Raptors star’s basketball camp inspires young fans

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This article was published 02/07/2019 (2457 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two-hundred young Manitoba hoopsters have hit the hardwood in Winnipeg for the start of a two-day basketball camp featuring Toronto Raptors guard and 2019 NBA champion Danny Green.

On the heels of the Raptors’ first — and Canada’s first — league title last month, the chance to interact with Green, a 10-year veteran, was a hot ticket.

If not for the 200-camper cap, Basketball Manitoba executive director Adam Wedlake said Tuesday, there could have easily been as many as 400 attendees at the open event for boys and girls between the ages of eight and 16.

“It was the biggest camp we ever had,” he said. “I had to answer many of the unfortunate phone calls and emails of people saying, ‘Oh come on, let us in, let us in.’”

Since his time with the San Antonio Spurs, Green has run basketball camps as part of his off-season regimen. In his eight seasons in Texas, he would criss-cross the state; this year, Winnipeg was just one of several stops across Canada (the final event is in Vancouver later this week).

“That’s the future of our game. A kid in 20 years will say, ‘Hey, I was at that Danny Green camp in 2019, and that’s what inspired me to keep going with my game,’” Wedlake said.

On Tuesday, Green — who put up 10.3 points per game in 2018-19 — held four question and answer sessions to accommodate all 200 campers. After wrapping up for the day, Green stuck around for more than 45 minutes to take photos and sign autographs.

At the start of each session, Green clarified he would not discuss free agency — both his contract situation and that of Raptors star Kawhi Leonard, the reigning NBA Finals MVP, who was traded to Toronto (along with Green) last year.

One of the campers was 16-year-old Danica Langan, who travelled eight hours south from Thompson.

“I’m a big fan, I love the Raptors and (Green) just seems like a great guy,” Danica said. “I just wanted to meet him and experience his camp.”

Langan, who plays for R.D. Parker Collegiate in the Mystery Lake school district, said she already feels her game has improved after Day 1.

Another camper was 10-year-old Raptors superfan Logan Speers, a girl from Morden who won a contest that sent her to Toronto in March to watch the Raptors play the Houston Rockets.

Logan’s mother, Jenn, caught a photo of her daughter’s reaction when Green first walked into the gym at the Canada Games Sport for Life Centre in downtown Winnipeg. Logan’s eyes were wide, jaw dropped, as she points out Green to another camper.

Knowing she would have the opportunity to meet him up close, Logan put together a small gift for Green that included a pack of Juicy Fruit gum, a Snickers bar, crafts she made for him and a letter telling him why he’s her favourite player. Green and other camp councillors were happily surprised by the gift.

The fervour around the event came as no surprise to organizers, Wedlake said.

Manitoba has a history of being one of the top basketball provinces in Canada, including first-place national finishes by the under-17 men’s and U17 women’s teams in 2014, he said — and the sport’s popularity in the province continues to grow.

nicholas.frew@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @n_frew