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In a normal year, the end of an NBA team’s season requires reflection. In the second season the Toronto Raptors spent away from Toronto --playing first in Orlando in the NBA Bubble and then in Tampa for the 2020-21 season --, the evaluation process is being done on a season that was anything but normal.

From the 72-game schedule, to the lack of fans able to be present in the arena, to the team dealing with health and safety protocols, it would be impossible to treat this season as any other. And yet, for Team President Masai Ujiri, General Manager Bobby Webster and head coach Nick Nurse, that is what they will do as they move forward to build and develop the team.

“It’s a tough year to evaluate,” Ujiri said at his season-ending availability. “This was a tough situation because no one has been through this before. Our case was even worse than the other 29 teams. We’re not looking for excuses here. We know the work we need to do to get forward and how we need to get back on our feet. It’s a great challenge for us going forward. It has been very difficult to evaluate [this season]. What was that 1-13 month [the team had in March]? I wish I could tell you exactly what that was after we had climbed to fourth in the east. Well, we had an outbreak. And then after that, how do you evaluate your team?”

Though the reflection will be a bit different this time around, the goal is the same.

“This is a copycat league and we are not trying to be copycats,” Ujiri said. “You try things and you go into it. You might fail, you might succeed, but you keep trying. The goal is to win. We play this sport to win. To compete and to win. Our organization is going to do everything to put us in position to win.”

For the players, the immediate priority is to get some rest before getting back into training for next season.

The Raptors finished this season with a 27-45 record, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2013. After a slow start to the season, the team climbed up the standings to fourth place in the Eastern Conference, and then was directly hit with the reality of the coronavirus pandemic. In the aftermath of coaches and players returning to the lineup from health and safety protocols, a 1-13 record in the month of March ultimately dug too deep a hole to come out of by season’s end.

Despite the disappointing conclusion to the season, players never stopped fighting. 

“It was a great challenge, this entire year,” Fred VanVleet said. “Hopefully this is the start of an uphill climb from here forward. Adversity brings you closer to the people that you’re in it with. This year I definitely grew with a lot of the guys and the team. I think going forward this will be a good moment to look back on.”

No one wants to talk about positives when the season ended quicker than desired, but this season had its moments to remember. Lowry remembered all of them.

“The highlights of this year, I’mma be honest with you, we had 10 guys score 30 points, some young guys, some older guys,” Lowry said. Freddie [VanVleet] having his career-high 54 points, setting a new franchise record. The things all of my teammates do, the accomplishments my teammates do [are my highlights]. Jalen Harris having a career night, Malachi [Flynn’s] career night, Yuta [Watanabe] getting a contract, us signing Freddie Gillespie, us getting Khem Birch on a buyout and him having a fantastic year. Pascal [Siakam] taking a beating in the media and then coming back and playing his butt off. OG [Anunoby]’s growth. The growth of OG and understanding what he’s going to be.

“Freddie, I talk about him at length, 54 points, becoming a leader, the second-leading scorer [on the team], should have been an All-Star,” Lowry continued. “Stanley Johnson, a guy that was a high pick, super high, highly talented, hit a low, was down low and then to finish the season the way he did. Being able to see the growth of everybody on our team. Gary [Trent Jr.] coming over and having his career night. Rodney Hood, all of the things my teammates have done is always a highlight of my personal season. What I do personally doesn’t matter to me. It’s what those guys learn and gain and what they do throughout the season is highlights for me.”

When Nurse was asked if there was joy to be found in this season he focused on the growth that took place amid the obstacles the season provided.

“There was a lot of angst in there with some frustration as well, but I also believe we did get to a point where we got pretty focused and locked-in, in teaching mode and learning mode and it was enjoyable,” Nurse said. “Even down to six guys, seven guys [playing], there was still a feel of togetherness and everybody trying to execute and everybody trying to play well and connection, sense of humour, and enjoyment in that. That was a good feeling, even though losses never feel good.”

That fight was perhaps the most important revelation to come out of this year. As Nurse and the front office shift focus to the upcoming draft and then onto free agency, the roadmap is simple. Despite the disappointment of this season amid a tumultuous time, there is one singular goal moving forward.

This is all about winning a championship again,” Ujiri said. “Everyone has forgotten what happened two years ago. Yes we won, nobody cares anymore. We want to win another one. That’s what you want to do. You want to prepare yourself to win another one. Not play in the play-in game, not play in the playoffs. You want to win a championship. Everybody is like why wont you get in the play-in? Play-in for what? We want to win a championship here. 

VanVleet is also ready to shift his focus to the offseason. Though he doesn’t want to spend too much time thinking about the year that was, he remains proud of a team that was still standing strong at season’s end.

