Michael Linklater, Community Leader | Good Sports EP9 - Good Sports | YXE Local Sports

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Whatever makes you happy, what gets you out of bed,
whatever kicks the cop webs, you'll join it instead of
victorious day dream, don't with glory of fame by we

(00:26):
all have the same team.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
That is the name of the game. Yes, indeed, it
is time for another edition of Good Sports. Thanks as
always to Sean Karpenka for our wonderful theme song. My
name is Ryan, and I'm excited to be back with
you again this week for the latest and greatest in

(00:49):
Saskatoon sports. And we've got a great one for you
this week. Our guest here on episode nine. He is
the man who had an entire day dedicated to him
just a couple of weeks ago here across the province.
He's a basketball champion, he's a community champion. He's the
one and only Michael link Later, and he will be

(01:10):
with me here in just a few minutes time, and
we're gonna cover all kinds of ground about his life
in basketball and outside of basketball as well, because he
has done some pretty cool things off the court in
addition to all of his accomplishments between the lines. So
excited for that one. Stick around an extended conversation with
Michael Linklater. The feature guest this week. Of course, you

(01:33):
can catch all of our previous episodes on the Different
Avenue Media Network YouTube channel and where you can find
this one as well. That's where you're watching it right now. Whoa,
I'm in your head, I'm in your computer right now,
I'm in your phone. Woah. Spooky stuff. Yes, but please
do like, share and subscribe. We want as many people

(01:54):
on this Different Avenue Media Network train as possible and
we're just gaining momentum as we carry on on the tracks,
clips and highlights from the show, as well as other
information you might want to find out about local sports.
You can follow that on Instagram at good Sports three
oh six. You can also follow me if you're so inclined,

(02:14):
at Ryan f Sports Guy on Instagram. And you know,
we're in the works to get some audio versions of
these shows as well up on your favorite podcast platforms,
so stay tuned for more details on that in the
coming weeks. Very exciting there as well. And of course,
if you are a local business or a business person

(02:35):
or someone with something to promote and you want to
partner up with us, we would love to hear from you,
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work together. Let's let's help in celebrating this great, wonderful

(02:58):
local sports scene that we have here in Saskatoon and
surrounding area. All Right, before we get to our future
guest this week, of course, we have to get caught
up on what's been happening around town. It's time for
what's going on alrighty, and we're going to begin what's

(03:29):
going on this week in a familiar place because the
Saskatoon Berries, they just keep on winning baseball games and
so they get to be top of the A block.
There's a little TV speak for you. Until further notice.
The Berries, how about this. They have clinched a playoff spot.
They did it with still twenty countum twenty games left

(03:52):
on the schedule, officially clinching their spot in the Western
Canadian Baseball League playoffs with an eighteen to two VIC
three over the lowly Swift Current fifty sevens on Saturday,
that being July the twelfth. As of recording this episode,
we're recording a little earlier than usual this week, but
as of recording this episode, the Berries riding a four

(04:13):
game winning streak after sweeping a weekend set with swift
current to put them at thirty one to five on
the year and yes, clinching a playoff spot with almost
a half of the season still to go. If you
needed any more illustration of their dominance, then the record
would show. But it's just been a tremendous year and

(04:37):
coming up the Berries will be very well or presented
in the WCBL All Star Game. No surprise for a
team that is thirty one and five again as of
recording this episode. By the time we go live, they
might have a couple more wins on their record, but
the Allstar Game is coming up this coming weekend on
Saturday in Okatoke's Alberta Beautiful Seamen Stadium, and six Barry's

(05:01):
players were actually named to the All Star Game. They
are catcher Balen Sorensen, who's rocking a two to eighty
four average with four home runs and twenty five RBIs
along with twelve doubles. Make that thirteen doubles again as
of recording, another catcher Ethan Minard, the Louisiana product, hitting

(05:22):
a ridiculous four to thirty one at recording nine home
runs twenty nine RBIs on his stat chart, also going
to the All Star Game. The product of Carnduff, Saskatchewan.
He's been right here in the studio. He's appeared on
this very show. It is Carter Beck. He is going
back to the All Star Game, hitting three point fifty

(05:44):
five with five dangers, twenty six ribbis, and eight stolen bases.
Infielder Abiam Medina also All Star Game bound, his hitting
three seventy three so far with two homers and twenty
five RBI. A couple of pitchers also getting the call.
Matt went Starter, who's made seven starts, putting up a

(06:04):
five to zero record in a three one seven ERA
in thirty nine and two thirds innings, pitched thirty one
strikeouts in just seven walks over that span. And the
other hurler is a reliever, Tanner Hosik, who has a
two to one record and a one point seven to
two ERA in fifteen and two thirds innings, pitched four
saves and a sparkling eighteen to three strikeout to walk ratio.

(06:30):
So very deserved selections for all six of those players
for the Barris mentioned the All Star Game is coming
up this Saturday in Okatok's. That is in the middle
of an eight game road trip, or at least eight
straight road games for the Berries that actually is already
going to be underway by the time this episode goes live.

