It’s not often that Canadian-born players top the sports headlines from two of the top leagues in the world, but yesterday they did.
Two Canadian basketball stars made headlines. Twenty-six-year-old, Jamal Murray, became the second-youngest player in the last 30 years with at least 25 points and 10 assists in a finals game as his Denver Nuggets beat the Miami Heat in game one of the NBA Finals.
The same day, Zach Edey, the winner of the 2023 John R. Wooden Award and the Naismith College Player of the Year Award given to the best college player in the US, announced he was headed back for another year. of NCAA basketball
Jamal Murray is a guard for the NBA’s Denver Nuggets. He was born in Kitchener, Ontario, and started playing basketball when he was three years old. He went to Kentucky for college, where he averaged 20 points per game and was named a consensus All-American. He was drafted by the Nuggets in 2016 and has been one of their best players ever since.
Jamal Murray had a serious injury two years ago that made him miss most of last season. He tore his ACL, which is a ligament in his knee. But Jamal Murray did not give up.
He worked hard to get back on the court and help his team become the top seed in the west vying to become NBA champions. After averaging almost 28 over the last 15 playoff games, Murray combined with Nikola Jokic to score more than half the points in a dominant finals game one Nuggets win.
Zach Edey is a 7’4″ center for the Purdue Boilermakers, which makes him the tallest player in Big Ten history.
He was born in Toronto, Ontario, and grew up playing hockey and baseball. He did not start playing basketball until he was 16 years old. He went to IMG Academy in Florida for high school, where he improved his skills enough to get a scholarship to Purdue.
Now a year after dominating college basketball but being upset in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Zach Edey headlines the list of 181 players who withdrew their names from the NBA Draft. He is heading back to Purdue for another shot at winning March Madness.
Although they have different backgrounds and styles, Murray and Edey are two Canadian-born basketball players who are dominating two of the top basketball leagues in the world.
Other than hockey and curling, it’s rare for Canadians to dominate a sport. These true north sons are inspiring many young Canadians to follow their dreams and play basketball.