“I'm proud that the guys stuck together,” he said. “I think everybody made it out pretty much unscathed. We took a few bumps and bruises along the way but we'll be alright.”

building-to-win-with-season-in-the-rearview-focus-shifts-forward

Building to win: With season in the rearview, focus shifts forward

When the final buzzer sounds in a Toronto Raptors game, behind-the-scenes, the work continues. For Roven Yau, the team’s senior manager of public relations, game day doesn’t end until many hours after the actual game as Yau and the rest of the organization’s public relations team begin to shuffle players to postgame interviews, facilitate post-game requests and then communicate with the media about the next day’s practice or travel plans.

In a normal year, this work is done at Scotiabank Arena. In this extremely out of the ordinary season, half of the public relations team is with the players and coaches in Tampa while the other half is back home in Toronto with everyone communicating daily through zoom calls, texts and emails. With careful consideration, they’ve managed the day-to-day experience across the distance to make things feel as normal as possible.

“My big thing is always asking people, ‘What do you need to know?’” Yau said. “I want to be somebody that can get things done. [Somebody] that you can trust to be reliable and trustworthy.”

Yau’s attention to detail and day-to-day responsibilities extend well beyond arranging media availability and serving as a liaison between players and members of the media. A typical game-day starts around 7 a.m. where Yau begins by catching up on articles published about the team and its players the day before. He sends out relevant clips to members of the organization and then gets to work on preparing the day’s game notes, a task he shares with Phil Summers, the team’s manager of communications.  

Yau makes a point to look out for questions from reporters about specific stats or trends, then finds the answers and includes those in the day’s notes. He then speaks with the broadcasters for both teams, fields interview requests that come in from various media members, and helps players map out the requests they are able to fulfill. Prior to the game, it’s providing updates on player availability for the game itself. During the game, it’s communicating any franchise or career-highs, providing official injury updates and keeping an eye on potential storylines unfolding.

In a role where there are many -- extremely tall -- moving parts at all times, staying ready and rolling with the punches is one of the most important attributes to making things run smoothly. 

“If you trust me to figure it out and to get it done, I'll always be able to make myself useful,” Yau said. “[It's important to] make sure that when people meet and interact with you, they have a positive experience. It's just a good life lesson for how you approach life, whether it's your neighbor or somebody that you just met.”

Yau doesn’t get to spend much time reflecting during the rush of the NBA season, but that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten about all who have helped along his own journey.

With the majority of the past two seasons spent in Florida, first in the NBA bubble and then in this year’s temporary relocation to Tampa amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Yau has had a reason to reflect a little more. After leaving his hometown of Ajax, Ontario to attend Eckerd College in 2000, Florida is where Yau’s own basketball journey began.

Though he’s now in his 15th year with the Raptors, Yau’s first brush with sports media was during his time at Eckerd, where he started writing for the school paper. A few months in, Yau went to Washington, D.C. for a national writing conference. Watching ESPN analyst Michael Wilbon speak at that conference changed everything.

“I just remember sitting in this crowd listening to Michael Wilbon talk for a half hour, just completely focused on the fact that people could make a living covering sports,” Yau said. “One of the things that I remember he said about the way he approached the job was that you had to earn people's trust. And it wasn't always about having the tape recorder on. It was building relationships with people and earning their trust, but never turning the tape recorder off in your head. I thought it was really interesting. I went to some other workshops that were a little bit more technical, I learned how to keep track of things in a basketball game, but [listening to Wilbon] just kind of got me going, it got me interested in that side of sport.”

With Wilbon’s words still buzzing in his head, Yau returned to Eckerd determined to create a path for himself that would lead to a career in pro sports.

Tom Ryan is the current Athletic Director at Eckerd College.  He was the head coach of the men’s basketball team while Yau was a student. The two were seated next to each other as Ryan was doing the scorebook for a women’s basketball game. He offered Yau twenty dollars to finish the scorebook so that he could go to prepare his team for their upcoming game. Yau accepted and soon found himself doing the scorebooks for both men’s and women’s games. Before long, he was also working as the announcer for the games.

“He was always around,” Ryan said. “I don't mean that in a negative way. He was always like, ‘What’s going on? What can I do?’ He was always asking questions, and willing to do whatever to start out with. He was very skilled and very creative. But I think when you’re trying to get noticed, that’s what gets you noticed.”

Yau’s willingness to do whatever job was needed -- even if he didn’t have any experience or necessarily know how to do it -- did indeed catch the eye of Eckerd Athletic Director Jim Harley. 

“[Coach Harley] said, ‘Wear your fancy clothes. Meet me here at noon tomorrow, we're going to go to one of my favorite restaurants,’” Yau said. 