(06:51):
But they're in Lethbridge to play the Bulls Thursday and
Friday night before that All Star game in Okatok's. Then
they're back to league play the following day Sunday and Monday.
They are in Weyburn to take on the Beavers next
Tuesday in Swift Current, and then their next home game
is July twenty fourth, a week from Thursday at Thursday

(07:11):
twenty fourth against those same Swift Current fifty sevens. So
that's your next chance to catch the Berries at next
Gen Patch at Karen's Field, where they have done pretty
much nothing but win this season, and they are certainly
making an early claim to being the favorites for the championship.
But hey, playoffs are a funny thing their best of

(07:32):
three series, so they're certainly putting themselves in a very
good position to have a favorable matchup in the playoffs,
But still a lot of baseball to be played before
we get there. So all star bound six Berries and
the rest of the team also continuing to hum along
as they just keep on piling up the wins. That's
what's going on with the Saskatoon Berries. Let us move

(07:52):
to the hardwood, which is going to be the focus
of our feature interview here today with Michael link Later
his former team, one of his former teams, the Saskatchewan Rattlers.
As you know, if you've been watching the show or
you've been following the Ratlers this season, it's not been
a tough year for them. Again here in twenty twenty five,
they dropped to four and twelve with a loss in

(08:13):
their only game of the past week. It was kind
of a stinker the first half. They just weren't competitive enough.
They made a better effort the third quarter, but they
had fallen too far behind the Winnipeg Sea Bears and
they end up losing that game ninety four to seventy.
They get shut out in target time, didn't even score
a point in target time, but really they were down

(08:35):
twenty two at the half and they never got back
within any closer than I think nine points in the
second or the second half. So again they fall to
four and twelve, and they're not quite officially eliminated from
playoff contention, but they basically need to win every remaining
game and get a lot of help from out of
town as well, because the rest of the Western Conference,

(08:59):
well at least the top three teams, the ones they're
chasing in the Western Conference, they are all just continue
to win basketball games. The Edmonton Stingers as of recording
this episode, at one six games in a row, the
Calgary Surge have I think five or six more victories
than the Rattlers and the Vancouver Bandits, who were in
first place in the conference. They actually have already clinched

(09:21):
a playoff spot, so time is very close to running
out on the season release the playoff hopes for the Rattlers.
They still have eight games remaining as we record this episode,
and the next one is actually well, they'll have played
eight the next one by the time you see this,
So they're hosting Calgary, but then they'll go on the
road to take on Vancouver on Friday night. That's the

(09:43):
first of four straight road games. The next chance to
catch the Ratlers at home is not until August sixth,
when the Edmonton Stingers come to town. By then, who
knows what the scenario will be. Hope perhaps that they
still have a chance for that game to be meaningful.
Maybe Edmonton starts to stumble a bit down the stretch

(10:03):
and the Rattlers have been picking up some wins by then.
But time will tell how they're doing. But four and
twelve the record after that loss to the Winnipeg Sea Bears,
which was a rivalry game and a return of some
familiar faces former Rattlers on that Winnipeg team, but they
just did not come out with a great game. They
were missing Jordan Bowden, who had scored forty points in

(10:24):
a record nine to three pointers among that in the
previous game and win over Ottawa, but they couldn't sustain
that momentum in the game against Winnipeg. A real disappointing
loss for the Rattlers, putting another big nail in the
potential playoff coffin there. But some good news from a
former Rattler now Sea Bear that is connected here to Saskatoon.

(10:48):
That is Alex Campbell, who is currently playing for the
Winnipeg Sea Bears, but he was part of that Rattler's
twenty nineteen championship team and officially being welcomed back onto
the coaching staff of the Siskata which when Husky's men's
basketball team. Alex Campbell was on the staff a couple
of years ago with the Dogs, wasn't with them last year,

(11:08):
but he is now going to be the lead assistant
coach for Jamie Campbell. No relation this coming season with
Huskies men's hoops now. Alex is not from Saskatchewan. He's
from Toronto. He played his university basketball and winsor but
as I mentioned, he came to Saskatchewan to play for
the Rattlers back in twenty nineteen, was part of that

(11:30):
championship team and kind of fell in love with the city.
If I'm not mistaken. He maybe met someone as well
here while he was here that helped cement his love
of Saskatoon. But he's since then it's basically been a
second home to him. And he did have that previous
stint that I mentioned coaching on as an assistant coach
with the Huskies, but now lead assistant and you know,

(11:52):
he's getting to the tail end of his playing career,
so starting to look more at the coaching side of things,
and a guy who is a tremendous leader on his team,
whatever team he's on, makes for a good coach as well.
He really wants to be a part of that player
development pathway for some of those players who maybe the
next generation of CEBL players. And so very exciting news

(12:17):
for the Huskies to have someone with his level of
experience and expertise back on the staff in an elevated
role from the position that he held two years ago. So
that's what's going on with the Huskies men's basketball program
and Alex Campbell. And finally, what is going on with
the Saskatchewan Swat. As we've documented throughout the season, it's

(12:39):
been another tough year for the Swat. They finished the
regular season without a win. They're now into the playoffs
because in their four team league, all four teams do
make the playoffs. So despite their zer to fifteen record,
playing a best of seven semi final series against the
Junior A Raiders out of Calgary, and they switched around

