. “I asked my dad, and my dad’s grandfather, so my great grandfather, is from Quebec,” said Daigneault, a 38-year-old from Leominster, Mass. “So I have a French-Canadian last name and some French-Canadian roots. It’s good to be home.” OKC ON THE RISE The Thunder leaped from 24 wins to 40 last season, and are a popular pick to make another jump with a squad that is stacked with 25-and-under talent. Gilgeous-Alexander, Dort, Josh Giddey and Jalen Williams are all a year more experienced, and last year’s second-overall pick Chet Holmgren – a seven-foot-one “unicorn” – is healthy after missing the entire last season with a Lisfranc injury. “We’ve really grown, we have players with more experience, we’ve got Chet now, we’ve got good rookies,” said Dort. “It’s an exciting team, one that I’m excited to coach, I know they’re excited to play together,” said Daigneault. “The NBA season’s challenging, there’s a lot of ups and downs, but this is the type of group that you want to endure all of those with, and I think they feel that too, and there’s an energy that certainly is potent right now.” Oklahoma City is also loaded with 11 first-round draft picks in the next four years, meaning the steady stream of talented young players won’t stop soon – or they’ll be one of the next teams to cash in on an NBA superstar inevitably looking for greener pastures to put them over the top. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2023. 31-30
