Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Top 10 Canadian Basketball Players of All-Time: Toronto Mike'd Podcast Episode 1806

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

In this 1806th episode of Toronto Mike'd, Mike chats with Oren Wesfield, author of The Golden Generation: How Canada Became a Basketball Powerhouse, as he unveils his top 10 Canadian basketball players of all-time. Toronto Mike'd is proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, Palma Pasta, Ridley Funeral Home, Nick Ainis, Blue Sky Agency, Kindling, RetroFestive.ca and RecycleMyElectronics.ca. If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Toronto Mike at [e-mail].

Hey everyone, this is Orrin Wisefeld, the author of The Golden Generation, How Canada Became a Basketball Powerhouse, making my Toronto Mike debut, very excited to be here, where we are going to count down the top 10 Canadian basketball players of all time. Let's do it. Warren, I'm excited. Top 10 Canadian basketball players. players of all time.

I'm getting excited this theme song. It gets you going. Welcome to episode 1,806 of Toronto-Miked, proudly brought to you by Retrofestive.ca, Canada's pop culture and Christmas store. Great Lakes Brewery, order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. Palma Pasta, enjoy the taste of fresh. Homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Blue Sky Agency.

Ask Doug Mills about how Sylan delivers the space to focus, collaborate, and recharge. Nick Aienis, he's the host of Building Toronto Skyline and Building Success. Two podcasts you ought to listen to. Kindling, go to shopkindling.ca for free one-hour cannabis delivery. Recycle My Electronics.com. Committing to our planet's future means properly recycling our electronics of the past. And Redley Funeral Home, pillars of the community since 1921. Today, making his Toronto mic to debut, it's the author of The Golden Generation,

How Canada Became a Basketball Powerhouse, it's Orrin Wisefeld. So, Orin, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing well, I'm doing well. Yeah, I've been on a little bit of a GTA tour. recently. What does that entail? It entails a lot of podcasting these days. A lot of it from my own abode, but also, yeah, moving around the city a little bit, going to different studios like this, radio shows, YouTube shows,

and written pieces too, just to try to get the book out there as much as possible. I wonder how many podcasters are such a complete asshole. They make you visit the studio, like, and how you feel about that, I literally just had a chat with somebody who said, Rain Mada's doing this war child thing, which is cool. Rain Mada, lead singer of Our Lady Peace. Are you an Our Lady Peace fan? A little bit, actually.

A little bit, yeah. Back in the day. And, you know, thank you to Bob Willett, who hooked me up with this PR person, and I tried to get rain down here next week, which would have been cool, because when his wife was over here, she had a great time and promised to bring them,

but, you know, I'm still waiting, right? I'm waiting by the door. and then at the last not the last second but then suddenly it was like okay he's not doing anything this day because this is the day of the war child thing but on this day he's happy to zoom

with you for an hour and I politely declined so I want you to know it's not just the Oren Wisefelds I'm saying no to Rain Mada from Our Lady Peace who wanted to zoom in because I'm willing to wait for his in-person debut

for the record I never wanted to zoom in I guess I'm old school like I appreciate the in-person stuff I used to have a radio show back in the day, and it was all before COVID, so I guess we didn't have the Zoom capabilities. And getting, yeah, there's definitely a different feel, I think, to getting someone face to face with you. Nowadays, a lot of it is over Zoom. And for the practicalities of doing a book tour promo, sure, it is nice to do some of them from home. Like, right after I did my book lunch, I immediately got sick.

So it was very helpful in that case to do a bunch of them from my bedroom. But in this case, yeah, I appreciate the people who do enforce the in-person stuff. It's fine. When you alluded to this radio show, where would we have heard this radio show? You probably wouldn't have. It was when I was at Western. Pirate radio? What's going on?

No, it was at Western University. Oh, yeah. Okay, so they're, yeah, the student radio station there. Okay, my co-host on Saturday, this is a quick segue to tell you another benefit to coming in person, which is you're going to get some free shit here. But my co-host is a gentleman I call Elvis, and he cut his teeth doing radio at Western too. Oh, that's funny.

So it's kind of a good place to put in some reps, I guess, when you're a student at Western. For sure. I mean, I had a show there called Mustang Nation, where we just interviewed athletes around the Western community. And then I also worked for the paper, the Western Gazette. So that was where I got my start. And yeah, you're doing a good amount on paid labor,

but that's how it is back when you're starting out. And I got to learn the rope, certainly. Doing live radio especially was a bit of a thrill to anything live. Yeah, you feel like... It's exciting, right? Yeah, it is exciting. And there's no safety net. Like, even this, like, you can say, oh, Mike, if you can edit this.

Like, I don't edit this. So it's essentially, it's live to tape, and we are live streaming at live. Dotteronemike.com, but there's no safety net. Like, if you say something really stupid right now, it's in there, man. It's baked in. Good to know. Good to know. But you won't be doing that.

which is unfortunate. But I'm going to play a minute of something that's going to kind of get us started here off the hop here. But here's about a minute. And it's very visual, but let's listen. Frank! Craig!

No, no, I don't carry it. Dribble it. Dribble it. Dribble it. Frank, shoot. Is this some kind of Canadian jokes, sir? I mean, I know. Tell you the instructor and everything, but we can't carry the ball.

How can we get a decent shot at the beach basket? All right. Maybe we can't allow a carry of a couple of steps. And Mr. Neesmith, sir, it sure slows things down having to climb up here every time. Well, then let's cut the bottom out of the basket. I need these baskets back. A hundred years after James Ney Smith from Almond, Ontario, Mario invented it, basketball was being played by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

It's our game, man. It's our game. What is that from? One of the Heritage Minutes. Oh, of course, of course. In the 80s, you don't know the 80s. But I can speak from the 80s that these were a bigger deal back then, but we had these heritage minutes that would air. And they'd be about like the Underground Railroad or about the Halifax.

explosion. It was just Laura Seacord. These were a big deal back in the date, but that was the one on basketball. So I'll give a very nerdy anecdote for the diehards

that was included in the book that I wrote, which is that, you know, they talked about not being able to cut the holes out of peach basket. Something you would have thought that they would have started

right at the beginning. It wasn't. So at the first Olympics where basketball was included was 36, I believe. That's Berlin, right? That's Berlin, Hitler's games. And that was Canada made it to the final.

And the main reason they lost to Team USA in the final was because after each basket, you would do a jump ball because there was no holes in the basket. So they would reset. And the Americans were taller. So they won all the jump balls. Very interesting, fun fact right there.

And so that's 36. And that's the best Canada has ever done at an Olympic Games, 36. Okay, well, we're to get going here. So 10 years later, the first ever NBA game is held at Maple Leaf Gardens here in Toronto. That's right. That's right. And that's, yeah, I ended the book kind of talking about that history of many times we have tried to start pro leagues, pro teams in Toronto, and they have not worked. But obviously the Raptors and Grizzlies came in 95. And now we have the CBL, which I'm not sure if you're a fan of, but I'm very optimistic about the future of that league too. You're bullish on the CBL.