(12:59):
the format a little bit now. Typically, if you're the
lower seed in a series like that, you would host
games three to four and if necessary five, but just
for some scheduling reasons and to reduce some travel costs
and that sort of thing, the Rattlers, pardon me, the Swat,
in fact, it opted to host games one and two
of that best of seven series, and those would be

(13:21):
the only games should the series extend beyond four games.
Those were this past weekend against the Raiders Game one.
They gave him a real good battle, in fact, jumped
out to a three to nothing lead in the first
fifteen minutes of that game, but eventually it was the
Raiders who came back. The Swat could not sustain it,

(13:42):
as the Raiders ended up winning that game by score
of nine to five to take the opener of that series.
And then in Game two, which was the next day
on the Sunday, not at all like Game one, was
not close whatsoever. The Raiders jumped all over the Swat early,
scored a goal just over thirty seconds in, never really

(14:05):
looked back. They were up five nothing after one period
of play. They went on to win it nineteen to two.
They outshot the Swat seventy nine to thirty in the game,
the most lopsided game of the season for both teams
on either side of the win loss column. There real

(14:26):
tough pill to swallow for the Swat because that was
very likely their final home game of the year, because
unless they are managed to win two of the three
games that they are going to play in Calgary this
coming weekend, they will not Well, really, they have to
win the series because as I mentioned, they change the
schedule a round, so they will after they actually win

(14:46):
four of five in Calgary in order to advance to
the championship series. And so you know, based on the records,
based on the score lines, the odds of that happening
are very very slim. Indeed, so it was a very
tough way for them to finish up on home floor.
But as I mentioned throughout the season, there are some

(15:08):
real positive signs that this program, the swap program, is
poised to start making some noticeable gains in the standings
going forward into twenty twenty six. A lot of their
best players are among their youngest players, and so they
have gained a lot of valuable experience this year, and
they will only get a bit better as they get

(15:30):
older and stronger and their game gets more well rounded.
Will note in particular, Crosby rat the seventeen year old goaltender,
was terrific in both games on the weekend. Despite even
the score of Game two Game one, he made fifty
three saves on sixty two shots and was sensational. He

(15:54):
was pulled a couple times in the second game, but
that was pretty much a mercy poll because he wasn't
getting any support from the defense and anyone who faces
seventy nine shots is going to have our time winning
a game. But he's one of those bright young star,
potential future stars for the SWAT that they'll hang their

(16:14):
hats on moving forward. But seasons not quite over yet.
They are headed to Calgary for games three to four
and if necessary five this coming weekend. Game three Friday
night eight pm, Game four Saturday at three thirty, and
game five, if needed, will be Sunday at one thirty.
It's stup Pepper Arena in Calgary. If you are wanting
to catch those games, you can. You can watch them

(16:36):
online at HN Live and I think there's I think
it's a ten or twelve dollars fee per game to watch,
but we love our friends out in Alberto and HN
Live being able to provide those streams. So that's where
you can catch the SWAD in action this weekend as
they try to steal a game or two and extend
that semi final series. So that's what's going on with

(16:56):
the SWAD, and that's what's going on for this week.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Good spy.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
All right, excited now for this week's guest. And you know,
a tough guest to introduce, because there's just so many
different ways I could introduce them, so I'm just going
to suffice it to say with this. He's a champion
on and off the court, a member of the Saskatchewan
Huskies national championship team in twenty ten, the Saskatchewan Ratler's
championship team in twenty nineteen, and a very hard working

(17:19):
community advocate as well. Now that his basketball career is
somewhat over, but still very very busy and doing a
lot of great things in the community. And we are
so happy to have him here. It's Mike Linklater.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Hey, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Mike. Great to get you in here. I know you're
a busy guy, so I appreciate you giving us some
of your time. You know, I want to just what
I was saying, like, I was trying to figure out
how I wanted to approach this interview because there are
so many different things we could talk about. Because you've
had such a fascinating and exciting life and done so
many different things, not just in basketball, but outside of

(17:51):
the sport as well. And normally I start go all
the way back to the beginning, but I think in
this case, I want to start in the most recent
because you just had an experience that not a lot
of people do, which is that you had a day
dedicated to you. That this isn't just like you know,
it's your birthday and people are having a party for you.
This was an official government declaration from the Provinces of Skatchwan.

(18:13):
You got the documents and everything to prove it. What
was that like just when you first heard we're gonna
have Michael Link later day in Saskatchewan.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
It was it was wild.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
When I got the news, I couldn't believe it. At first,
I was like, wow, like this is this is big.
And then as we moved forward, like getting closer to
the day like it was, it was, it seemed like fine,
Like I kind of almost like put it aside and
was just doing my daily things. But then when the
day actually came, it was it was very surreal.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
You're a father, so I wonder what your kids thought
about this, Like, are they like, come on, seriously, does
he need more than like, what was the reaction from
the kids.