It is here that Yau mentions former Eckerd basketball star Harry Singletary, the first African-American athlete to play a sport for an all-white college in the south, as well as graduate from Florida Presbyterian College (now Eckerd College) in 1964. Singletary’s jersey was the first number the school retired in any sport in 1996. Harley recruited Singletary, beginning their time together by getting to know one another over lunch.

“Harry's story is that there are people like Coach Harley that are out there who are doing things to help minorities like Harry, like myself,” Yau said. “We had a call after we won the championship and he was telling me how proud everyone was that I got to be part of that.”

Though Yau is thankful for the opportunities he has received in his own career, as well as the support he has had from Harley and Ryan, Yau knows his experience isn’t the same for every minority trying to break into the sports world.

“One of the things I’ve heard from others who grow up in minority households, we’re sort of told, especially in an industry that’s dominated by Caucasians, you’ve got to be twice as good, if not better than the other person,” he said.

“It’s my responsibility to now give that [support] to someone else. Not hold them back. There’s sort of that cycle that goes with it.”

“I'm part of that history now,” Yau said. “Tom Ryan is a guy that I talk to like at least once or twice a month. He’s right up there with Coach Harley in terms of a guy that gave me an opportunity that allowed me to be part of a program. Even though I never played a minute at Eckerd, they consider me part of the team. I was home schooled and didn't really know anything about college sports before I got there. When you don't know anybody, you want to just feel like you belong. And these people gave me that opportunity. And now I'm part of a family of players, former players, future players, staff that all had a good experience with me. And I learned a lot from each different individual. And it sort of made me who I am today and how I approach my work.”

Getting to watch Yau’s journey with the Raptors has been equally rewarding for Ryan.

“It’s been amazing,” Ryan said. “His appreciation for where he came from, a lot of people forget where they came from. Roven has never, for one half second, forgot where he came from. He’s a wonderful human being. That’s an important part.”

“He’s a gem,” Ryan continued. “He’s a special person with a big heart and he wants to succeed, but he also wants to help others succeed also.”

After graduating from Eckerd, Yau moved on to work at the University of Florida. Swimming and golf were his main sports, but he helped out the basketball and football programs as well. The timing couldn't have been more perfect for an aspiring public relations specialist. 

“Young kids like Al Horford and Joakim Noah and Corey Brewer became household names and it turned into a celebrity campus,” Yau said laughing. “[And then] Tim Tebow joined us that fall…Ryan Lochte was on my list [with the swimming team] too. It was his senior year. I handled all of his transition to being a pro.”

Near the end of his time with the Gators, Yau found himself in Atlanta with Lochte for the NCAA swimming championships. After the championships finished, he got a call asking him to head to Indianapolis for the Final Four. It was there that he found out the Raptors were hiring. 

“We left on my birthday of all days, like that was the best birthday ever,” Yau said.  “We got there and this is how full circle it gets. It’s springtime in Indianapolis. Everybody's out on the patio having a meal. It's just one giant basketball convention. There's Bobby Knight, there's Roy Williams, there's Coach K, you know, just everybody just hanging out. So who do I see walking around in Indiana? In Indianapolis I ran into Coach Harley. He's sort of been there every step of the way [in my journey].”

Spoiler-alert: Yau was hired by the Raptors.

Six years after Yau left home for the first time, he was back and working for the country’s lone NBA team.

13 years later, he was standing on the baseline as the team won its first NBA championship in franchise history.

“I'm probably best known for not having any expression in all those years,” Yau said. “I was like pinned on the baseline, Game 6, and we all had our assignments. I'm just kind of like, laser-focused, like, ‘OK, I got to get Kawhi and this is what we need to get done.’ There was one of those many timeouts before the game actually ended. And [a member of the NBA Entertainment crew came over], tapped me on the shoulder and they said, ‘I know you’re trying to hide it, but your hands are shaking.’ If you looked at me, you probably couldn't tell. But in those moments where the clock was winding down, I was shaking a little bit, like, ‘This is happening.’”

The entire 2019 championship run is something Yau won’t ever forget. While we think of the families and coaching staff when we expand our scope beyond the players themselves, it’s the people working behind the scenes day in and day out, -- year in and year out -- who have given as much time as anyone to the pursuit of a championship.

“Walking into the media room that day, that was 14, 15 years of working relationships,” Yau said. “And people are just happy for you, which doesn't happen with every team. But to walk into that media room, that was at Scotiabank arena, and there's however many hundreds of people and all levels of profile, in all different countries and backgrounds and everything. That was cool.”

There’s another moment that stands out, but this one is for a different reason entirely. While the Raptors fan base was euphoric about the team’s return to the postseason against the Brooklyn Nets in 2014, Yau was celebrating something else.