Now that game in 1946, by the way, that's the Toronto Huskies and the New York Knickerbockers, as they were then known. When the Raptors showed up, and again, I think knowing your age, you're too young for this too. But when the Raptors show up in 95, I felt that we should have been the Huskies.

I still kind of feel that way, although the name is obviously growing on me, but what are your thoughts on the nickname Raptors? So I thought the WNBA team for sure should have been the Huskies. That was, to me, the more obvious one. But yeah, like you said, I wasn't around back. I mean, I was being born, but at the time when we were conceived, apparently, after Damon Stuytermeier went a game for 26 points, I think you were conceived. Around that time. So, yeah, I wasn't around for the choosing of the Raptor's name. I can't speak to that. But I was surprised they didn't really

get any play for the, for the tempo name. Oh, yeah, the, the, maybe it's because Husky has a connotation to it maybe. Maybe it's a bit of a negative connotation when it comes to like body imaging. Like, you know, like fat people. And again, I'm much love to fat people. I could be one next year. Stay tuned. But when they buy clothes and stuff, they don't buy like fat people clothes. They buy husky. Like it's sort of a, you know, it's code for possibly for overweight. Possibly. Yeah. I think it probably had to do with not wanting to associate with a men's team. but husky is objectively a great name for a sports team so we need one

and how many seasons did that Toronto Huskies last just the one? I think so one or two yeah yeah not very long I mean the problem was fans they weren't getting fans out to the games and we didn't have the culture where people liked going to basketball games that was the main problem but amazingly

that's only 10 years removed from hey we have to do a jump ball every time a basket is scored because we haven't figured out how to cut the bottoms out of these this battle. That's kind of amazing how quickly this game evolves. For sure, yeah.

I mean, for Canada, it seems like the evolution was very slow up until, you know, maybe, yeah, the Raptors, really. But I get what you were saying, but you know, it feels like there was very little movement that mattered up until this explosion

that happened in the 90s. Yeah, well, you wrote the book. Again, the book is called The Golden Generation, how Canada became a basketball powerhouse, and I find it interesting, are we a powerhouse? Well, here's what we're going to do. So let me set the table. In this episode, you, Oren, by way, is Oren like short form for Orenthall?

No. So it's actually just O.J. Simpson was O.J. Simpson was Ornthal James Simpson. He was. And I shouldn't say this, but I do, I am, my friends, OJ was a nickname of mine for a long time. Okay. Yeah. Well, you know, before he murdered people, he was kind of a cool cat. No, not because I resembled O.J. in any way, it just, I don't know, my brother's name is Josh.

There's orange juice, O.J. I think it came more from that. And, of course, around the time the Raptors are being born, that's around the time OJ starts murdering. You have to wonder. You have to wonder the connection, yeah. By the way, I like your jacket. Did you have to buy that jacket? Are we able to be gifted a Wraptor's jacket? No, yeah, this is called being a micro-influencer. So they gave this. How do I get one?

The Bay. Shout out to the Bay. Yeah, this is a Bay collection that they gave me. Now, am I right? Again, I'm not going to put you on the spot. Your book's not about this. But I believe that stuff is owned by maybe Canadian Tire. Like, who picked up the Bay intellectual property?

Because the Bay is done. Yeah, I pass. I think maybe, yeah, you pass. That's my department to get these facts wrong, okay? fact check me, Robert Lawson, and I'll see you Saturday, Robert Lawson. I've got to get back to Saturday. But you're wearing a Raptor's jacket. The Raptors have won eight in a row. Yeah, the Raptors are great. I mean, I know we're not here to talk about the Raptors, but it would have been a good time, too, because... You can spend a minute or two now. I've been tuning

in, and I kind of thought I had become a playoff mic. Like, I was just going to skip all sports regular seasons. I need high stakes now, because I did this with the Blue Jays, and it kind of, it felt felt good, like, to just show up when the stakes were high. But I found myself tuning into the last few Raptors games because I'm finding it thoroughly entertaining. Yeah, they're really good. I mean, credited to them. They turned around that team pretty quickly.

And, yeah, I mean, injection of talent, good amount of depth, young guys getting better. It seems like everything is just, like, going well for the Raptors, which probably won't continue. Like, they are going to hit a rough patch. They're not going to win 70 games this season. But it's fun for the fans who have had a real, really, really rough two to three last years and then Maasai going out the door this summer.

It did. I had a moment this summer for sure where I was like, oh man, is this team about to go back into the dregs? But no, it seems like the infrastructure Messiah helped built is still very strong and good things ahead, I think. What do you think about the Osteen of Maasai? Very disappointing. I mean, there's nothing like MLSC could point to and be like, see because the team he built is currently doing really really well right so I think he is a very good person and it would have been probably ideal to have both him and bobby continue to run the team but ultimately it's a money move um Rogers is being cheap and they didn't want to pay masai the tens of millions of dollars that he was getting and so they they cut the contract and

they thought bobby could probably do most of the job himself and we'll see if if that ends up being true, but it's disappointing. I mean, they cut the culture and inclusion team there at MLSC as well. It's not just Messiah, actually. It's a lot of like the work that they were doing off the court to help build up communities, to help the black community. A lot of that has been cut. So it is disappointing for sure. Yeah, as you mentioned the R word, okay, Rogers, but it's no coincidence that Rogers is taken over MLSC at the same time. So, and it's pretty well documented that Edward Rogers, not a big Maasai fan. Right.

So, I mean, this is, and it is interesting to note what's happening on the ice. So the Blue Jays, which has always been Roger, well, it's been Rogers property for a very long time. Let's talk, I can't wait. Oh, man. No Leafs talk, except that coming out of the World Series, when a lot of Toronto sports fans were kind of jacked, right? We were all amped up. The Leafs were kind of disappointing, right? Just kind of mediocre, and it's like, what is this, you know, without Marner?

It just feels like a different team. Oh, my goodness. Can we even make the playoffs? but then out of nowhere rises like this phoenix from the ashes is the raptors who go on to win eight in a row. So, you know, enough Rogers talk. We are going to make a big deal out of this. We're going to unveil your top 10 Canadian basketball players of all time.

And it's going to be, we're going to go in like reverse, so 10 to 1. And along the way, that'll kind of tell some of the story that is in your fine book, The Golden Generation, which I thoroughly enjoyed. all basketball fans got to pick this up maybe there's a loved one on your holiday list exactly it's a good gift right I think so I think whether or not you're a casual sports fan who just likes to root for the teams when they're on a playoffs or if you're a diehard Canadian basketball fan it'll have something for everyone really kind of traces back the history of men's basketball in Canada from the 90s till now and explains the people who are really responsible for for the growth the people who are in the community building up the infrastructure, and it also kind of goes back and forth between that, between Team Canada and then between the players that we all know and love from Steve Nash to Chegillogynne.

