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Anthony Bennett, Kelly Olynyk lead Canada's NBA future

Nicole Auerbach
USA TODAY Sports
UNLV Runnin' Rebels forward Anthony Bennett (15), born near Toronto, catches a pass against the Fresno State Bulldogs in the first half of a game in February 2013. Bennett is expected to be a lottery pick in Thursday's NBA draft
  • Canadians Anthony Bennett %28UNLV%29 and Kelly Olynk %28Gonzaga%29 should go high in Thursday%27s NBA draft
  • Basketball in Canada has taken off since the Toronto Raptors became the NBA%27s 28th franchise in 1993
  • Canada has not medaled in men%27s basketball in the Olympics since 1936

They all know the question is coming. The answers are prepared, the quips ready.

Why didn't you play hockey?

Some elite Canadian basketball players did, such as former Gonzaga center Kelly Olynyk, who had a brief career on skates when he was younger. Some skipped the sport entirely, such as former UNLV star Anthony Bennett, who used basketball as a refuge from troubled neighborhood streets and fell in love with hoops and only hoops during hours spent at the local Boys and Girls Club.

No matter how good these basketball players are -- Bennett, at 6-7, 240 and Olynyk, 7 feet, 234, are projected as lottery picks in Thursday's NBA draft -- they'll always be asked about their home country's most popular sport, hockey.

"Everybody plays in Canada, everyone tries it," Olynyk says. "I liked playing it, but I liked basketball way better."

Olynyk is not alone in preferring Steve Nash, one of eight Canadians on NBA rosters this past season, over Wayne Gretzky. He's part of a growing nucleus of Canadian talent, a tight-knit group of young basketball stars poised to impact college basketball, the NBA and the Olympics.

Canada native and former Gonzaga Bulldogs forward Kelly Olynyk is expected to be a lottery pick in Thursday's NBA draft.

Bennett, Olynyk and possibly 6-3, 180-pound point guard Myck Kabongo out of Texas (projected as a late second-round pick) soon will be among Canadians playing in the NBA, including two who were in the Finals: center Joel Anthony of the two-time chamion Miami Heat and guard Cory Joseph of the San Antonio Spurs. Five of the eight Canadians in the league were selected in the past two NBA drafts.

Next year's draft might be headed by highly touted Andrew Wiggins, an incoming freshman at Kansas who is from the Toronto suburb of Thornhill, Ontario.

"You aren't just hearing about this one kid anymore," says Montreal native Bill Wennington, who played in the NBA from 1985-2000, most notably on three NBA title-winning Chicago Bulls teams. "There's a dozen players; you can pick and choose. ... Once (they become successful), more and more kids will start to get involved. The growth is going to come even more."

Recent research provided by the NBA from the Spring 2013 BBM RTS survey of Canadian consumer behavior put basketball's annual growth rate of participation in Canada at 16% since 2010, more than hockey and soccer. A 2010 study by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group found basketball to be the most popular team participation sport for Canadians aged 12-17.

Soccer's growth, like basketball's to an extent, can be explained by demographic changes, says Bill Pangos, whose son Kevin grew up in the Toronto suburb of New Market and plays at Gonzaga. Toronto, specifically, has great diversity of cultures, and some of the elite players in the sports are the sons of immigrants.

But perhaps the biggest reason for basketball's growth in Canada is the Toronto Raptors, a team Bennett, Olynyk and their peers followed. The NBA awarded its 28th franchise to Toronto in September 1993. Olynyk was 17 months old; Bennett was 6 months.

Michigan sharpshooter Nik Stauskas, from Mississauga, just outside Toronto, remembers the time he was chosen to play then-Raptor Vince Carter one-on-one at an open practice. Cleveland Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson, a Brampton, Ontario, native selected No. 4 overall in the 2011 NBA draft, recalls watching highlights of Carter doing windmill dunks and the occasional 360.

"I'd be in the nosebleeds," Thompson says. "But I fell in love with the game."

So did some of his peers. Raptors games on TV made basketball more accessible and popular. Kids wanted to emulate what they were watching.

"These athletes that you're currently seeing all grew up with the NBA in their backyards," says Rowan Barrett, executive vice president and assistant general manager of the Canadian senior men's basketball program. "They grew up seeing the NBA as an avenue for them."

Different paths to NBA

Bennett's path began in the hardscrabble northwest Toronto neighborhood of Jane and Finch.