“The day before Game 1 versus Brooklyn my wife told me we were expecting our first child,” Yau said. “We had just moved into our first house, so the combination of things made that moment in time really special.”

Getting to experience all of these moments with the home team, back in Toronto, has made everything even more special.

“It's really humbling, when you look back at it,” Yau said of his basketball path. “We have to make tough decisions sometimes. We don't always give [the media] what you want. But I like to think that the experience and the respect that goes into it is something that you can at least appreciate. I learned that from Jim [LaBumbard]. I watched him for over 10 years and how he operated and how much people respected him.”

Yau knows not everyone will have a Coach Harley or a Coach Ryan in their corner. Still, he hopes that students can find their role models, whether they are in or outside of sport.

“Surround yourself with people of high character and then watch and listen,” Yau said. “Sometimes you get lucky and the right people fall into your life, but you naturally absorb good habits and an understanding of how things work just by being around the right people. It doesn’t mean they are perfect (in life or work), but they earn the respect of others with the care, attention and genuineness in the way they approach their business each day.

“For me, it was Jim Harley and Tom Ryan [at Eckerd],” Yau continued. “[It was] Steve McClain, and Fred Demarest [at Florida], it was John Lashway, Jim Labumbard and Wayne Embry [with the Raptors] – you will have a hard time finding anyone within the industry that doesn’t respect this group. It’s part of the reason they have all succeeded for 30, 40 and 50 years working in sports. How you treat others (players, coaches, media, family, friends) matters. If you show respect and genuine care, you will generally receive it back in return.”

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Roven Yau: when opportunity meets preparedness

When the Raptors asked me to write something for Asian Heritage Month, I thought about this photo of myself I dug up from my parents’ basement several years back (That Leafs hat is going for $200 in certain places, so word of advice: keep all your stuff). 

So many memories come flooding back when I look at this picture. 

I immigrated with my parents and sister from Hong Kong to Canada in 1992. As an eight-year-old with just a brief grasp on English living in a new country, everything was foreign. 

I look at this picture and remember how frightening that was, for myself, my sister, and my parents. 

I also remember two things that made me feel at home. 

The first was the neighborhood where I grew up. 

Markham was called a “majority-minority” city in an article a few years ago. This is what I remember most about my childhood. The Chinese grocery stores, the Saturday Mandarin classes, the dim sum restaurants, and begging my parents to buy me the new Dragon Ball Z manga. 

They were all little things which made me feel more at home. 

My parents were avid fans. When we moved to a bigger house, they installed a basketball net on the driveway for me. I lowered the basket and won so many dunk contests against myself. My favorite memories come from playing on the high school basketball team. 

I still remember how exciting it was when an NBA team came to Toronto.  

Having your own basketball team to cheer for can be life-changing. 

I want to tell you about the community I am a part of, the one I belong to, and the one I am proud to represent. 

I want you to know their faces, their names, their experiences, and their stories. 

Let me tell you about the Chinese community of Raptors fans. 

I want you to know about Lisa Louie, a project manager born and raised in Toronto by her parents, who immigrated from Macau and Hong Kong in the 1960s. 

The newspaper photo above of her is from 1994, when Lisa attended one of the Raptors’ earliest community-building events at Jarvis Collegiate Institute.

Lisa grew up in a hockey household. The main television belonged to her parents, who watched the Leafs religiously. She crowded with her siblings around the smaller TV watching the Raptors and eventually became a season-ticket holder and a section 318 regular. 

Basketball helped Lisa find and establish her identity. Things changed once people around her realized how passionate and knowledgeable she was about basketball. 

“Suddenly, the stereotypes about girls not knowing about sports — especially a geeky Chinese girl — were thrown out the window,” Lisa recalls. “Being a Raptors fan was about defying the stereotypes of Chinese women and what we were supposed to be.” 

When I exchanged emails with Kelvin Kwan, a Chinese-born Canadian who grew up in Scarborough and now lives in Guelph, he said something that resonated with me. 

“It was when the ‘We The North’ era began that I knew something special was about to happen,” he tells me. “The franchise made a genius move and embraced being the other. We accepted who we were and who we were going to be and held our head up high.” 

I know because only the day ones mention watching games on The New VR and instantly point to beating the 72-win Chicago Bulls as the franchise’s lone highlight from its inaugural season. 

I also know Kelvin is serious about his fandom because he sent me the photo above. 

He convinced his wife to go with purple as their complementary colour at their wedding with custom Raptors players’ jerseys as table numbers. 

What he said about the ‘We the North’ slogan resonated with me. Accepting being an outsider is central to any immigrant experience. To grow up in a new country while reconciling with the way your life differs from your parents can be difficult. 