Speaker 4 (18:52):
Well, that's interesting because my daughter, Gigi, we were walked
into the game and we greeted some people. They said hi,
and somebody might ask my daughter that question and she
go they said, so, what's it like to have to
you know, for your dad to have his own day?
What's it like for you? She's like, it's a lot
of handshaking.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Gotta work on that grip. Yeah, absolutely, you know, for
for a guy coming out, you know, coming from the
thunder Child first Nation and growing up in being basketball
and then getting to do all these things and traveling
around the world, Like, do you are you accustomed yet
to being you know, a celebrity? You're you're you're known,
your face is known, your name is known, not just
here in Saskatoon but elsewhere as well. What's that like,

(19:35):
you know, coming from humble beginnings to have that kind
of recognition and you know people know.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
Yet Yeah, well, I definitely wouldn't use the word celebrity. Uh,
nor would I ever see myself like that. Uh. The
way I view myself as just an everyday person. Honestly,
it's the way I look at myself. And you know,
I had a conversation with a friend, and I was saying,
I was explaining to them in terms of my perspective
of myself, like I don't think I'm anything special or

(20:03):
I've done anything special, And the reason for that is
because everything I've done anybody can do. And I think
where attention may come is because I'm the only one
doing certain things where we all get busy in our
day to day lives and you know, family all of
these things. But what I'm doing anybody can do when

(20:26):
it comes to supporting your community, when it comes to
like achieving or you know, going after things that are
really important to you. You know, when I look at
people who I think are special or things that not
everybody can do. Is when we talk about like philanthropy.
You know, there's a handful of families in this community

(20:47):
that are able to make significant contributions to infrastructure into
programming that really build our community. But outside of that
handful of families, you know, anybody can do what I've
been doing in terms of community building. So I don't
look at myself as anything special. You know, I'm just
as special as the next person, and I think it's

(21:08):
important for me in terms of my upbringing to make
sure that I always always remain humble, and it was
something that was taught to me at a very young age.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
So basketball, what role has basketball play? Because obviously basketball
has given you a bigger platform of what would you
like if it wasn't for basketball? Would you do you?
How do you feel? I Mean it's one of those
almost impossible to answer hypotheticals, but like you're talking about
having a voice in the fact that everyone has a voice,
right and that it doesn't matter where you get that platform,

(21:40):
but you have that voice. So do you think you
would have been this passionate about the things that you
are without having been given the opportunity with basketball to
have that platform to use that voice.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
Yeah, I do recognize that. Yes, basketball, you know, was
the vehicle that got me to where I am. But
when I if I rewind to what I was just
saying earlier, like it was something that I was passionate about,
and you have people who are passionate about a lot
of different things. So in terms of finding your passion
or working towards your goals, that's something that contributes to

(22:14):
your confidence when it comes to supporting other endeavors. So, yes,
having the platform of being an athlete and being successful.
It was looking at where can I redirect this light
and redirecting it onto things that are more important because
sport is a wonderful game, it's a wonderful tool, but

(22:35):
at the end of the day, it's just a game.
And when you look at life in the grand perspective
of things, there's a lot of things that are way
more important and that require a lot more attention. So
if you have an opportunity where you have a platform
to be able to share that with other things that
you know are arguably more important, I think that's really

(22:56):
how you know, we can make the community a better
place and really have a lasting impact.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
So when you get a dig dedicated to yourself, I
mean that obviously must be an opportunity for some reflection.
What do you go back? What did you kind of
what were you reflecting on here in the last few
weeks when as this was happening.

Speaker 4 (23:18):
I thought about how did I get here, you know,
being in this moment and basically reverse engineering my time
in terms of where am I where I'm at today
and just going backwards and if you take it all
the way to the beginning.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
In terms of how I got here.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
It started with my grandparents, my great aunt and her husband,
Maria and late Walter Link. Later they raised me, you know,
since I was, you know, a newborn, and what they
went through and them understanding the changes they need to
make make in their lives gave me the opportunity to

(23:58):
have success in my life.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
So looking back.

Speaker 4 (24:03):
At you know, the residential school survivors was something that
was important to me in reflecting and all of what
they've gone through for us my generation to be where
we're at today is something I looked at and then
thinking about my children, like my family, my kids, because
what I guess most people may not realize, but when you,

(24:25):
I guess, dedicate yourself to a life of community service
and service in general, you're borrowing my time or my
kid's time. So thinking about all of the time that
I spent away from my kids is also something that
it was a sacrifice that my children and I both
had to make, and it's something that hopefully when they

(24:49):
get older, like as adults, they can appreciate. But you know,
that's something that you never get back. So really taking
a moment to appreciate the time I'm that they've been
so gracious to give me to the world.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Are there are there moments you look back on it?
I use the phrase it's not something I coin, but
have you seen it before? Sliding doors? Moments? Are there?
Forks in the road? Are there? You know, moments within
your you know, your youth or you know when you're
coming up that you know you could have gone one direction,
but you want another that had have kind of helped
put you in the position that you're in now.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
Yeah, I mean I remember when I was thirteen and
that was probably one of the first forks in the
road where you kind of are making you I believe
I had the foresight to be able to see, well,
if I go down this road, it's not going to
be pretty, so I, you know, should stay on this path.

