EDMONTON

It is in Toronto where Paul Sir is seeing firsthand how far his country his come, and how much further his province could go.

The executive director of Basketball Alberta is in the GTA for the Biosteel All Canadian Basketball Game, which takes place Tuesday at Ryerson University, and will be broadcast at 8 p.m. MT on TSN. Twenty-four of Canada’s best high school hoops stars will compete in the inaugural game, including Edmonton’s Awak Piom of Harry Ainlay.

“It really is significant to be in the epicentre of basketball in Canada in the Toronto area,” said Sir. “Being out here, I can see why it’s no fluke that the (Canadian) players that are doing well in the NBA and the NCAA are primarily from this area, because the talent pool out here is really quite remarkable.”

What is shaping up to be a landmark event got under way Monday, with the All-Canadians practising and competing in a three-point shootout and slam dunk contest. The smorgasbord of young basketball talent never seen before in this nation has caught the attention of many, including 23 of the NBA’s 30 teams, who are expected to have representatives in attendance, perhaps looking for the next Anthony Bennett, Tyler Ennis, Trey Lyles, Tristan Thompson or Andrew Wiggins, Canadians who all recently entered the NBA draft after just one season of college..

“Canada is such a hot property right now, it is really the darling in the NBA’s eyes,” Sir said. “They’re wanting to get a head-start to see who’s going to be coming out of Canada and going to university down in the U.S. and might be on their radar in the not-too-distant future.

“I had the opportunity to talk to George Raveling (a basketball hall-of-famer who is a former coach and broadcaster, and now works as a global marketing director for Nike), and he just said that Canada is ‘it’ n the world right now. He sees a pool of talent that not too long ago people really weren’t aware of. This is where people are looking, so it’s quite something to see.”

While it is called the All-Canadian Game, just five provinces are represented, and Piom is the lone Albertan. Seventeen of the 24 play in Ontario.

“Most of the players here have been ID’d by coaches south of the border,” said Sir. “That’s one of the things I knew, but now I’ve seen firsthand.

“The amount of attention these kids get from NCAA coaches is astronomical, whereas we still are very much removed from the mainstream recruitment pathways, and there’s no easy way to break into that.

“Kids just have to get better at younger ages, and we have to get them down to the States in front of people at earlier ages, and identify our high-performance athlete at earlier ages in Alberta, and that’s something we are working on at Basketball Alberta.”

Piom, a six-foot-four shooting guard, stood out for Alberta in the national championships last summer, was invited to try out for the Canadian U17 team and most recently joined fellow Grade 12 star Aher Uguak in leading the Titans to a second straight provincial title. He hasn’t decided where he’s going to play next year, unlike the majority of his All-Canadian teammates whom he got up and personal with on Monday.

“Awak today in practice competed well,” said Sir. “He at times was a bit overwhelmed and I think a bit behind in some areas, but he was right with the kids in other areas. Awak’s a very good athlete and a good player, but it’s the type of thing that he just hasn’t been exposed to night in and night out. They’re used to playing against really though competition a lot, whether that’s in Ontario or in prep schools in Canada or down in the U.S. They’re just so used to playing against tough kids.

“Now, having said that, there’s no question Awak and Aher can play with these kids. Can Alberta kids compete here? Absolutely.”

On Tuesday, Piom will suit up for Team White, coached by Paul Melnik of Toronto’s Father Henry Carr, the school that produced Ennis.

“This is a big time event and Awak is breaking ground for Albertans,” Sir said. “Hopefully he’ll inspire many other Albertans in the future to want to be a part of this.”

brian.swane@sunmedia.ca

@SunBrianSwane