Tony Liu grew up in Toronto and lives in Vancouver today. 

He’s been a Raptors fan since 2001 and remembers not sharing any interest or hobbies with his father, who is from Hong Kong.

It was basketball that brought them closer.

“We both had trouble communicating our emotions with each other,” Tony recalls. “There was always a language and cultural barrier between us. But when the Raptors came on the television, we shared the same excitement and passion for the team. The awkwardness went right out the window.”

As an adult, I feel closer to my parents in a way that a son always feels close to mom and dad, but also further now because of our generational differences. 

But like Tony, my parents and I also bond over talking about the Raptors. 

My mom still sends me WhatsApp messages almost every game (mostly to ask whether the Raptors have hit enough threes for her to redeem some free McDonald’s fries, but you get the point). My dad and I talk about the Raptors all the time. 

One of my favorite things during the Raptors championship run was seeing how many fans in the Chinese community got to share so many great moments with their families.

Dennis Chow was born and raised in East York. A long-time Raptors fan, the championship run officially became a family affair when he attended his uncle’s 80th birthday banquet at Scarborough’s Bamburgh Circle. 

The banquet took place during Game 6 against the Milwaukee Bucks. 

“Everyone was streaming the game,” Dennis recalls. “My uncle didn’t mind. He kept coming to our table to ask us about the score every 15 minutes.”

The Raptors won and clinched a spot in the NBA Finals. 

When Dennis attended his cousin’s wedding after the championship, his grandfather wore a Raptors hat (pictured above) for the entire day.

The photos Jerome Cheng posted of his father Luke during the title run brought me so much joy.

Jerome credits his father for his basketball fandom. 

They watched games together regularly at home. 

Jerome even brought his father to a St. Louis Bar &amp; Grill in North York to watch a Game 7 once with his friends. 

As he grew up and earned money, Jerome started taking his parents to Raptors games. 

The first call he made after the Raptors won the championship was to his dad. 

“I cried,” Jerome recalls. “Basketball and sports in general have been a natural way for us to connect as parent and son. As many Asians know, it's not a common thing for us to be very expressive. Through sports, it has opened avenues for us to figure out how to communicate better and understand each other better. Even if we struggled to talk about anything, he could give me a recap of last night's game, and naturally, it would be an opening to talk about more things.”

Basketball fosters this sense of belonging. 

There’s a sense of community that takes hold beyond just rooting for wins and losses. 

Clement Chu has been helping to build this community for years. 

He is one of the co-founders of the Canadian Chinese Youth Athletic Association (“CCYAA”), founded in 1995, the same year the Raptors entered the league. 

Over the years, Chu and CCYAA have worked closely with the Raptors, who he calls “pioneers” in the area of community-building. 

He pointed to 1997 when the Raptors became the first team in NBA history to have a cultural heritage night. 

“It was a flyer that was translated into Chinese with a discounted price point with a hotline where people could get tickets with a hotline number which was my phone number,” Clement recalls. “The Raptors had a Chinese language broadcast with Fairchild Television the following year. They had their first Chinese radio broadcast a few years later.”

Clement played high school basketball for North Toronto growing up and remembers seeing maybe one (or two, at best) Chinese players across all the teams he faced. 

CCYAA was created to give the Chinese community a place to become part of the growing basketball subculture in the city. 

The association has helped foster an entire generation of kids who grew up watching the Raptors and wanted to pursue playing basketball themselves.

Clement points to Cecilia Chan, who played at Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute, was the anchor of CCYAA’s women’s basketball team, and got a NCAA scholarship at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Jeremy Lin, a member of the 2019 Raptors championship team, as people who have left a lasting impact on the Chinese community.

“A lot of it has to do with role modeling,” he explains. “If there isn't somebody that the kids can see actually doing it, they don’t think it’s possible. This kind of role modeling creates a roadmap for a young person to see in terms of them being able to play at the highest levels.”

Clement says the most significant growth area for the association has been with the age 3-5 program.

“It’s neat to see parents say sports is a priority and basketball is what they want the kids to play,” he says. “A lot of it has to do with the influence of the Raptors.”

The team has been around for over two decades now, and the people who grew up following them are now passing their fandom on to the next generation. 

James Cam is a design director living in Toronto and playing basketball for the first time at a Hamilton school court.

“It was a crappy wooden pole with a crooked net,” he recalls. “Kids would jump off the pole and hang off the rim. It was the closest we got to dunking.”

James organizes Raptors nights twice a year at work now, going to home games with co-workers and teaching the game to anyone who wants to learn. 

He is also passing on his passion for basketball to his son (pictured above). 