(25:48):
And so like it's kind of a fine line when
you're a teenager that I recall, and you know, even
as I got older, there was a few instances where
you know, teetering on that line of of you know.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Going down the wrong path.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
But you know, I was very very aware at a
young age to understand, you know, the impact that for
my family personally, that that alcoholism has had. And so
at a young age, that's where I made a decision
to abstain from drugs and alcohol. So and I've been
drug and alcohol free my entire life. And for me,

(26:24):
why that's so significant is because both of my biological
grandparents died of alcoholism. So it was something that I
needed to do not only for myself, but for my
kids in that next generation.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
That's gotta be I mean, especially when you when you
make a resolution like that when you're so and you're
so young, like, I'm sure there's temptations or you know,
situations that would challenge that that you know to maintain
that that sort of how you know? How were you able?
What was the self discipline? And I guess that must
have had something to do with your ability on the court,

(26:59):
like when you're to make yourself a good basketball player too, right,
like to have that kind of discipline and commitment.

Speaker 3 (27:04):
Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
Personally, it wasn't It wasn't that difficult, just because I knew.
It's almost like for me, maybe using an analogy, it's
like you see, you know, a hot burner or you
see a fire and you know if you put your
hand in there, it's going to get burned. So I
knew that if I went down that road, or if

(27:27):
I even teetered with that idea, I knew that I
would get burned. So it wasn't something that was difficult
for me because yeah, growing up through high school, yeah kids,
you know, your peers, parties, all of that stuff, and
even getting.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
Into the professional ranks. It wasn't something.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
That I was ever tempted to do personally because I
knew the outcome, you know, for those who came before me,
and what it did to my family.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
No doubt, I am sure like having those those very
you know, personal examples that that would resonate pretty strongly basketball.
I mean clearly, you know, you don't you have some
natural you have natural ability, but everyone has to work
at their craft too. How how it's impossible, I'm sure

(28:13):
not to separate or maybe it is possible to separate
basketball from from the rest, But like, how much did
the sport shape you as a as a person, especially
as you become an adult, Like how much did basketball
sort shape your character and your your personality and just
your your ethos even.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
Growing up as a basketball player.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
I think the greatest thing that could have ever happened
to me was getting cut from the first team I tried.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
Out from the old Michael Jordan's story.

Speaker 4 (28:39):
Very similar, yes, but this was like just an SMBA team,
like a community team, but there was only a certain
amount of spots and I picked up the game late.
All my friends you know, were able to make it.
But it gave me the opportunity to say, Okay, I'm
not good enough right now, so I need to work
to where I am good enough. And so I at

(29:01):
that very first experience, I was able to learn from
that and recognize that I needed to put in work
to get to where I wanted to be. And as
I started getting better and playing against higher caliber players,
I started to recognize my own weaknesses or where players
would attack me, and a lot of it as I

(29:21):
got older was in the post because I've always been
a smaller player, so I recognized that I needed to
work on post defense.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
I needed to get strong.

Speaker 4 (29:29):
So I always looked at my weaknesses as a player
and worked on those to make them my strengths. And
so that was something where I really prided myself on,
was to be as well rounded as a basketball player
as possible, because being under size and not overly athletic,
I really had to make sure I was doing the

(29:51):
little things correct.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
Was there any Was there a particular coach at all,
or anyone on the sidelines who really helped, you know,
helped you find that space.

Speaker 4 (30:02):
There was a number of coaches, but more so it
was it was actually players. Because I'm a visual learner, Okay,
so watching high level players play and having an experience
to play with some teammates who are high level players
gave me the opportunity to learn firsthand. See how they
moved their feet, see how they rotated. There was just
so many different things that I would just pick up

(30:25):
just from watching. And even in you know, watching NC
double A growing up, you know, a lot of the
players would pick up full court. And of course that
was in the States. I was in high school, so
you know, I remember being like one of the only
kids at the time in high school picking up full
court because I watched you know, NC double A. But
getting the footwork was through my high school coaches. And

(30:48):
there was a lot of people who've contributed in terms
of coaches to help me in terms of advancing to
becoming the player.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
I was your your game to me. I was always
had just a little bit of that extra little flair
to it, little playground in there as well? Is that
a product of you mentioned you know, you were always
been a little bit undersized that did you have to
add a little few little tricks and things that maybe
you might not see in a more traditional sense or like,
is that just a natural evolution of your game? Like
was that a conscious decision? Howd what sort of that style?

(31:16):
How did that evolve?

Speaker 4 (31:17):
Well? I learned how to play on an outdoor court,
so I learned how to play street ball, if you will,
before I learned how to play organized ball. And something
that I recognized helped me was the ability to just create.
And that's where I think where you know, when you
make reference in terms of a little bit of a flare.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
Also too.

Speaker 4 (31:39):
Growing up in my day and age, the big thing
was was and one video. So street ball at that
time was like really at its pinnacle, and you saw
all of this like extra extra, like things that didn't
need to be done but looked really cool at the time.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
So there was things.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Where I would practice some of those moves, moves just
messing around with friends. Sometimes I would incorporate that into games.
But what it did is when I practice things that
you know would never be done in a game. It
helped me to have those quick decisions in games, even
though I would never use it in a game, but
there was ways of that move that could be integrated.