Are you reading that off the back of the book? No, but I've said it enough times. It's in my head now. It's ingrained. Oh, you got it nailed down here. Okay, so I'm very excited to do the top 10. Tomorrow, Dave Hodge is in this basement to count down his top 100 songs of 2025. So the top 10 with you is like easy, breezy.

Oh, you give him real hard. don't work. When you're Dave Hodge, you get what you want. This is how it works. So what would you like Mr. Hodge? I want to do 100. You know,

it's his idea to do the 100 songs. I haven't heard 100 new songs in 2025. Yeah. Like, have you heard 100 new songs in 2025? Definitely not. Yeah, so the fact that he's got a top 100. And no artist repeats twice. Like, it's a bit of a mind blow.

Like, was that much music release? I don't know. Okay, so stay tuned tomorrow for Dave Hodge. We're going to get to know you a little better before we dive into the top 10. But Oren, I'm going to invite you to TML X. 21, which is actually only three sleeps away. Let me do the math on that, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Yeah. Saturday,

which is November 29th, from noon to 3 p.m., the second floor of Palma's Kitchen in Mississauga. So just Google Palma's Kitchen in Mississauga. Second floor, we're going to be recording live. Again, noon to 3 p.m. Everybody eats for free.

Delicious pasta from Palma pasta. By the way, they sent over a large lasagna. It's in my freezer right now. You're going to bring that home with you. Wow. Another reason not to zoom it, you can get a pasta. This is the best podcast I've been on. Well, you're going to get more than that, but let me tell you.

So, Palma pasta will feed you. That's on, this is coming Saturday. What else? I'm going to bring fresh craft beer from Great Lakes Brewery. I'm going to have it on ice. You can grab a can or two for free, but I'm sending you home with some fresh craft beer. So, oh, you got beer and lasagna. Wow.

I have a measuring tape for you from Ridley Funeral Home. Shout out to Ridley Funeral Home. They have a fine podcast called Life's Undertaking. Awesome. So that's three great things you've got so far. I like all those things, yeah. I don't have any weed for you, but if you consume cannabis or you have loved ones who consume cannabis, here's your marching orders. Go to shopkindling.ca, because you order the weed, and it's in your possession in less than an hour.

So, like, we could order now, and by the time we wrap, it's at the door, and you could track the delivery, it's discreet. I'm telling you, shop kindling. Times have changed. Times have changed. Times of change. Absolutely. We're living in a modern era here. So that's what I want to shout out, shop, kinling.com.

A couple more quick shoutouts. One is, I hope to see Nick Iienes at TMLX21. By way, did I mention everyone listening is invited to this event on Saturday. And it's a free event, and you don't RSVP, you just show up. You never know who's going to be there. It's going to be wild to see who shows up. If anyone shows up, but the first 75 people who show up on Saturday are getting a gift from retrofestive.ca.

It's a holiday themed gift, and that's going to be rad. So if you come on Saturday, Oren, you get a gift. Awesome, awesome. By the way, you can get 10% off your order at retrofestive.ca. If you use the promo code,

FOTM, Doug Mills at Blue Sky Agency did just that because he texted me and said, what's that promo code? And I told him, Doug is the man at Blue Sky Agency. So if anyone listening is looking for a creative, and dynamic work environments. He's like your office furniture guru,

be it like the privacy pods or whatever you require, have a chat with Doug at blue skyagency.ca.ca.com. Do that now. And a couple last hits. One is Recyclemyelectronics.coma, oren. That's where you go. If you have old electronics, old cables, you go to that website to put in your postal code

and find out where you can drop off your cabling, your old phones. How many old phones you got lying around that home of yours? Maybe one or two. I'm pretty slow with it. I'll really keep it till it's done. Me too. One thing I noticed, like, I had a phone so old, they said,

we don't support 5G on this phone. And if you don't get off this phone, we're not doing 3G anymore. And it's like, that's one way to get people to kind of... I don't do 3G anymore? Well, at this, yeah, this, yeah, I think this came from Rogers and Bell. I'm not sure, but I had to help my mom out with this because her phone, they discontinued 3G

and they said you need a phone that can handle 5G. This is like the order that came down. So go to Recycle My Electronics.C.A. That's what you do. Okay, a little bit about you and then we're going to get to your top 10. But the first question I have for you is like, when do you fall in love with basketball? Yeah, so I grew up playing other sports.

I grew up playing soccer a lot and played some rugby and ice hockey like any Canadian. And then... He called it ice hockey, which concerns me. Like, it's just hockey. That's true. That's true. This is an American podcast. Here's the thing.

I do a lot of basketball podcasts, right? So I do have to say ice hockey. But it wasn't until high school, grade nine. So I went to Oakwood Collegiate. I'm not sure if you're familiar, but. Wait, so we got a shout out Midtown Gord who works there. Oh, I remember you. Yeah, I was going to say Gord was my whole monitor for my time there.

So he's listening now. So shout out to Midtown. Shout out to Gord. Yeah, so I went to Oakwood, and it was really there that we had, like, the best team in the city. We won off the Ontario Championship when I was there, and it was just this culture that had been built up for many, many decades, where Oakwood just had developed a basketball culture. So after school, a couple times a week, we would all hang out, and then we would go down to the gym, and we would sit there, and we would watch the game, the girls team, the junior team, then the senior team.

And it was just like this huge part. Then the next day we would talk about it if they won or lost. It was just a big part of the culture. And I really fell in love with the game watching it like up close and personal there, watching guys I knew on the team watching. I liked it was different. Like I wrote this in the book. It was different than a lot of spectator sports that I had grown up watching because basketball,

it feels a lot more intimate. You're in this enclosed gym. It's sweaty. It smells. Right. You see guys yelling. You hear everything that's said on the court. you see how these games can turn into this one-on-one battle.

These big plays can completely change the course of a game. So I fell in love with the spectator aspect of the sport and snowballed from there. And just kind of when I started writing, I was just like, this is the natural thing I should write about. So you focus on the Raptors, Canadian basketball? When I started writing, it was at Western, and I started writing about all the sports there.

And then when I graduated, I started writing, I started writing for this blog called Raptors Republic, which was focused on the Raptors and did that. And I started freelancing for a couple of Canadian papers, going to Raptors games, covering the NBA and the Raptors. And I kind of just had this revelation where, A, there was too many people covering the Raptors. It was a very saturated market, very hard to distinguish yourself or to even come up with story ideas that weren't being done. And B, it was like each game I went to, each year I covered the team, the away team would have more and more Canadians on it. Like at first when I started, it was like maybe one out of every five teams would have a

Canadian. Right. And then it was like one every couple teams and just every year there was more guys getting drafted. And so that's when I started diving into the Canadian angle more. I just wanted to understand like where did this boom come from? Like we had only ever had two or three Canadians in the league for all of history. And then all of a sudden we had 15, 20, 25 this season. And I wanted to understand why the boom, why now?

