No nights off…

“No Nights Off” is the mantra of the 2014-15 National Basketball League of Canada basketball season.

From November to about mid-April, it’s also my mantra.

For the fourth consecutive year, I’ll take care of maintaining statistics and player relations with the NBL.  This means I have to make sure that every player on the league’s eight teams is eligible to participate through both FIBA (the worldwide governing basketball body) and CanadaBasketball (the country’s hoops governing organization).  Every Sunday, I’ll put together a downloadable “Weekly Report” featuring statistics and scores from the week’s games, and I might do a road trip or two to a game or three.  We shall see.

There are eight teams in the NBL – four in Ontario (the London Lightning, Brampton A’s, Mississauga Power and Windsor Express), and four in Atlantic Canada (the Halifax [N.S.] Rainmen, Saint John [N.B.] Mill Rats, Island Storm and Moncton [N.B.] Miracles).  Windsor won the championship last year, and they’re looking to keep that trophy.

Windsor is also one of three teams with Albany-based connections – DeAndre Thomas, who won the Most Valuable Player award a few years ago as the center for the Albany Legends (IBL), is the starting centre for Windsor.  (See what I did there? Center?  Centre?)  In Brampton, David Magley is the head coach for the A’s; he also played for the Albany Patroons in the early 1980’s.  Another former Patroon, Marvin Phillips, is currently in training camp with the London Lightning, where he played for parts of two seasons.

The fourth team in the Central Division, the Mississauga Power, has never finished the season with a winning record, but that hasn’t stopped their players from working out harder and stronger in the offseason. Just ask Morgan Lewis, the team’s star player.

Over in the Atlantic Division, the Island Storm, whose location in Prince Edward Island inspired Anne of Green Gables and rich red soil for potato farming, have reached the finals for the last two seasons, and are hoping that the third time is the charm.

But standing in their way of returning to the finals might be the Saint John Mill Rats, who recently made news by signing 5’5″ Aquille Carr, a YouTube mixtape hoops sensation.

And what does this all mean for me?

Simple.

It’s a pro league I can enjoy, I can root for, I can follow, I can appreciate. These are young men who are bringing professional basketball to Canadian cities and packing fans into buildings for extremely competitive hoops contests.

And thus is the league slogan this year. #NoNightsOff.

Because no team, no player, no coach can rest.  In every matchup, greatness can happen.  Excitement on the court.  That fast-break slam-dunk.  That no-look pass that turns into an easy layup.  The steal that nobody saw coming.

Everything.

It all starts on November 1.  And it ends when the championship trophy is hoisted high above.