Personal Best: Sudbury product David Turcotte praises Canadian basketball as FIBA tournament rescheduled
Posted on May 20, 2020
David Turcotte is on the phone from the relative sanctuary of Park City, Utah, and learning that the Canadian border with the U.S. is about to remain closed for the next 30 days, at least.
Unsure how that will affect the family’s plan to return to live and work in Canada, he says they are still moving back home.
In the meantime, there’s no denying the national team and Lockerby Composite School basketball alumnus continues to fly his Canadian colours.
The 13-year member of the Canadian national team is relieved and psyched that the FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament remains in Victoria. It was announced last week that the do-or-die event will be held June 29 to July 4, 2021, almost a year later than originally planned. It will be held at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria.
David Turcotte
His first thought was for the athletes.
“You train all of your life. Even just to attend an Olympics is an incredible opportunity and an honour and a life-changing experience,” he says.
Turcotte played for Canada at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and was a national team member from 1982 to 1995.
After graduating with a degree in economics and finance from Colorado State University, where he was a four-year starter, he earned a law degree and graduated from Brigham Young University. He currently operates IOXO, an end-to-end cloud security and computing software platform.
Secondly, though, he says he’s not like most Canadians in the way that he thinks about Canada. He lacks an oh-shucks, soft-pedal attitude, he says.
“I actually believe Canada is the greatest country in the world. I believe that we have a fantastic balance between sports and life and education and caring for one another.”
As a Canadian citizen and U.S. permanent resident, he especially sees this from his current vantage point in a pandemic in the States.
“I’m telling you, down here, it’s a disaster.”
Turcotte believes basketball is Canada’s game and he puts that money where his mouth is as a founding member of the Canadian National Basketball Teams Alumni Association with Misty Thomas and Howard Kelsey.
The NBTAA tells the story of Canada’s impressive basketball legacy that extends beyond James Naismith’s invention/creation in 1891 (he apparently also created the first football helmet).
Turcotte, Thomas and Kelsey reconnect and work to create opportunities for any former national team members, including coaches, builders and referees, and establish a connection to future players and fans.
He has a lot of pride in the current collection of women and men playing the game. There is a real resurgence in the game in Canada, he says. The FIBA final qualifier and the Olympics are a real opportunity for them, he says.
Turcotte admits or acknowledges to having an ego.
“Ask anyone in Sudbury: ‘Ah yeah, Turcotte’s head is gigantic.’ And it is,” he laughs.
But “the truth is as great as I ever thought I was,” and as great as Sudburian Eli Pasquale and the others were, Turcotte says this current crop of Canadian men and women is the greatest talent the country has seen.
It’s basketball, he believes, that should be a world power and always hunting for the podium.
“And so for me, my relief is that on an individual basis, (the team) will have the opportunity to walk in and participate in an Olympics for their personal lives and to feel the pride that it is to have the Canadian flag on your chest and to be about Canada and to have it not be about you.”
As usual, the men’s Olympic basketball future bobs in the rising waters of another round of last-chance qualifiers. Canada’s last played at the 2000 Olympics.
And as the pundits fear, it might well be harder than usual to get NBA players to the tournament, because of NBA scheduling and contract issues, according to Sportsnet.
For Turcotte, the focus needs to be on winning the qualifier. One of the errors of the past was not focusing on the mission at hand, he says.
“To qualify it will take an incredibly dedicated focus to embrace the one-and-done pressure that is this tournament.”
They have to beat Greece, China and Turkey.
As well, he hopes the team will make efforts to connect them as a team, the country and each other, and “taking back what is rightfully Canada’s as a leader on the basketball stage, then this team will do unbelievably well.”
Moving forward, the global pandemic has levelled the playing field. The challenge now will be to find creative ways to get the team together for fun camps where they can play and train, he says.
“It would be great to have a couple of training camps where it’s just training, rehab, scrimmages, pick-up basketball, trash talking, (and) a couple of cool things to do together. The greatest thing that the country could do for our team is to find opportunities which other countries may not — where our team could bond as human beings, as teammates.”
In the meantime, it remains a big win for Victoria to host the tournament. Turcotte praises the leadership of Clint Hamilton, the UVic athletic director and the committee he’s on, as well as Glen Grunwald, Basketball Canada president and CEO.
For Turcotte, Canada doesn’t need to ask permission to be great in the game.
“There’s no damn reason we can’t lead and proactively put ourselves in a position to win.”
Laura Young’s column, Personal Best, runs regularly in The Sudbury Star.