Behind the scenes of the NBA 2K League, where Toronto chases more hoops glory

“At the 2K League’s inaugural draft in 2018, NBA commissioner Adam Silver told reporters at Madison Square Garden that his league was about to welcome “a new generation of athletes” – more than a hundred video gamers who play a variation of basketball at an elite level, and who therefore would be considered members of the NBA in their own right.”

 

Nick Faris – theScore – July 2019

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The Hustler

“One game is every game for Brendan Gallagher. It’s almost as if the Montreal Canadiens right winger skates in front of a green screen, performing the same actions over and over while the images change behind him. It doesn’t matter whether he’s playing in Boston, home of a blood rival, or in California on a once-a-year trip. Or if it’s in front of empty seats in Arizona or at home in the ever-humming Bell Centre. To No. 11, every sheet of ice is the same and the job he has to do doesn’t change.”

Ryan Dixon – Sportsnet – December 2018

A Better Mirror

“For the people behind Hockey Night Punjabi, this set, and the studio it sits within, are more than just an address stamped on a business card. This is the final, shining stop on a circuitous path that has run from Toronto to Calgary to Vancouver, with all manner of unexpected turns and detours along the way. It is the tangible proof that after fighting for a voice and devoting years to reinventing and refining it with eyes on bringing about positive change for their community, Hockey Night Punjabi has found itself. Now, bent to a shared purpose in front of that iconic logo, they look perfectly calm and right at home. But their work is still far from done.”

Sonny Sachdeva – Sportsnet – November 2018

‘There was no fear’

“The Hall of Famer who built the Detroit Red Wings into a juggernaut on the ice and eventually did the same for the Tampa Bay Lightning from the front office has a trophy case stuffed with team and individual awards. But before all that — before he was captaining big-league squads to back-to-back Cup Final sweeps in the late ’90s — Yzerman was a quiet, doggedly determined kid in Nepean, Ont., routinely making life nightmarish for his teenage foes.”

 

Sonny Sachdeva – Sportsnet – November 2018

My First Baseball Game

“There were two rules in my house growing up: never set the microwave on fire (a rule my sister broke twice) and never talk shit about the Toronto Blue Jays. Growing up in the 1990s in Kitchener in southwestern Ontario, my experience with the Jays resembled a lot of other kids’. The team’s World Series wins in 1992 and 1993 were monumental; they placed Canada on what we viewed as the world map. My memory of the 1992 win, when I was almost four years old, is hazy. But how much it meant to my father is what I carry most. I remember watching Joe Carter’s home run the year after but, more than that, I remember how often my father did an impression of it in our backyard.”

 

Sarah MacDonald – Hazlitt – October 2018

Spotlight and shadows

“Oystrick is a stranger in Humboldt. He’s also the new head coach and general manager of the hometown Broncos, a storied Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League franchise with deep ties to the community. They don’t know him, and he doesn’t know them. When they announced his name on July 3, locals dashed to Google. Some people had their favourite candidate, this guy or that guy, and Oystrick was on none of those lists. One of his tasks is to bust barriers and build relationships, five months after an April 6 crash claimed 16 lives on the Broncos bus. It just might be the single toughest job in hockey.”

 

Kevin Mitchell – Saskatoon StarPhoenix – September 2018

Eight Seconds: The life and death of a cowboy

“In the six months before he killed himself, Ty Pozzobon was the best bull rider in Canada. Over the summer of 2016, he won more events than he had in the previous five years. He was so good he earned $100,000 at the world championships, the biggest prize of his career. At the same time, he began pulling away from friends. His marriage, barely a year old, was in trouble. He had been knocked unconscious while riding bulls at least 13 times.”

 

Marty Klinkenberg – The Globe and Mail – November 2017