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Courtside at the ACC, he met ’em all. Shaq. Doc Rivers. Alonzo Mourning. Dwyane Wade.

“Dwyane Wade,’’ recalls Christopher Johnson, “was My Guy. My favourite player growing up. So to have that opportunity was amazing. This little kid staring up at this big basketball player, going ‘Wow.’ An idol.

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“Pretty cool.’’

The gent in charge of introductions? Paul Jones, Johnson’s uncle but far better known as the play-by-play man of the NBA Toronto Raptors on Fan 590.

“Listening to the Raptors on the radio and hearing your uncle’s voice,’’ laughs Johnson, “well, let’s say I was the envy of a lot of my friends.’’

So an indoctrination into sports, to segue into that world, would only seem to be in the cards. But wait. There’s more. In 1984 at the Los Angeles Coliseum, in front of a crowd of 93,000, Molly Killingbeck helped make Canadian track history in the women’s 4×400 Olympic relay final, combining with Charmaine Crooks, Jillian Richardson and Marita Payne to hit the line second in a time of 3:21.21, three seconds behind the winning Americans.