“My son is convinced that when I go play basketball, I’m going to play for the Raptors,” James says. “He knows that I like the Raptors, so he gets really excited watching the games with me and wearing their gear. I can’t wait to take him to his first game and share more moments with him in the future.”

He has traveled to 20 different cities so far to watch the Raptors and intends on completing his NBA arena tour with his eleven-month-old daughter Evelyn (pictured above). 

“She has been the best thing that's ever happened to me,” Cliff says. “I've made sure to stock her wardrobe with lots of Raptors jerseys and onesies, so she will know who her favorite team is. I'm so excited to share my love of the Raptors with her. I’ve purposely saved Orlando for a family trip.”

Eddie Chan, 48, grew up on the Danforth before moving to Scarborough during high school. 

“Basketball as a father really changed my love for the game,” he says.

Eddie decided early on his boys would play basketball. 

He enrolled them in House League, where they played every Saturday for two hours. 

Eddie started helping with drills and eventually became an assistant coach on the rep league team. 

He still remembers his kids getting a chance to run drills with Kyle Lowry and Sherman Hamilton at the Scotiabank Arena practice facility. 

Susanne Woo was born and raised in Toronto with parents who immigrated to Canada in the 1960s. 

She has been an elementary teacher for over ten years in Markham and integrates her passion for the Raptors into her Grade 1-2 classrooms. 

Susanne uses Raptors game scores as a way to ask her students to solve basic math problems, finding any reason to tie basketball-related things to the curriculum.

Parents have told Susanne their families started watching Raptors games together at home because of her passion. 

Others credit her class for inspiring their kids to start playing basketball.

“My hope is that through the exposure to the Raptors in the classroom, it will translate to quality time my students will cherish and spend with their family and friends like I did while cheering for our team,” Susanne says. “On a larger scale, I hope they see themselves represented in the sport of basketball, in media, and in important roles of an organization.”

Three generations of my family are connected through the Raptors and basketball. From my parents to myself to my nephews (pictured above in beautiful championship gear) Henry, nine, and Owen, who is turning seven in August. 

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The importance of the Raptors and basketball to the Chinese community

When Sarah Chan showed up to volunteer at a Giants of Africa basketball camp in Kenya, she simply wanted to give back to the youth in attendance. Chan didn’t know Raptors President Masai Ujiri, wasn’t overly familiar with Giants of Africa, and didn’t have any idea that her positive attitude and work ethic at the camp would leave an impression that would change the trajectory of her own story as she began a journey that would culminate in her being named manager of scouting in Africa for the Toronto Raptors.

“I heard there was a camp that was happening on a Monday,” Chan said. “And so I volunteered for it. At the time, I didn't know it was the Giants of Africa camp. I wasn't part of the coaches. And you know, I ended up just showing up.”

Showing up, passing along her knowledge and impacting the gym with her infectious personality, Chan didn’t realize that Ujiri was watching her work. She also didn’t expect to get a call from him.

“I was just enjoying myself, learning and teaching as well,” Chan said of her time at the camp. “A few days later, Masai called me for a meeting and he basically [told me that he] felt that my principles and my work ethic did align with everything that they were doing. [He] wanted me to be a part of the Giants of Africa team. It was such an amazing opportunity for me.”

Chan jumped at the chance to get involved officially, and soon began scouting for Giants of Africa. She was soon scouting for the Raptors, and after a few years in that position, moved up to hold her current position of managing scout of Africa for an NBA team. 

She couldn’t have scripted it. That’s what makes it so special.

“It has all come, in my opinion, out of a passion meeting with opportunity,” Chan said. “Just pursuing knowledge, wanting to teach and wanting to learn, constantly learn, [along with] years of work.”

Though Chan’s Raptors story begins with a Giants of Africa camp, her own personal journey begins in Sudan. 

“At the time, [in Sudan], a young girl couldn't participate in sports,” Chan recalled. “The country was going through a dark era. One of the longest civil wars in Africa. My parents had been looking for opportunities to be able to continue to provide for us necessities, like just basic necessities, and education has always been so key in our family. They applied to some sort of scholarship that came through and we ended up in Kenya in 1998.”

It was in Kenya where Chan was introduced to sports for the first time. Though she originally got involved with basketball because of her height, she soon discovered the benefits of the sport that extend well beyond the court.

“I really started to enjoy the competitive nature of sports and basketball, to be specific, I really started to love the discipline, it taught me so much,” Chan said. “ I was just constantly learning and I was constantly learning not just basketball, but life skills as well.”

As she continued to improve her game, Chan also discovered that her time on the court provided an escape from whatever was going on outside of it. She received a basketball scholarship to Union University in Tennessee, then went to Europe to play professionally, before returning to Africa to play there. 

Before long, Chan decided she wanted to do her masters. In the middle of her degree she also started volunteering at different schools to help with their basketball programs.