And, yeah, so that took me down the road of covering more Canadian hoops. Can we just shout out some of the other local journalists who cover our NBA team, just a few of them? And I'll start with the names that have actually been on Toronto Mike. So I'm going to favor the FOTMs first, and then maybe we shout out a few future FOTMs, we'll call them. Okay. Michael Grange. Yeah, Michael Grange actually is the reason I know about this show. I saw him come on the show

and I listened to that episode a while back probably right a couple years ago Oh he's been on a couple of times Okay yeah He kicked out the jams Sometimes people come back I should start doing more of this actually Note to self

Do more of these kick out the jams episodes But Grange came back to kick out the jams He's a big what we call a blue head Which is a he was like an OG Blue Rodeo fanatic When he was going to university out east Okay yeah Didn't know that but I know he's a great guy

I'm here to give you the fun fact Very, very nice guy has helped me a lot in my career, gave me a blurb that's on the back of the book. And he's very supportive of young journalists, which, yeah, not every kind of old school guy who's really established in the industry is. And so shout out to Michael Grange. Shout out to Michael Grange. Three-point Grange. And Doug Smith, of course, from the Toronto Star, who's, I believe he's been covering this team since day one. Yep.

Doug Smith also been covering Canadian hoops since the 90s, I believe. So he is one of the most established guys. Many generations of Barrett's, okay. Help me as well, talking to him for the book, getting some of the background on the Canadian national team. He's definitely an encyclopedia of knowledge with that. Okay, let's shout out Bruce Arthur. Bruce Arthur, also talk to him for the book.

Big fan of his over at the Star. Let's shout out a fairly new FOTM. I had a good chat with him in 2025. Eric Corrine. Yep, Eric over at the Athletic. He's also a very helpful guy whenever, whenever I need help and a great writer really a big fan of his writing another great writer in my opinion who's been over blake murphy another guy who has uh helped me you know when i started at raptors

republic blake was actually not yet hired at uh sports net and he was uh managing editor of raptors republic so definitely gave me a lot of opportunities helped me go cover the national team in 2021 in Victoria, so shout out Blake. Hey, here's a sagey vet who I have over occasionally. Steve Simmons. Steve Simmons over at the sun. Yep. Provocateur. Listen, never a dull moment.

The reason I invite over these Steve Simmons and the Damien Cox is because I find the modern journalists, they're very analytical and very good. Safe. Yeah, very safe. I get what you're saying. Yeah. I like a little sandpaper. No, I mean, totally fair. And yeah, Steve, I respect what he does.

as well. I think some of it I don't always agree with some of these columnists are writing but the name of the game is eyeballs right and sometimes being provocative is necessary. All right I'm going to shout out one more name because every time I go

to like a 90s hip-hop show I know I'm going to see him there and he's going to be wearing his Wu-Tang Clan shirt but I want to shout out Ryan Walsstadt. Ryan Wollstadt. Just wrote a story about the book in the sun so shout out to Ryan Yeah, always, always a fan I'll give you some more

Showouts. Yeah, so give me some more because I need future FOTMs here. Who you got? Yeah, we got to get some young, young folks here. Corrine's not young enough. Blake Murphy, he's too old now. Who do you got? You got to have the hello and welcome boys on

Will Lou and Alex Wong and Jerome. Absolutely. Yeah, that could be a great crossover episode for sure. Raptors Republic guys, like S. and Samson and Lewis Folk, Lewis Atsman, yeah, those guys are great. Chelsea Late, who's over at Raptors HQ,

Keeks, yeah, those are a few more Raptors people. Okay, introduce me to these youngsters, okay? I need to get these youngsters on the show. I love it. I love the next gen. Okay, so we're about to get into it. I feel like I've pumped this up pretty big time, but I want to know how long it took you to write the book.

like how long did you work on the golden generation how canada became a basketball powerhouse so long answer is like i started the idea of a book came to me all the way in 2021 i went to victoria bc to cover the olympic qualifying tournament where Canada lost to the check republic i'm sure a lot of listeners watched that game it was like this overtime insane comeback Canada came back and then they lost and once again their Olympic dreams were put on hold so I was at that tournament covering the team and that's kind of when the idea started to form we're like okay if this team does ever get over the hump if they do ever go to an Olympics for the first time since 2000 for the men's Canadian team then I know people want to know that story like why did it take so long who were the

people that pushed them over this edge so all the way back then I think I started to form some sort of an idea and then I really started covering the team more and more but it wasn't until the summer of 23, Canada beat Spain in the Feeba World Cup, the basketball World Cup, and that booked their ticket to the Olympics. They would go on to beat USA in the bronze medal game

and win their first medal at a World Cup, but that was the moment when they beat Spain in another incredible game, down 12 in the fourth quarter, Shea Gilges Alexander and Jimal and Dylan Brooks really bring them over the edge. So that's kind of when I knew I wanted to write a book. So I pitched the book around then, and it's been a basically two-year

process from the end of 23 to the end of 25. Do you mind maybe we start with your honorable mentions before we get the top 10? And I hope you remember what you sent, okay? Let's talk about the honorable mentions. It includes a current Raptor. So for sure, honorable mentions, I mean, 10 is hard at this point. It was a tough list to crack. A lot of the older guys who you'll hear and deserve a shout out are like Bill Wennington, played with the Bulls, won a couple championships.

I think he's on a lot of top ten lists. I'm sure he's won three. He won three. Yeah. He also won a gold medal with Canada at the World University Games in 67. Todd McCullough, another big man who played for Canada.

And then we have like Stuart Granger from Montreal. A lot of guys who, obviously, this is an NBA list right guys who play in the NBA so a lot of guys also who didn't really play in the NBA much but were great players from like Leo Routens to Tony Sims guys I didn't include because their NBA careers weren't there but a lot of a lot of old guys to shout out and then there's the new generation right where like RJ Barrett Andrew Nemhard Lou Dort Nikiel Alexander Walker Dwight Powell those guys were all

tough cuts and um I guess when it came down to it for the 10th spot, I wanted to include a guy who is part of this newer generation. But you're not going to name them, right? Because I'm going to do like a number 10. I'm going to do a whole thing here. But you're just going to tease it. I won't name them. Yeah, but I'm just,

the reason all those guys I mentioned got cut is because when I, when I really looked into it, I think this guy had a, has had a better NBA career so far than any of the rest of them. And that's where the lines were drawn. So you mentioned in that list in FOTM, Leo Routens, the kid from Keel Street. So before I announced number 10 and we get down this list here, can we just spend a moment? Because I did read the chapter on him, but like what this meant to Canadian basketball to have a Canadian, a homegrown guy drafted in the first round of the NBA draft.