Basketball was Bennett's escape from violence. He would play on courts during the day that were too dangerous to set foot on at night. Or, after school, he would pass hours at the local Boys and Girls Club, taking shot after shot, falling more in love with the sport with every one that fell through the net.

Later he and his family moved to Brampton, a safer area and suburb of Toronto with one initial downside. Bennett, 20, couldn't find places to play and gave up the sport for a few years -- before he returned to it and eventually became one of the stars of his AAU team and then his U.S. prep school teams.

"I was 6-2, 6-3 at the time, and I was playing center back in Canada," Bennett says, laughing. "As soon as I left (Canada), I was like, 'Yeah, I can't be playing center no more' because of the competition."

Bennett spent his sophomore year of high school at Mountain State Academy in West Virginia, where he had five Canadian teammates. He then transferred to Findlay Prep outside Las Vegas, where he emerged as one of the top recruits in the class of 2012. At UNLV last season, Bennett averaged 16.1 points and 8.1 rebounds.

Olynyk, 22, took a more circuitous route to the doorstep of the NBA, despite growing up surrounded by basketball in Toronto. Both his parents had played the sport and encouraged their kids to do so, too. His mother had been a referee and a scorekeeper, and his father, now a college athletic director in Kamloops, B.C., coached at the university level and with the Canadian junior national team.

Unlike most of his talented basketball-playing countrymen, Olynyk stayed in Canada for high school, playing other sports in addition to basketball.

He chose to play at Gonzaga, no stranger to Canadian talent. For a season, Olynyk watched a fellow Canadian, Robert Sacre, and other big men eat up minutes he hoped to have. Olynyk's solution? Instead of complaining or transferring, he decided to redshirt as a junior and worked on improving his hand-eye coordination and overall agility, culminating in a breakout season in 2012-13 in which he averaged 17.6 points and 7.3 rebounds.

Still growing the sport

Opportunities for young athletes were -- and still are -- limited in Canada when compared to the USA, although efforts by Canada Basketball, British Columbia native Steve Nash of the Los Angeles Lakers and AAU teams in Canada have helped increase them considerably.

"You see not only kids who are passionate, but kids who have good coaches who are providing them with the building blocks necessary to succeed," says Bill Pangos. "When it comes down to it, it's all about fundamentals."

Ro Russell, who founded Grassroots Canada, has coached many of Canada's elite players, including Thompson. Russell's teams, along with competitor CIA Bounce (Wiggins' team), are among the most prolific Canadian AAU teams.

Russell says he believes there's a formula that can explain how and why Canada is producing successful players. It starts with athletes getting introduced to basketball at younger ages and then deciding to get serious about the sport. From there, they join AAU teams, which travel to play elite competition in the USA, teaching the Canadians what kind of talent is out there and what it takes to beat it.

The next step for many is going to the USA for prep school, just as Thompson, Wiggins, Stauskas and Bennett did. The benefits are obvious: greater competition, better training and more exposure.

The final step in Russell's cycle of success is giving back. In line with Nash's involvement in Canada Basketball and youth basketball, these high-profile Canadian basketball players work with one another and younger athletes, investing in the future of the sport in their country.

"You look at the (Canadian) guys who are playing well in college basketball, the guys who are All-Americans," Russell says. "Now, you have two or three guys every year being first-round picks. (We've been) able to break down the basketball borders over the last 10 years. Now, it's paying dividends. Canadians are being accepted as 'basketball players,' not 'Canadian basketball players.' "

Still, the Canadian basketball community is small enough where seemingly everybody knows everybody; Stauskas grew up going to camps with Kevin Pangos, and they would play one-on-one while the other kids took breaks. Social media makes it easier to track how other Canadians are doing as they help grow the sport in a land known for hockey. A few weeks ago, the Pangos family had Bennett over for a barbecue.

Bennett says it's important to support one another at this critical time for Canadian basketball. In that vein, he keeps up with the guys from Toronto. Although he doesn't know Olynyk well yet, he's rooting for Olynyk to be drafted early and play well in the NBA "just because he's Canadian."

"We all love each other because we all know each other," Thompson says. "We've played together on the same teams or at camps, or we've had the same coaches. ... To compete against the United States as a country, we all have to band together to stay on each other, make sure we get the best out of each player."

Canada has not medaled in men's basketball since earning silver at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. It hasn't even qualified for the Olympics since 2000, something national team executives expect to change in 2016.

"That's our first goal -- to get our team there, get them competing with the best of the world," Barrett says. "Then, if we continue to develop, we hope we can beat some of the best teams in the world."

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