Canadian basketball history was made on Thursday night as the ball tipped for Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
For the first time in the nearly 80-year existence of the NBA, three of the 10 starters in an NBA Finals game were born north of the border.
The fourth Canadian in these Finals, Montreal’s Bennedict Mathurin, will come off the bench for the Pacers.
The quartet of Canadians in the fourth round ties a record that was set just last year when the Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks. That title series included Oshae Brissett (Mississauga, Ont.) for Boston and the trio of Dwight Powell (Toronto), A.J. Lawson (Brampton, Ont.) and Olivier-Maxence Prosper (Montreal) for Dallas.
But much different than last year’s group, the four Canadians in the 2025 Finals are all critical to their team’s championship hopes.