Yeah, I mean, even before that, he was such a big deal because he was like this Canadian who was highly recruited more so than almost anyone, not even Canadian, but in general. I think he had like over 100 offers from NCAA schools. Everyone was coming up to St. Michael's College, you know, on St. Clair West to watch him and to recruit him. And he was just this phenom, the youngest player at 16 to ever play for the Canadian men's national team. Yeah, so definitely a phenom. And then it was a big deal when he got drafted in the first round. And he actually got drafted in the same draft as Stuart Granger, another great point.

guard from Montreal who was on the national team up points and so it was two Canadians in the first round of the draft that was the first time that had happened um and leo went on to have a career overseas where he he was an all-star in like three leagues overseas then he came back in 95 to call the raptors as the original crew there and then he obviously had in that chapter in the book a big part played a big role as the head coach of the national team in 2005 so yeah the NBA career kind of was isn't so good because the injuries really got to him. And he's had like a million surgeries, a million injuries. But regardless, has pushed through and had a really big impact on Canadian hoops.

And I'm just glad that Leo didn't hit his head on the low ceiling here in the TMDS studio. So that's... It is surprising. Yeah, well, he's the one who coined this phrase I've been using a lot. Like I always, like I did with you. Watch out. The ceiling's going to do a dip. Watch your head.

I give that speech to everybody who comes over. Even if they're like 5, 7, I give that. speech okay i'll be giving it to stew stone tomorrow he's uh he's five seven but leo is the one who looked at me and said when you're my height you're always watching your head right so it's a whole different ball game for him it's us us guys who get nailed all right my friend you ready i'm ready number 10 number 10 we got dylan brooks yeah the the ultimate you either love him or you hate him guy um i i like him though i like everything that he brings to the floor i mean yeah when i when i went down to it like he has had just a really really impressive career and you would not think he would

be on this list based on reputation obviously like r j barrett has been the one who forever has been billed as this really high level prospect but looking at dylan's career i mean he immediately became a starter on the grizzlies when he was drafted there in the second round he built he helped build that team into a perennial kind of western conference contender they ship him off to houston Houston becomes really good they ship them off to Phoenix Phoenix becomes really good I really do think

like winning follows Dylan Brooks and it's because what he brings to a team is toughness and defense and really one of the most versatile defenders I think in the world and I also think I should have said a little bit of

criteria here you know we're talking NBA career I'm also you know factoring in their peak NBA peak and then I'm also so factoring in a Canadian, FIBA, international, what they've done there, and then impact as well for some guys. But with Dylan, like, what he's done with the Canadian team also helps him get on this list. I mean, he really helped them get over the edge against Spain and then against USA.

He dropped 39 points on the USA, which was a Canadian record. And that was a monumental game. It made kind of, obviously, again, Canada. qualifies for their first Olympics in 24 years. They beat USA for the first time in a few decades. And that game also really helped the Americans see their kind of beat team get beat by Canada by this guy, Dylan Brooks, who they all hate. And that was like a part of the inspiration for LeBron and Steph Curry and all these guys

would be like, all right, we're playing in the Olympics. We're playing the next year. So Dylan Brooks has had quite a bit of an impact, and he gets my number 10 spot. So you mentioned the Memphis Grizzlies, and I think this is a good opportunity for me to ask you why you think the Vancouver Grizzlies failed. I mean, from what I understand, it was an ownership problem more than anything else. But I also think, like, I don't think,

this is not going to make me many fans over there, but I don't think. I don't think they listen over there. They don't like Toronto. Okay, good. I don't think, like, B.C. has, like, the strongest basketball culture, even today. Like, even today when people ask me who should get the next NBA team,

I point to Montreal. Yeah, I think they have, like, a really strong basketball culture that could really support a team. And look, like, I think Vancouver could probably also support a team now. But when I go there, I don't feel that culture to this. Even though somebody who might be appearing in the top nine is a BC native. Absolutely, yeah. I mean, there is that.

And it's definitely growing, no doubt. And in places like Victoria, basketball is all. always been huge. Right. But, yeah. Yeah. It's just interesting

that these, because again, I'm older than you, so I remember 1995 and that the two teams come in, you got your Vancouver Grizzlies, you know, big country,

Brian Reeves, and you got your mighty mouse and you got the Toronto Raptors. What a time to be alive. But how one sort of thrived and eventually would actually, you know, spoiler alert,

would win the NBA championship in 2019. But the other is sort of a distant memory now. Yeah, so actually, like, to gauge my memory. So I read my friend Alex Wong's book, Prehistoric, which tells the story of the 95 Raptors.

And part of that was actually what helped them is they drafted Damon Stodomar, who was this guy who everyone wanted to watch, who was really easy to root for and was really entertaining. And Vancouver obviously didn't. They messed up their first couple drafts. And that was a big part of it, too, is not being able to become good quickly like the Raptors did,

they were reputable very quickly with Mighty Mouse. Vancouver, that hurt them. Number nine. Number nine. It's exciting. I got Rick Fox, number nine. Do we put an asterisk? I don't know.

Yes, yes, we do. I didn't want to include Rick Fox on my list because, as everyone knows, he's not that Canadian. He's as Canadian, I feel, as Steve Nash is, was it South African? Where was he? he was born in South Africa. Yeah, exactly. And like, that's why I didn't really want to put him on there, but I was trying to be as objective as possible.

And when I crunched the numbers here, he did have a very good career, three-time champion with the Lakers, only played for the Celtics and the Lakers, which is like an incredible career. What are two of the, I would say, the two biggest franchises in the NBA.

Exactly. And like a very 12-year career in the NBA. And the thing is, separates him from a guy like Bill Wennington or Todd McCullough is that he was actually like a really impactful player for a very long time. He played a lot.

He averaged like pretty good numbers over a long career and so it was hard to keep him off the list. Number eight. Yeah, moving on. I mean, Rick Fox, because he's handsome, right? And he did suit up unlike where you know Steve Nash would identify as Canadian,

not South African, where Rick Fox did identify as Canadian, even though he was like two years old or something when he moved to the state. And he played for Canada at the 94, 94 World Championship. So, you know, he's suited up for Canada. So, you know, much love to Rick, but just too handsome, right? Uncomfortable.

I think he's a very handsome guy. Here I am, you know, revealing my jealousy here. But let's go back to number, or go to number eight. Number eight, I got Kelly Olinick. Speaking of handsome guys, what's going on of that flow? um yeah we all know kelly and lennox honestly like i think maybe one of the biggest accolades on kelly olinic's uh resume here is that he is the captain of the most talented canadian teams ever assembled you know the team in 23 that went to the world championship the 24 olympic team kelly olinic is the captain

and i think that speaks to his commitment over time to the national team and just who he is as a player. I mean, he's just always been this incredibly skilled willing passer, willing score can kind of be the Swiss Army knife that does whatever you need him to do in 13 years and counting in the NBA. So really good career. And in the book, I really liked his story diving into like his whole redshirting at Gonzaga and completely reforming his body. and the national team played a big, big role in that decision to redshirt, too. Like, there was a story in there how he went to play for the aforementioned Leo Routens at the 2010 World Championship.