(32:21):
And so that's where you kind of seen a little
bit of that flash, if you will.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
Was I think made you such a good fit to
three for the three x three game obviously, because that's
that that that is that game has more personality to it,
like it's got it in spades. I want to rewind
just a bit though, because you know, you you had
been to a couple of different programs before you ended
up back here at USask how how sort of how
did you wind up? What was the path and how

(32:47):
did you wind up kind of returning home to play
with the Huskies, which you know and obviously ended up
pretty darn well.

Speaker 4 (32:54):
Yeah, So plan A was to play n C Double A.
I wanted to go Division one because I grew up
watching it, so that was the goal. And then of
course every kid that plays wants to make it to
the NBA, so that was really this stepping stone was
get to NCAA and try to get to the NBA.
And what ended up happening was I went down to

(33:15):
the States actually my first, my very first like, so
it took me an extra year to graduate high school.
So that grade thirteen year, if you will. I ended
up going to Brandon and doing a year of high
school there. But at that time I was practicing with
the Bobcats, so it was it was a pretty interesting situation,

(33:36):
but it gave me the ability to see that, you know,
I could play at a high level. And so I
ended up going down to the States for my first
year at a junior college. And so I was at Bismarck,
which was called United Tribes Technical College, So they were
recruiting me, I think since I was like in grade ten,
because I used to go down there for men's tournaments,

(33:57):
so the coach was able to see me play and
the okay, So the plan was go play there two
years juco go and c DOUBLEA, but didn't pan out,
so I ended up coming back home played Huskies my
first go round in two thousand and three, and that
experience me and Greg did not I'll say I did

(34:17):
not get along well with Greg, Yes.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
Jocko, and just for me at that time.

Speaker 4 (34:25):
What didn't resonate with me was I think every kid
thinks that they should be playing more than maybe they should.
And then you know, I was probably one of those kids.
But he wanted me to and I'll quote him pay
my dues, meaning he intentionally wanted me to sit. And
so it just didn't sit well with me because I

(34:46):
felt like I could be contributing at that time and
just you know, my my style and the way I played.
I was always a player that I would do whatever
it took to win, so that I'm not just a
one dimensional player in terms of I don't come into
a game and see myself as a shooter. I don't

(35:07):
see myself as coming in as you know.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
A defender.

Speaker 4 (35:10):
It's like, what does my team need from me right
now in order for us to win? And so scouting
the other team, Okay, do they have you know, a
solid guard that I need to lock up? Okay, that's
my assignment for the day. Are we playing a team
where our bigs are going to be challenged and I
need to.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
Be more aggressive?

Speaker 4 (35:28):
So always looking at how can I contribute to us
winning was my perspective.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
And so Greg that first year, he.

Speaker 4 (35:36):
Just didn't we didn't see He'll tell you, He'll tell
you this and this is not bashing, and this is
just the truth.

Speaker 3 (35:43):
But he almost kicked me off the team.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
Like three times because I was I was letting him know,
like when I didn't like something.

Speaker 3 (35:50):
So I was a little bit of a hot head.

Speaker 4 (35:52):
But after that year, I ended up going to SATE
and then after that I was I was in La
Clan and me and that coach, Oh my goodness, that's
a whole other shown that. Yeah, and then my last
year was with the Huskies, and I wanted I made
that decision because I wanted to finish my post secondary

(36:13):
career off in front of my family and friends.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
And yeah, very fortunate.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
They had a pretty strong team and they were successful
the year prior. It was almost identical the same team
and added me into the mix and Trevor nerd All
and what I brought to the team, what I thought
was was really the gel was really seeing where guys'
strengths were and being able to get them into positions

(36:40):
where they could be successful. And so we had, you know,
a huge team in terms of our size, and we
had talent on the perimeter, and it was just bringing
guys together to make sure we did what was needed
in order for us to win.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
Well, I mean and yes, and if you look at
the fact that there wasn't many other changes and the
difference being that you guys went all the way and
won a national championship, I guess you're gonna have you
get a lot of credit for that. Yeah, one would
only logic would dictate there, right, What was that like though,
because I mean that still is to date the only
Canada West and national championship for that men's basketball program.
There have been some close calls, even a bronze medal

(37:18):
at Nationals recently, but you know, that's such I mean,
it's one and done it in the Nationals. It's so
hard to get there in the first place. What was
that like to be able to cap off that phase
of your basketball life with that title?

Speaker 4 (37:32):
Well, winning it was was massive, Like it was, it
was huge for us, But we were in a mindset. Well,
I'll say I'll speak for myself. I was in a
mindset of like, okay, what's next, because didn't allow ourselves
to get too high on those wins. So, if you

(37:52):
rewind back a little bit, we came to our first
playoff game and we were hosting and at half this
is the first playoff game. At half, we were down twenty.
What was this again, I believe it was Trinity Western.
It was one of those BC teams. It might have
been even Fraser Valley. It was one of those teams.

(38:15):
But we were down twenty and I remember going into
the locker room at halftime and just looking at the
guys and saying, like, we just need to put in
you know, just give regardless of if your shot falls
or not. Just at the end of this game, look
me in my eye and tell me you gave everything
you had. You left it on the court in terms
of effort. We came out and turned the game around.

(38:37):
I think we ended up winning by like fifteen or something.
So it just spoke to the character of our locker
room and the guys and what they could do. But
we I got to give a lot of credit to
our coaching staff.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
Greg.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
I was going to say, Greg's still there at this
point to be.