“I always just enjoyed being around that basketball environment,” she said. “That atmosphere was calming, it helped me redirect. It helped me refocus and just recenter myself and everything that I was doing.”

As she was nearing the completion of her masters, Chan started to shift her focus toward the future. Since she was a little girl, Chan’s mother had always stressed the importance of using one’s time wisely.

“I've always remembered my mom emphasizing the power of time,” she said. “You can never get it back, and time waits for nobody. She's always said if you're going to do something, do it with excellence or don't do it at all. Don't waste it. Don't waste your time. Don't waste anybody's time. If you have time on your hands, try to see which way you can impact and which way you can be able to bring a positive change.”

Chan soon realized she wanted to give back through basketball and mentoring. Things fell into place almost immediately after that.

Getting to work with the Raptors has been an experience that Chan calls a blessing. It’s impossible to not hear the excitement in her voice as she talks of the gift that is blending your life’s work with your greatest passion.  

As a woman holding a position that is often dominated by men, Chan gives credit to the Raptors organization as well as MLSE as a whole for the ways they have created an environment that champions all of its employees equally.

“The Raptors keep adding competent women day in and day out, fearlessly,” Chan said. “It's such an example in the NBA, it’s such an example globally. The other day, when it was an all-women [broadcast] for the game. That is so inspirational. So many kids that look up to that will be inspired, [thinking] ‘I can be her tomorrow. I can be Kayla [Grey], I can be so-and-so tomorrow.’ It's an incredible position to be in. But with privilege like this comes a lot of responsibility.” 

That responsibility is something that drives Chan each day.

“Sports have the power to inspire,” she said. “It has the power. It is a tool that can change the lives of individuals. One person's life changing changes their family's lives, the community, the country, the continent. The world is a better place. I think it's very vital that women continue to carry that torch and keep inspiring the next generation.”

Chan credits her mother for inspiring her own steadfast work ethic. Within the Raptors organization, Chan says she has been supported and uplifted by many, though she singles out Ujiri, senior basketball advisor Wayne Embry, assistant coach Patrick Mutombo, director of international scouting Patrick Engelbrecht, and former WNBA star and Raptors assistant Lindsey Harding for their leadership along the way.

“It's amazing that I had these incredibly amazing leaders that were already ahead of me and that I could ask questions,” Chand said. “ And they led me without judgment and corrected me in the most constructive ways. Also getting immense knowledge from Wayne Embry. I'm not in Canada as often, but whenever I get the chance and he's around the gym, I would ask him questions. There’s so much that you learn from him. He's like a moving library.”

One of the most amazing things about sports is how it immediately equals the playing field. Whether someone is a player, a coach or something in between, when the game begins, the only thing that matters until the final buzzer sounds is the game itself. Chan has always found this truth to be comforting.

“When I used to play, for the two hours I was on the court, my coaches never [treated] me any different,” Chan said. “You are not a guy. You are not a woman. There's no gender when you're playing sports. you just play your game. I had so enjoyed that before and I never really came into anything thinking of myself, that I'm contributing as a gender.”

“It's amazing that I'm a woman,” Chan said. “I tell people my superpower is being a woman. But at the end of the day, we're all capable human beings that are contributing towards a higher goal. When we win the championship it’s not so and so [who won the championship]. It’s not this person and that other person. It’s everybody’s effort that came together and you finally see this result and it's so beautiful to behold.”

Chan encourages young women who may not know where to begin in their own sports journeys to start wherever they are. 

“Pursue it,” she said. “No matter where you start, whatever industry, whatever sports industry, I'd say first start with passion. Pursue your passion and let your passion lead the way. Acquire the knowledge along the way and continue to seek it  There's nothing that you can’t do. Ask people in whatever field you're in, for advice, humbly taking positive criticism and keep growing as a person, as a professional.”

This advice was just the beginning from Chan who then chose to address the youth who may be reading this piece directly.

“Young girls, look, if I can do it, if I can do it, you can do it,” she said. “Put your mind to it. Invest your time into it, and you keep moving no matter what when you feel like giving up. That's not an option. So intentionally, do what's right, no matter how you feel. They say women are emotional, but you know what? Put that emotion in the right place. Start that engine. And no matter what you come across on your journey, that is only but a bump. You'll get over it, you'll keep moving, you'll get better, you'll gain the experience and you will have opportunity and passion meet one day and [then] you'll be unstoppable.”

After giving this message directly to the younger women who may be reading this piece, Chan also wanted to leave every reader with the following as the world continues to adapt more than a year into this global pandemic.