I think he was 19 years old, Kelly Olinick, something like that. And one of the coaches there, Renato Pasquale, offered him like a couple hundred thousand dollar contract to go play in Europe because he wasn't getting any time at Gonzaga. And Kelly was considering it, but then he kind of came back. I was like, okay, I'm not going to do that, but I am going to redshirt, and I know I can play. I just need to tweak a few things, and that decision had really helped him, and he went on to have this incredible career.

Absolutely, and now we're talking about Leo Routens, a proud man of Lithuanian descent, and I just want to shout out, so my oldest son's very good friend, cousin, so that's how does that connect me to this person? So, yeah, my son's very good friend's cousin is a Nick Stalkis. Oh, yeah, Nick Stokes. Yeah, got to stick an ass in there. My apologies. But it was fun watching his rise in him make the NBA too.

And he's also of Lithuania descent. Yeah. That's the connection there. Okay. You ready? Number seven. Jamal McGlour. The first All-Star to come from Toronto.

obviously I think he did it one year after Nash's first All-Star appearance but Jamal McGlore was this you know seven-footer who grew up in Toronto and went to Eastern Commerce and nobody thought anything of him he was this big guy but he wasn't that skilled he was really kind of getting by on size

and Eastern Commerce at that time just kind of became this incredible prep school in a public school's body where they did all the things that a prep school does and had early practice and weightlifting and nutrition and tutors and Jamal got a lot better during his time there and then he went to Kentucky and he went to the NBA and he was an all-star and he finished his career as a Raptor

and so 12 years in the NBA for Jamal McGlore the impact he had plays a part in this too outside of like the NBA I think just he was one of the first guys from Toronto to really make it he's always been giving back in the community he's a very present person with his foundation and he's also a part part he's a member of the scarborough shooting stars so yeah i think i think that plays into it too just just his kind of impact there so we're about to do number six but i want to say i'm thoroughly enjoying this like this is exciting this countdown of the greatest canadian players of all

time it's not an easy exercise i got to say i mean you're you're weighing eras you know different eras, different impacts, it could be Canadian, it could be in the NBA, it could be FIBA overseas, so yeah, it's challenging. Well, let the debate begin. And a shout out too, I want to shout out Carl English, okay, who I thought should have been drafted

by the Raptors. But wasn't. He should have been an honorable mention. Yeah, I just, he had a great career overseas. And we don't make a lot of these guys out east, right? Like, that's kind of exciting. Yeah, he came from a town of like 500 people. Yeah. Okay. Shutouts along the way.

Ready? Number six. Corey Joseph. Corey Joseph. Yeah, one of definitely my favorite players growing up. Pickering High School Legend won two off the championships with his brother over there. And big part of his story is coming up alongside DeVoe Joseph, his brother, who is another great player. Goes to the NBA after just one year at Texas, which was a big deal back then. I mean, him and the next guy on our list, they were kind of the first guys to go one and done in college.

Well, do you want to do number five, and then you can kind of talk about both of them. Yeah, because I wanted to put them together anyways. So number five is Tristan Thompson. Oh, I didn't get to say it. Number five is Tristan Thompson. Didn't we rehearse this? Yeah, and another maybe controversial figure,

maybe not everyone loves him so much for his off-court antics. But him and Corey Joseph, uh, big trendsetters in Canadian basketball. basketball because they were kind of the first generation of guys to go this AAU route, which was like travel ball overseas, pissed off all the Canadian high school leagues, all the team Ontario, all of that kind of stuff. But it was the best option for them to get NCAA scholarships, which they did. They both went to Texas. One year had really good seasons there. And then

they went straight to the NBA. And Corey, you know, was a champion with the sports. in 2014 and really kind of worked his way from the G League up to being a contributor on that championship team. And then he went to the Raptors where he had two of the best years of his career. Right now out of the NBA, but I think he's trying to work his way back. Otherwise, I think we'll see him overseas pretty soon. And same deal with Tristan. They actually both played in the NBA last season, but are both out this year. Interesting. It's also worth noting that your number eight, your number seven, and your number six all suited up for the Toronto Raptors. Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's a cool history of the Raptors trying to get guys,

sometimes not in their prime years, but trying to get some Canadians. Well, the least said that forever, but go ahead. But that's why RJ is kind of a big deal. He's actually like this star for the Raptors, who's Canadian, that we haven't had. And I was reading today, his injury is a mere sprain or whatever, so that's good news for Raptor fans here. Yeah. So Tristan, real quick, you know, best rebounder to ever come out of Canada, I think, Pretty easily.

And then he helped the Cavs win that title in 2016 when they came down from 3-1, overcame the Warriors. Which was incredible. That was like the LeBron show. One of the best tight NBA championship finals for sure in history. And Tristan was a big part of it, even though he's a role player. But I remember that team was depleted, right? So you had it was like LeBron, if I'm remembering the right, the guy from Australia, what is it, Deladova?

Deladova was on that team. love he was suiting up but but this was a team i do remember it was rather depleted and lebron just puts that team on his back and the uh play that's sort of indicative of the whole thing was that where he runs the court to to block that shot godala for sure which was just just unbelievable and the other play from that series i'm not sure if you remember is draymond green kneeing him in the balls right and getting suspended the next game for that i think that was game five he gets suspended game six that was a big what if in NBA history. A lot of what ifs.

A lot of conspiracies with that one, for sure. I love it. What is your thought quickly? We take a quick pause here before we get to number four. Some big names coming up, 4, 3, 2, 1. These are big names, obviously. But, you know, the great debate.

And you're going to speak from, I guess, seeing footage and reading history books because you weren't around for the prime time of Michael Jordan's career. But where do you stack LeBron James' career when you compare it to Michael Jordan's career? See, I usually stay out of these debates Because you can't win this one right

And because I wasn't around when Jordan was playing But I mean Well I've seen people I've seen young sports journalists Speaking in documentaries about Harold Ballard And I'm saying to myself This guy was in diapers when Ballard died But here he is

I was gonna say there's there's definitely people In my age taking very strong takes On the LeBron Jordan debate I won't be one of them I don't know what to say You can have a fair opinion on either side of it. I watched both men's entire careers and I was

one of those guys who just worshipped the ground Jordan walked on like it was must see TV Jordan's plan for the Bulls that was everything in the 90s. But I believe in my heart of hearts and I'm no analyst like you, Oren, but I believe LeBron James overall had the better career

is the better player even if he has four rings compared to Michael's six. I agree I think the era he played in was tougher for sure for LeBron. He obviously has that record where he got to the finals like nine straight times think about that yeah um although jordan does it his six full years he does six in a row of full years because he goes plays baseball and he does the partial season and that's part of the the thing with jordan is he took a year and a half off so uh yeah lebron's longevity definitely overall it is better but definitely have seen a good

amount of YouTube videos of Jordan, where at his peak, totally fair to say Jordan. Number four, I think this is a little bit of a tier step up here, where the next four guys are in a tier of their own. And number four is Andrew Wiggins. We talked about Leo Routens, how he was this big deal, big prospect from Toronto. It was many, many years and decades before I would say the next one came. And that was, Andrew Wiggins, and Wiggins was the number one player in his class, including America, and played at Vaughn before he went over to the States for prep school. But, you know, one thing I found in my book that honestly I didn't quite realize

was the impact he had on this generation of players. Like, he's only a few years older than Shea and Jamal Murray and Dylan Brooks and R.J. Barrett, but those guys spoke to me about the impact that Wiggins had on them. seeing the fact that the number one player was from Toronto was down the street. In many cases, they went to games at Vaughn and watched him or played against his teams. And so he had a really big impact on showing guys from this generation that it was possible. And he was billed as like the next LeBron, which didn't happen.