Speaker 4 (38:52):
So it was a different So it was a different
a different tune this time. So actually before that two
thousand and nine ten season, I was asking Greg like, yeah,
going to come back and you know, looking to play,
and he's like yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
So I actually had to try out for the team.

Speaker 2 (39:09):
Is really true story Usually for guys the last year
of eligibility.

Speaker 4 (39:13):
Yeah, usually he was he wanted to have a look
at me. I don't know if he was upset or what.
I'll have to have a chat with him about that
and see what his his mindset was behind that. But
what ended up happening was, you know, as we started
getting into our season, we could see that we had
the talent and Sharon ga Glover, of course, coming from Sunnyside, California,

(39:34):
you know, he was a threat.

Speaker 3 (39:35):
He could put the ball in the hoop.

Speaker 4 (39:37):
So Greg knew that Nationals were going to be in Ottawa,
and so the likelihood of us running into Carlton was
going to be, you know, huge if you know, we
made it all the way, So he had us go
to their tournament. We went to the Carlton Ravens home

(39:59):
tournament preseason and we played them. And I don't ever
ever blame losses on refs. Ever, I always take responsibility.
You change your game based on how they're calling it,
and they say that as a preference our preface because
that game, six of us fouled out what all, I

(40:22):
think all of our starters fouled out or four of
the starters filed out in two bench players, so we
all filed out, but the game was so close, and
so we lost the game.

Speaker 3 (40:33):
That was that. But in our minds and my mind.

Speaker 4 (40:35):
Specifically, I was like, these guys are beatable, we can
beat them, and so fast forward, come all the way down,
we play them in the semi finals.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
And that's the.

Speaker 4 (40:46):
Leafer's story where he got injured before the game. So
it really put me personally into a mindset of like
we're winning this game, like we have to win this
game and do whatever it takes. And you know, we
ended up Not once did I ever think in that
game that we were ever going to lose my mindset,
So that was a big win going on winning against UBC.

(41:07):
Was we weren't worried about UBC at all.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Did that preseason game where you're all foul? Does that
also at all give you some sort of a chip
where you say, look, no one's going to give this
to us. We're going to have to maybe do even
a bit more to be at the same to get
the same level, not on our game, but just we can't.
We have no margin for areor did that fuel a

(41:31):
little bit throughout the season and goo, look, look, no
one's gonna do us any favors here.

Speaker 4 (41:35):
No, I wouldn't say that it fueled us, but I'll
tell you where we changed our mindset when it came
to fouls. We were playing our first practice in playoffs.
So we just finished our last home season or regular
season game. Now it's our first practice for playoffs. And

(41:56):
I remember I was guarding my teammate Preston into the
basket and practice and I might have fouled him and
or I might not, And he called a foul, and
I was really upset. I was upset with him for
calling that, and I looked over at Greg. Well, first
I got into some words with him. I was just like,
you know what, like there's you know, fowls whatever. So

(42:18):
I looked over at Greg and I said, from now on,
don't call another foul. I looked at Greg as I
checked the ball up and we played again. The possession.
Immediately after I go to the basket. Troy Gottsling's like
six eight, two hundred and thirty pounds. He literally close
lines me, and he was a co captain, so he

(42:39):
close lines me like I don't even know if he's
going for the ball, close lines me, I hit the ground,
ball goes rolling. Everybody stops and I get up and
I start backpedaling, and I say, the ref didn't see
And it was so blatant, which is why everybody stopped.
But that's what set the tone. And so from that
point on, played through everything and the practices. The physical

(43:04):
in practices went up tenfold. And guys aren't being malicious,
but we were just playing physical and like you learn
to play like if a guy grabbed you or hit
you on the arm, you knew to go through it
because coach wasn't going to be calling anything, and so
it just set a mindset for us through playoffs and
not once through our playoff rund did anybody complain about

(43:25):
a foul.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
So that's that's just you're bringing that playoff intensity to
the practice card and you're like replicating that as best
you can, right like that environment so that you're.

Speaker 4 (43:33):
Prepared because because we've been in games like that, and
every basketball player knows, like your refs are human, they
miss calls.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
But when you start directing.

Speaker 4 (43:43):
Your attention towards the refs because they missed a call,
it takes your focus on what the goal is and
it's winning the game. So when you can take those
distractions out by just playing through that, it's something that
really changes the team dynamic.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
So, I mean, it's it's funny because then, of course,
almost a decade later you're reunite with Greg on the Rattlers.
But between that those those championships, you end up playing
three x three with some of these Husky teammates as well.
How did that come about? Because I'll be honest, like,
I mean, I was aware people played three on three basketball,

(44:20):
but it wasn't until you know, I'm working at Global
and you're playing on the World Tour that I became
aware that this was a thing. Now, it was just
kind of starting to grow at that point, and you're
one of the faces that kind of helped that sport
really become a growing major popularity. But how did you
end up on the three x three court? Did you
find learn about it and get into it or did

(44:41):
someone come to you? How did that?

