Someone scored 54 points in a game in Winnipeg. A team came back from 27 in the 3rd Quarter to win on its home court in St. Catharines. The team from Toronto has the best record in the league and might host the presentation of the league’s championship trophy.
It sounds compelling no? In a summer season where the FIFA World Cup and soccer captured the imagination of Canada, it’s the Canadian Elite Basketball League that may be providing the most captivating hot weather competitions this year.
Since I joined the CEBL as a TV producer in the shortened Covid-19 season in 2020, I’ve witnessed a league rife with close games, amazing finishes and heated rivalries. The Ottawa Blackjacks and Scarborough Shooting Stars have no love lost between them, exemplified in a couple of late season contests that featured trash talking, jawing and a very slow court exit after the final buzzer. The owners of the Winnipeg Sea Bears and Brampton Honey Badgers (David Asper and Len Asper, respectively) could potentially meet in a best-of-3 championship round series. And the Edmonton Stingers happily ended the Playoff hopes of their Alberta cousin, the Calgary Surge, with a home head-to-head win last weekend.
With the Playoffs approaching, there are a multitude of questions and storylines surrounding the eight of 10 teams who will qualify. Can the Shooting Stars run the table and win their first championship since 2023? Can the Niagara River Lions finish sub .500 yet win their third straight title? Can the Vancouver Bandits, who have made the postseason seven years in a row, finally win the chip? Will two-time Finals MVP Xavier Moon return to glory and lead Winnipeg to its first title?
As someone who grew up in Toronto in the 1980s dreaming of watching an NBA team in Canada, I could not have imagined a summer league of basketball in our hometowns where highly talented players could compete for a professional trophy they genuinely want to hoist.
The CEBL is populated by pros who either spend their winters playing overseas, in the NBA G League looking for NBA contracts or starring in U Sports, the Canadian university system that provides gritty yet overlooked basketball. Many CEBL players have gone on to stints with NBA teams and their national squads, including Vancouver’s Mitch Creek who recently helped his home country Australia advance to the next round of qualifiers for the 2027 FIBA World Cup.
Basketball is the sport I love, and the game I love to produce on television and write about in this newsletter. The CEBL scratches an itch that all Canadian hoopsters can identify with. Fierce, highly competitive basketball with more than a score to settle. The end of game Target Score - ensuring a game-winning shot in each match - only makes the nature more thrilling.
The league provides a unique take on the sport and is at a watershed moment in the nation’s embracing of the game. Canada is currently ranked 5th in the world in the FIBA rankings, behind only the USA, Germany, Serbia and France. There are countless Canadian players in the NBA. A domestic league provides further opportunity for athletes to succeed professionally, and for viewers to see games on home courts for affordable prices. The merchandise isn’t bad either.
There’s no telling what will happen in the postseason to come. But on the heels of an exciting regular season you can be sure the caliber of play will continue to climb, and a Canadian city will have cause to celebrate champions.
The CEBL Playoffs begin with live coverage of Eastern and Western Conference semifinals on Thursday, August 6 on TSN.
Dan Gladman has been the CEBL’s senior broadcast producer since 2020.