But, you know, we can't lose the fact that Andrew Wiggins was an All-Star, was an NBA championship was an NBA champion first Canadian born player to 10,000 points just has had a really good career and it continues now with the Miami Heat I think everywhere he goes he he really endears himself to the fan bases over there because he's kind of like yeah no nonsense professional and um Canadian team a few times he's played for as well even though he gets some heat for that, but yeah, Andrew Williams. Now there's two places I've got to go before the top three. One is maybe this is a good time to introduce the Carter effect.

Sure, yeah. I mean, the Carter effect, I'm sure people know about it in terms of when Vince Carter came to the Raptors and again goes back to our thing with the Grizzlies why they didn't survive. They never had a player anywhere close to Carter. And Carter definitely helped the Raptors not just survive but become this really revered franchise.

because he was drafted, I think, in 98 and just became this must-see TV guy who would just pull off incredible feats every time he stepped on the court. It was just like, you know, there was a time during the, I think it was a 2000 All-Star where you had to go and put your ballots in a box in the arena. There was no online stuff. And he was the ultimate in the whole NBA, he was the number one vote-getter. which is unbelievable playing here in Toronto right so so he inspired guys like Andrew Wiggins for sure because they saw in him this guy who looked like them playing for the raptors looking really cool

making a career in basketball and that inspired a lot of young kids of course in in Toronto and in Canada to to pick up the game and that was part of it and I think a lot of people knew that in the book I definitely wanted to highlight that but I also wanted to highlight like what happens once you're inspired that's great but then you still need an infrastructure to do that. We've been inspired by great players for a long time, but we never kind of had the ability to make it to the pros because guys picked up the game too late.

They didn't have the right skill trainers. They didn't have the right platforms to showcase themselves. So that Vince is part of it, and he gets a lot of credit. I also think, you know, I tried to give credit to the people who also kind of built the infrastructure for the next stage of Canadian basketball. And then another point to raise a little less happy point is that when we look at our

Canadian men and women's hockey teams you know we assume our best players are going to represent the country like there's never a discussion in his pro will Connor McDavid play in the Olympics like it's not even a discussion so talk radio sit down

okay they're all if they're healthy they're going to be there but what is it with NBA stars and their hesitancy at times many of them to play for Canada yeah I mean it's a really good question and I think to be honest, if people really are curious about that, I would say you got to read the book because the book really, I would say it was one of the central questions that I tried to answer

is how come for so long we haven't been able to get our best players to play. And I think the biggest thing is it comes down to kind of the culture of it. And, you know, hockey Canada, team Canada, you're expected to win gold. You're expected to, you know, play with all the best players. And there's kind of this building effect that comes with that, right? it's like if that's the case it's only going to create better and better teams whereas in Canada basketball's case there were a lot of problems with the organization that I detail in the book whether it was funding whether it was like a biased selection process where guys didn't

feel like they were getting a fair shot to play whether it was not the right coaches in the building or whether the bad performance staffs to keep them healthy all these things built to a point where people kind of looked at the organization as a bit of a joke, a bit of a mom-and-pop shop, not something serious. And that created this kind of lingering effect where the best guys didn't play. They weren't winning. They didn't want to go and have this big load on their shoulders, where they weren't going to be playing with other winning players,

and on and it really didn't start to change until this generation. This is the first generation of NBA players who were consistently representing the national team. and yeah, long story short, that's a bit of it. So many times as a fan of the Canadian men's basketball program, I would, you know, we'd all say like if our best players actually played, we would be absolutely a medal contender, but it was rarely the case. But one of the players, here's a teaser, so we got three to go.

One of them has the Canadian record for the most FIBA games played. That's a teaser. So one of these three chaps we're going to talk about did come out represent his country. So let's get to number three. Number three. It's not this guy, unfortunately. But a great player

nonetheless. Number three is Jamal Murray. Yeah, probably gets overshadowed a little bit coming up in the same era as someone else who will talk about Shagilgesa Alexander, but Oh, spoiler alert. He's on the list. Yeah. So

he might get overshadow a little bit in that regard, but Jamal Murray is, I don't know what there is to say about him. He's one of the best point guards in the NBA. He's an NBA champion with the Denver Nuggets, the second best player on that team on that run. Obviously, he does play with one of the best players in the world in Nicola Yokic. And so that comes with, you know, it's a great job to have, but it also comes with a lot of responsibility. And I think he, Yokic loves having a point guard like Jamal Murray. And, you know, on top of winning an NBA championship, Jamal has played for the national team. In 2015, he played for the Pan Am games.

And at that time, he was just coming out of high school. And he had this incredible performance that people will remember against Team USA, where he dropped 22 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to beat USA and kind of went on to win the silver medal in that tournament. And there's also the impact Jamal has had kind of off the court, I guess you could say, in terms of the chapter I wrote about him in the book really focuses on the prep high school scene in Canada now and how he was really one of the foundational parts of that. He was one of the first guys to decide to stay in Canada for his whole high school career, went to Orangeville Prep, and from there he got a scholarship to Kentucky and went to the NBA. And that showed a lot of Canadians that it's possible

to stay home from all of high school. And so that impact, I don't think, can be overstated with Jamal Murray. Okay, so two to go. I think there's debates at home trying to get. who's one and two because I actually when I, before I got your list I was wondering who's who's one and two on this list and I knew who the top two were going to be obviously but without further ado

number two Steve Nash Yeah you know he's my age by the way so shout out to Steve Nash It's funny like both Steve Nash and Shay Gillages Alexander have given the other one credit and said like she has said like I still got room to catch up to Steve and Steve has said

no he's above me so you know that that's so canadian exactly that humble canadian attitude but you know this is my list and i went with steve nash at number two um look in terms of like his longevity of course he he's the number one in terms of his impact on the game of basketball of course he's the number one he's had a bigger impact than most people in the world i mean the seven seconds or less sons changed basketball changed the nba brought speed brought three-point shooting into it brought all these things that now are very familiar in the league but back then Steve was kind of this perfect point guard to introduce into a league that was kind of getting a little bit boring a lot of one-on-one play a lot of slow play um yeah he changed it i remember this so i have

i have a child who's 23 and another who's 21 and i remember buying tickets because steve nash was coming to play the raptors and telling my kids at the time that you need to see live the greatest Canadian basketball player of all time and I didn't know how much time there might be left but the jokas and the kids reminded me is like we went to this game we're going to see Steve Nash before it's too late and he played several more years like we had a lot more chances to do it

but he not only was Steve Nash born in 74 but he played 74 official Fiba games that is number one I wonder I got this from your book but I hate to put you on the spot here but only two Canadian players have played more than 70 FBA games can you name

the other player who played over 70 games. Oh, Jay Triano. No, good guess. That's 66. He's in third. There's somebody between Jay Triano, who I'm glad we finally mentioned here, and Steve Nash. Okay. Jay Trano and Steve Nash, second all time. Putting you on the spot here. This gentleman has a, give me an era. Early enough that I don't, so the initials are EP. Eli Pasquale. Yeah. That's a good So 73, you only had, only Steve Nationally had one more official Fiba game than Eli. Wow. All these fun facts and more.