“During this time, I know that we're going through a whole lot in different parts of the world, but we're all in this together,” she said. “Stay safe. Make sure that you're following the government directives. Make sure that you're checking on your loved ones and keep a positive energy out there, take care of yourself and especially your mental health. 

“Make sure that you're focusing. Make sure that you're setting goals. Make sure that once you're out on the other side that you're a better person because it's not the adversities that we go through, but how we handle them that make us better people, that builds our character. Let it be a character building where you come out on the other end and you hit the ground running. But first, take care of your mental health.

I want you and everybody else that's reading to know that it's possible to come out a better person on the other end. We're all in this together. Don’t give up. Keep pushing.” 

These inspiring words are just a glimpse into Chan’s spirit and deep commitment to bettering the world around her, on and off the court. 

sarah-chan-when-opportunity-and-passion-collide

Sarah Chan: When opportunity and passion collide

The best basketball players can see plays unfolding a few possessions before they happen. Savanna Hamilton’s own playing career at Ryerson University was cut short due to injury, but on the court and off, she has always operated a few steps ahead of everyone else.

Today, the host and producer at MLSE, is known for an infectious personality and the ability to make whoever she is interviewing feel immediately at ease. Behind the scenes, though, Hamilton has been putting in the work. 

After back-to-back knee injuries grounded Hamilton’s playing career at Ryerson, the sports media student knew she still wanted to make the absolute most of her time in the program. Knee surgery and crutches weren’t going to get in the way, either. 

Hamilton laughs while thinking back to one of the first stepping stones in her path to MLSE.

“I was fortunate enough to meet [MLSE host] Akil Augustine in my first year at Ryerson, after I had surgery,” Hamilton said. “I was on crutches, and I volunteered at this event. So, I crutched over to him and I said, “I really love your work.”

Hamilton’s determination to network with Augustine paid off. Fast forward to six months after getting his contact information at that first meeting, Hamilton was now in her second year at Ryerson and needed to choose someone to job shadow. She contacted Augustine. “I want to do what you’re doing," she said.

That job shadowing led to Hamilton’s first experience with The Hangout, the NBA TV Canada talk show that Augustine hosts. After her first day following Augustine on the job, she was hooked. During her time job shadowing, Hamilton also got to know Duane Watson, the supervising producer for Community &amp; Culture at MLSE as well as a producer for The Hangout, among others. 

“Duane, to be honest, he completely took me under his wing,” Hamilton said. “He brought me in, I was an assistant writer and I just took notes in meetings and throughout the years I worked all the way up to co-producing the show. There were times when he wasn't available and he completely slipped the show into my hands and I was cool to do it, no problem. He really trained me.”

Though Hamilton is known to Raptors fans for her work in front of the camera, as well as on the podcast mic, she also has logged extensive time behind the scenes away from sports as well. While getting her start with MLSE, Hamilton was simultaneously freelancing with CBC, working as an associate director. She was also managing social media for the Canadian bank Tangerine. It was during an event for Tangerine where Hamilton saw her next step unfolding.

Though she was freelancing with MLSE behind the scenes, Hamilton knew she wanted to be on-air. At her Tangerine work event, Hamilton saw an opportunity to speak with Toni Francis, a producer with MLSE, and she made the most of the conversation.

“It literally only takes the one right person that listens and that can give you that opportunity,” Hamilton said. “And that was her.”

Francis came to Hamilton with the idea of Hamilton hosting a digital series on Twitter recapping daily news about the Raptors. From there, Hamilton had another idea at the ready, pitching an idea to have a quick-hitting, snappy video series on Instagram called Rap-Up, featuring lots of audience engagement. It was picked up for the following season.

Shortly after the season started, the pandemic hit. After a few stressful months where freelancing gigs seemed to dry up overnight as news outlets and sports organizations shifted to figuring out how they would function and cover news of a global pandemic, Hamilton’s work, talent and persistence was rewarded. MLSE offered her a full-time position covering the Raptors and Raptors 905. Though the position was originally for producing, Hamilton negotiated a hosting role into her contract as well. 

“This past year has been amazing," Hamilton said. "I was very, very happy to be able do so.”

From that first meeting when she crutched over to introduce herself to Augustine, Hamilton hasn’t stopped pushing.

“I definitely felt like opportunities were never just going to be handed to me,” Hamilton said. “I just want to make sure I’m always prepared for every step of the way. Being very aware that I am a woman of color, I'm biracial, but I also identify as a black woman, that it will be extra hard for me. And I definitely [have] felt and have expressed that, in the past, I don't think I had as many opportunities in school, even just because, when you're used to seeing one particular type of person on air, it's hard for like anybody to imagine somebody else that doesn't look like that being on air.”

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Sarah Chan: When opportunity and passion collide

Savanna Hamilton: Ahead of the game

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