OKC's Finals run boosts Canadians' surge into championship basketball
Canadians of a certain age will remember when it was a novelty to stumble across a countryman playing in an NBA game.
Hey, it's Todd MacCulloch! Bill Wennington! Mike Smrek!
Steve Nash and the league's expansion to Canada changed all that, and Canadians have been playing on title-winning teams regularly for years now. But it's still been a little surreal to watch this year's conference finals and see so many Canadians with key roles.
Andrew Nembhard is a starter for the Indiana Pacers and has played almost as many minutes as his team's two big stars, Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam. Bennedict Mathurin has been one of the few Pacers reserves getting regular time when playoff benches are typically shortened.
Over in the West, there was the bracing spectacle of Minnesota's Nickeil Alexander-Walker going shot-for-shot with his cousin as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder took Game 4 on the road before closing out the series against the Timberwolves in five games. Lu Dort didn't get involved as much in the shot-making, but Oklahoma City's other Canadian starter was his usual all-over-the-court defensive presence.
Where Nash's MVP win 20 years ago proved that a Canadian could be a basketball superstar, and guys like Jamal Murray in Denver and Andrew Wiggins with Golden State were impact contributors to title-winning teams, this postseason's Canadian contributions feel like they've broken through to another level.
Four Canadians could play significant roles in the NBA Finals if the Pacers can close out the Knicks, although that's more iffy after a big New York win Thursday night.
To an extent, this shouldn't be surprising. Canada has had the most non-U.S. players in the NBA for 11 seasons running. There were 21 Canadians on opening-day rosters, a record, ahead of 14 from France and 13 from Australia.
But Canadian hoops fans can be forgiven for feeling like their country's surge into the league's top echelons is happening with considerable haste. Canadians aren't only filling out rosters, they're also main characters for whoever wins the next title.
Nowhere is that more clear than with Gilgeous-Alexander. Two years ago, he won the Northern Star award as Canada's top athlete, mostly thanks to a strong half-season with the Thunder and a starring role as the Canadian men qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics. I didn't vote for him as part of the panel of media selectors, largely because it was obvious there was so much more to come. Like, for example, his 2025 accomplishments: a top seed in the West, an MVP award, and, potentially, an NBA title.
He also needed to prove he could play his best basketball in tough playoff games to truly get league-wide respect. Gilgeous-Alexander stumbled just a touch last year, with the top-seeded Thunder dropping a second-round series in six games to the Dallas Mavericks.
But this playoff run has been sublime, with Gilgeous-Alexander leading an Oklahoma City team that's starting to look inevitable. If there was a signature game so far, it came when the series suddenly seemed up for grabs after the Wolves' Game 3 blowout win.
Minnesota came out hot again in Game 4, shooting 63% in the first quarter and making five of 10 3-point attempts. And the Wolves were still down by seven points, as Oklahoma City also poured in baskets. Gilgeous-Alexander had 13 points and four assists in the opening frame, keeping the Minnesota crowd from getting too excited.
He was relentless as the game wore on, making tough shot after tough shot - and, yes, drawing a lot of fouls - and finding a lot of open teammates when the Wolves sent extra bodies his way.
What's fascinating about SGA is that, in a league of unicorns, he's physically quite normal: a 6-foot-6, 200-pound shooting guard. He's not a nimble giant like Giannis Antetokounmpo, a point guard in a center's body like Nikola Jokic, or a do-it-all physical package like LeBron James or Luka Doncic. He doesn't rain in 3-pointers like Steph Curry, or, for a while there, James Harden.
He just makes shots. SGA takes the kinds of shots that modern basketball has largely declared foolish because they're inefficient: 2-point attempts from outside the paint. But he makes them at such a high rate that he's hard to stop, especially when defenders usually spend so much time protecting the paint and closing out to the 3-point line.
By playing retro-ball, Gilgeous-Alexander has created his own efficiency.
And now he's in the Finals, where he'll soon find out how many Canadians will face him.
Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.