In your wonderful book, by the way, because, I mean, we've blown it, but I'm still going to say number one, because that's the most exciting number to call. But I got to say, you did a great job, and I hope we get more books out of you, man. I really enjoyed this read. I appreciate it. Yeah, it was a really fun project for me, honestly. It was challenging, but I learned a ton about Canadian. basketball and and all these players and all these stories and uh i thought like part of it always for

me was we don't do such a great job of highlighting our history uh especially in a sport like basketball but really in a lot of areas of canadian culture and well part of the problem is it's called the golden generation but we're all still waiting for that gold that is part of the problem sure but but i i yes and and you know i hope that was going to come in 24 something better but no I did want to highlight the history so that it wouldn't be lost as AI takes over whatever Google used to be. And now you search up like a guy who you want to learn more about. I find it's very harder and harder to kind of learn, find good cover stories, profiles, all that kind of stuff. Agreed.

I wanted to put like this kind of encyclopedia together where people could just go and look up a name and look up their history. I'll say a few. Like we mentioned Jay Triano finally. You know, his fingerprints are all over this thing. But Michael Meeks or Sherman Hamilton or. RJ's dad, Rowan Barrett. These are guys that were key to the national team that are all over your book. Yeah, and the book is kind of split up into two parts.

And the first is like about the trailblazers. And the second is kind of about the generation who now we know. But definitely kind of wanted to shed a spotlight on those guys who you mentioned who don't get a lot of attention, but who really did help create the generation that is today made it possible because they learned, they brought their experiences back. and they help shape the new kind of ecosystem. And what a perfect segue. Everyone is just like tingling with anticipation.

They have no idea who's at number one. But here we go. The number one Canadian basketball player of all time is... Rick Fox. No. No. Shee Gillages, Alexander. I think he passed Nash for me when he won the championship last season.

Obviously, it was something, an elusive thing for Nash. that he couldn't find. And Shea, before the year, before 27 years of age, has won an MVP, a finals MVP, a championship. He's a scoring leader. His resume is quite insane at this point. And for me, like, again, I would say when it came to a tiebreaker

between Nash and Shea, it really was the era they came up in. You know, Steve is a two-time MVP, but I think in that era, there was less competition. I think when you look at this era, it's Yokic, it's Deonis, it's Steph, it's Hardin, it's Kauai, it's all, there's just so much more talent in the league than there ever has been. And so for Shea to be the best player in the league right now, I just kind of think that deserves a little bit of a tiebreaker, I guess.

And he's in rarefied air, right? Because what did he win? Like, what are the, he won last year, regular season MVP, playoff MVP, championship, obviously. Yeah, are you talking about that commercial that NBA Canada does? where they say he won MVP Western Conference Finals MVP and Finals MVP the first to ever do it, which is technically true,

but the Western Conference MVP came into effect two years ago. So it's not... Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Print the legend. But you're not printing the legend in your new book here. I urge all the FOTMs who have even a remote interest in basketball or even just sports or even just Canadianity. It's called the Golden Gen.

generation, how Canada became a basketball powerhouse. How do you want people to, do you care how they buy it? Or do you like, how would you like it? No, I mean, it's on Amazon. It's on Indigo. It's at your local bookstores. Totally up to you. But yeah, the holidays are definitely right around the corner.

And it makes for a good, good present for any kind of sports fan in your life, only 25 bucks. And so I appreciate the support and I hope people enjoy it. Well, it was a pleasure meeting you. You're now an FOTM. That means friend of Toronto, Mike. We're going to take a picture by a Toronto tree. But even though you just birthed this fine new book, I'm curious if you have any inkling of what the next book might be about.

No, I at least not ready to say it to the public yet. But who knows? Right now, I will say writing a book is a big challenge. So I'm going to ease up out of the book world for a little bit. But yeah, I do have some ideas and maybe down the line. But it'll be basketball themed likely? I think so, yeah. You're not going to surprise us with like the book on the 20, 25 Toronto Blue J

almost World Series champions. No, I always make jokes to my friends when they're like, what are you doing next? I'll be like, yeah, I'm going to write about the war, you know, in X, Y, Z. But no, I'm not ready to dive into the political world. Hey, did we shed out Lou Doort? I can't remember. Did we do that? Did we do that?

I think I get, yeah, he was an honorable mention for sure. Because I know he would make a like, I think he'd make a lot of people's top ten. He would. He would. All right, you did a great job. I was thoroughly entertained. We're going to get some of these young guns on Toronto Mike. Enough of this same old, same old. But the old gun, I just want to shout out Dave Festchuk,

who has politely declined his Toronto Mike invitation. Maybe Dave Festchuk will reconsider. Maybe he's an East Sender. Won't cross Youngstreet. I don't blame him. And also, Phil Scrub played 55 games for Canada. I just want to shout him out, too. I'm looking at this list.

There's a guy here. even sure I know who he is, even though I was reading about. Gerald Kaczynski. Yeah. Old in days. I mean, I don't really know that much about... Sixty-three games for Canada. Yeah. The thing, like, the guys who really dominate that all-time list are older because back then, the group

stayed together a lot more. So it was year after year after year. And now it's... The NBA guys probably now will play every three or four years with the Olympics around, but not like this year, for example. And that brings us to the end of our 1,806th show. Get your butts to Palma's Kitchen on Saturday.

That's TMLX21. Be there. Go to tronomelike.com for all your Toronto mic needs. Much love to all who made this possible. That's retro festive. Great Lakes Brewery. You got your beer here. Palma pasta.

Don't leave without your lasagna. Nick Iini's Kindling. Recycle My Electronics.C.A. Blue Sky Agency and, of course, Ridley Funeral Home. So tomorrow is Dave Hodge, his top 100 songs of 2025. Friday is Stu Stone. He's probably going to let me have it because I bailed on this Jay's team in April. Can't wait for that.

And of course, Saturday, we're recording live from Palma's Kitchen for TMLX21. So that's your schedule, the rest of the week. See you all then. Thank you.