Before Cory Joseph was an NBA Champion with the San Antonio Spurs, or even a standout point guard at the University of Texas, he was a 10th grader standing at the foul line in a packed gym in Hamilton, staring down two crucial free throws.

Joseph’s Pickering High School Trojans clung to a two-point edge over Rexdale’s Father Henry Carr Crusaders, and his team’s hopes of winning the 2007 provincial title depended on Joseph stretching their lead. At 15, Joseph was three years younger than most other players on the court, and the stakes were the highest he had ever faced, with four seconds remaining in an OFSAA semifinal.

Pickering basketball coach Michael Gordensky can’t decide which is more impressive, the perfect form Joseph showed as he sunk both free throws or the focus required for such a young player to do it under such intense pressure.

Either way the play gave Pickering the cushion it needed in a game they would win by a single point, helped propel them to the first of two consecutive provincial titles, and added to a Cory Joseph legend that will only grow now that he has agreed to join the Toronto Raptors.

The upcoming NBA season will mark the first time since 2008 that Joseph has performed regularly in front of local fans, and Gordensky says the 23-year-old is still the same player he was at Pickering.

Except now he’s better, and with a bigger platform.

“He’s always been a team-first guy. He wants to distribute and chooses his spots to score,” Gordensky says. “Now people are going to see him every night on TV, and he’s going to be getting some serious minutes.”

NBA rules mandate the free-agent deal won’t become official until Thursday but Joseph tweeted Sunday night that he was joining his hometown team. According to media reports, he will earn $30 million over four years in Toronto.

After four seasons as Tony Parker’s understudy with the Spurs, Joseph is set to become the most important homegrown contributor in Raptors history.

Scarborough’s Jamaal Magloire spent the final season of his career with the Raptors, playing 34 games in 2011-2012. But Joseph joins the club as he enters his prime.

After averaging 9.0 minutes and 2.0 points per game as a rookie, Joseph appeared in 79 games last season, starting 14 and recording 6.8 points and 2.4 assists per game.

With health and playing time, his production and influence figure to increase in Toronto.

Centennial College men’s coach Jim Barclay says Joseph has already established an important basketball legacy in the GTA.

A family friend who coached Cory and his older brother Devoe at Pickering, Barclay says Joseph changed Canadian basketball by enrolling at Findlay Prep near Las Vegas to finish his high school career. These days Canadian hoops stars routinely move to the U.S. to play high school ball, but Barclay says Joseph and Cleveland Cavaliers standout Tristan Thompson were pioneers.

“I’m convinced Cory and Tristan where the guys who broke the dam,” Barclay says. “All the good players started going to prep school.”

Twelve Canadians opened last season on NBA rosters, but former national junior team teammate Rob Gagliardi says a GTA native playing a key role on Canada’s only NBA team will nudge basketball’s popularity even higher.

“He can have a Vince Carter effect. Maybe even bigger,” Gagliardi says. “All these kids are going to be watching and saying, ‘Why can’t I be Cory Joseph.’ ”

Joseph, who hosts basketball clinics in the GTA each summer, isn’t necessarily a product of the Carter-inspired basketball boom.

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Both his parents are former college players and older brother Devoe currently plays pro ball in France. Barclay says that pedigree would have led Joseph to basketball even if Carter had never played here.

And former Pickering teammate Jonathan Tull says Joseph’s background fostered the hoops IQ that helped him stand out even as the youngest player on a roster loaded with future CIS and NCAA players.

“It surprised a lot of folks but it didn’t surprise me,” says Tull, who plays at the University of Regina. “I knew his skill level. He thrived under the pressure of playing with older kids.”