Canadian pro athletes showing dominance

With our geographical parents, Canada and the United States, seemingly on the verge of divorce, now is a great time to review what might be the best thing to keep these trade-warring countries together.

Sports.

While the two countries are bitter rivals in hockey, a sport in which they both do well, there is no such heated rivalry in other major sports. However, Canadian athletes are fully embedded into the fabric of professional basketball, football and baseball.

The most dominant Canadian in a U.S-based pro sports league is the runaway favourite to be this season’s most valuable player in the National Basketball Association, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder. The No. 1 winter sport south of the 49th parallel (it’s a distant No. 2 in Canada) gets more attention from the sports networks than any other, and the guy known as SGA, from Hamilton, Ont., is the league’s best, most dominant player. He is the league’s leading scorer, with more than 32 points per game, and is averaging nearly two points more per game than his nearest competitor, Giannis Antetokounmpo of Milwaukee. SGA is second in steals among all NBA players.

Network observers and columnists who report on the NBA are lavish in their praise of Gilgeous-Alexander and have been declaring him the leader in the MVP race for most of the season.

Canada will have a strong Olympic basketball team led by SGA and a supporting cast featuring Jamal Murray of Denver, R.J. Barrett of the Raptors, Zach Edey of Memphis, Andrew Wiggins of Miami and Dillon Brooks of Houston.

In football, running back Chuba Hubbard of Edmonton is approaching superstar status with the Carolina Panthers after a 2024 season in which he ran for 1,195 yards, despite missing the final two games with a calf injury. Other Canadian NFLers of note are London, Ont. twin bothers Chase and Sydney Brown of the Cincinnati Bengals and Philadelphia Eagles respectively. Chase is a running back/receiver while Sydney plays safety for the Super Bowl champs. Wide receivers John Metchie of the Baltimore Ravens (born in Taiwan, raised in Brampton, Ont.) and Josh Palmer of Los Angeles Chargers (also Brampton-raised) and Miami safety Jevon Holland of Coquitlam, B.C. are also NFL stars with Canadian heritage.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Canadians playing baseball at a professional level in the U.S. were few and far between. Perhaps the most famous was Chicago Cubs pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, a Hall of Famer who grew up in Chatham, Ont., and was always identified as “Ferguson Jenkins of Chatham, Ontario” in news reports circulated in Canada. Today, however, Major League Baseball rosters are flush with Canadians, led by Maple Ridge, B.C.’s Tyler O’Neill of the Baltimore Orioles, who belted 31 homers for Boston last year; the Naylor brothers, Josh and Bo, the pride of Mississauga. Ont., who both play for the Cleveland Guardians; and star reliever Cade Smith of Cleveland, who was born and raised in Abbotsford, B.C., and dozens more.

Thankfully, tariffs don’t apply to sports excellence.

OUT OF BOUNDS

• Greg Cote of the Miami Herald, on one voter denying Ichiro 100 per cent induction into the baseball Hall of Fame: “Why are we surprised … are you familiar with America? In this fractured country we could have a poll that asked, ‘Do you believe in love and happiness?’ and it wouldn’t do 100 per cent.”

• Jeremy Baker on bluesky.app, after Canada didn’t make the medals at the recent World Junior hockey championship: “Some people are complaining about the refs and bad calls. The game was in Ottawa. If Canada can’t find a corrupt ref in Ottawa of all places, we deserve to lose.”

• Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel, on Donald Trump playing a role in talks between LIV and the PGA Tour: “Here’s hoping Trump and Vice-President JD Vance don’t invite (Jay) Monahan back to the White House, where they berate him and then side with the Saudis.”

• RJ Currie of sportsdeke.com: “God’s truth: I’ve just watched 11 minutes of TSN without any mention of Leafs’ centre Austin Matthews. So I must — oops; they didn’t make it to 12 minutes.”

• Headline at theonion.com: “Homesick Luka Doncic Gazes Longingly at photo of barren Dallas office park”

• Headline at fark.com, after Seahawks’ DK Metcalf demanded a trade: “DK Metcalf decides he’d rather not stand around and watch Geno Smith hand the ball off all game.”

• Another fark.com offering: “Jets release all the receivers that GM Aaron Rodgers brought in, leaving them free to sign wherever QB Aaron Rodgers’ corpse washes up.”

• Columnist Norman Chad, on things overheard from the four-legged competitors at the Westminster Dog Show in New York: “Donald Trump stopped by and asked to see the American foxhound’s birth certificate.”

• Steve Simmons in the Toronto Sun: “The slow, steady, cautious approach Kevin Cheveldayoff takes in operating the Winnipeg Jets would be terrific if he were handling your financial portfolio. You’d get your eight per cent every year from Chevy. But you’d never hit on a big one.”

» Care to comment? Email brucepenton2003@yahoo.ca