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In 2001, the city of Vancouver fought through a rocky one sided divorce with the NBA and the Grizzlies. It ended up with Memphis getting everything and Vancouver was left holding a stack of vintage Big Country jerseys and some empty court space, not to mention empty hearts. For seven years following, Vancouver hoop fans once again adopted the Sonics of Emerald City. Showing his apparent dislike for the Northwest corner, Stern left the 604 without a pro basketball team to call their own, moving the Sonics to OKC for the 2008 season. Enter Jonathan Mara and the IBL. Mara, who’s family has been a fixture on the high school basketball scene with his three sons playing key roles in the White Rock Christian Warriors success over the past half decade, proudly brought professional basketball back to the Lower Mainland as the owner of the Vancouver Titans.
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Standing at a not so menacing baby faced 5′10″ and 160 pounds, one would not have expected Saskatchewan Huskies point guard Showron Glover to have led not only his team, but also the entire country in scoring at a clip of 28.1 ppg. However after relocating from Fresno, California two years ago, Glover welcomes the role of underdog and the ability to prove fans, critics and especially opponents wrong, as such was the case on the Huskies path to claiming the CIS Championship on March 21st.
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About twelve years ago at Vancouver’s Kits Beach courts, I had the opportunity to meet an energetic, tempo pushing point guard named Joey “King Handles” Haywood. Although younger and smaller than anyone on the court, King Handles had a blend of confidence and arrogance that would serve him well throughout his future. Inspired by his older brother Gary and a ball handling wizard from volume 1 of the AND1 mixtape series by the name of Skip To My Lou, Haywood learned to play the game with a passion and flare. After trailblazing through the US and Japan as part of NOTIC, AND1 and YPA ball crews during the early part of the decade, I recently had the chance to catch up with the BC point guard… who is currently averaging 25ppg and 6apg in approximately 37 minutes of floor time for the Saint Mary’s Huskies.
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