Speaker 3 (44:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (44:43):
So how we found it was so we got on
the tour the second year of its inception, so we
heard about I believe it was Jordan Baker in a
group from Edmonton and they went to Miami to play
in a three on three tournament. So Leafers he got
a call from a friend, a basketball friend, an o'high

(45:06):
school teammate, and he said, hey, there's this tournament in Edmonton.
If you win, you get a chance to or you
get a free trip to Puerto Rico. And so Leafers, yeah, yeah.
So Leafers calls me and he was like he asked me.
He goes, hey, you know, So and So asked me
to go to this tournament, but like, I want to
win it, so like, let's put a team in.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
So I was like, all right, I don't want to
know what the guys they're not good. We're not gonna
win with on this guy.

Speaker 4 (45:33):
Because we just came off a championship. We have the chemistry,
we know what it takes to win. And so we
got a couple of our championship guys. So there was
Troy Gott's leg, Trevor Nrdal Leafers, and myself and so
we went down. We played in this tournament and then
we found out that the rules were.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
A little bit different.

Speaker 4 (45:50):
So it wasn't your typical uh, you know, hoops for
hope in the parking lot or you're old back in
the day NBA Hoop It Up tournament. It was three
x three, so there was a twelve second shot clock,
the ball was live, you used a different ball. The
game was super fast, and it was first to twenty
one or ten minutes, so there was more parameters around

(46:11):
than just playing three on three. And then we got
told like it's called three x three. So we're like,
all right, well let's win. So we ended up winning,
and then a gentleman by the name of Ron Young,
who's still with Canada Basketball come to talk to us.
He's like, congratulation guys. You guys are going to Puerto Rico.
We're like, yes, it was in there. You're going to
be competing again, and we were like what, and so

(46:33):
he told us. So he's like, yeah, you compete there,
and he goes and if you place in the top two,
you're going to go on to the World Tour finals,
which were in Istanbul.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
So we're like, wow, okay, so all.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
Right, so we're not going on vacation. We thought we
were winning a vacation.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
We're going to go on to the to the All
Inclusive here exactly.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
So we get there, we finished in the top two,
and then we end up going to the World Tour
finals in Istanbul, and every year we just stayed on
the tour and we kept doing better and better, made
some changes. And what's really interesting about the success of
our team in terms of Team Saskatoon being on the
World Tour is we.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
Because of our success.

Speaker 4 (47:14):
Every game or every tournament you play and win, you
accumulate ranking points not only for yourself but for your federation.
And so since we're Canadian, we accumulated enough ranking points
for our federation, Canada Basketball, to get an invitation to
the World Cup. And so that's how we were able
to represent Team Canada. It's because we basically got them

(47:35):
a spot in.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
It's a good thank you. You deserve to get that opportunity.
You did the hard work to get them there. But
it strikes me though, like you know, you talk about,
you know, when you're younger and you're thinking about NCAA
and these sorts of things that must have been almost
like a revelation to go, oh, I'm done university. But
there is this whole other opportunity, this whole other outlet
for me to continue to play basketball at a high level.

(48:00):
And it feels like, again we talked about your style
of game, like it was almost like a match made
in heaven. Like how how much were your pinching yourself
especially early on to be like wow, like here I am,
suddenly I'm playing three x three and all these different
places like that must have been quite the Yeah.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
So to play to play professional, like to play past
post secondary was always the goal yea. And to have
the opportunity at first was with the Edmonton Energy and
I think it was the IBL at that time.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
It was a good experience.

Speaker 4 (48:29):
But then to have three x three and to travel
the world but also be home and still like work
on like your family and a career and doing other
things outside of basketball was something that was just a
perfect fit. And then when you talk about the game
of three x three, like it is so physical, and
I had always prided myself on how physical I could play,

(48:52):
so I loved it, like it was great because in
three x three you have to be a player that
is well rounded, and that's something that I had worked
on my whole life, was to make sure that, you know,
I didn't have many weaknesses.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
And when you talked about physical, I mean it's not
just the physicality of the contact, it's the physical strain
on your body, right because your go go go. People like, oh,
it's ten minutes, but it's ten minutes of NonStop action
and you have one extra guy, right, so you're not
getting much time to rest there at all. Like that is.
So there's a lot on animl because you know, I

(49:26):
had come to a couple of your training sessions and things.
I can see the work that you would put in
for that. So then it eventually end up getting to
have an event here. That must have been a very
cool kind of almost a full circle kind of moment.

Speaker 4 (49:40):
Well, you know, I had established a strong relationship with
FOBA at that time, and for a lot of the
places I saw the common denominator and it was beautiful backdrops,
like that was their thing. It's you had the hoop
set up and in the background, you had, you know,
an iconic location. And I was like, and we had,
you know, quite a significant fall following people who were

(50:01):
interested in how well we were doing elsewhere, and so
having conversations with FIBA, like at tournaments, they were always
interested in coming to North America, and they weren't big
fans of going to the States because in the big cities,
they're like the seventeenth item on that weekend agenda. So

(50:22):
I asked them if they would ever come to Canada
and they said, yeah, they would love to And I said,
well what about Saastoon and so they said they would
love to come. So I ended up pitching to discover Sastoon.
At that time, there were tourism Saskatoon and I believe
it was Todd Brandt who was the CEO of that time,
and just shared them, hey, we've been.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
On the tour, this is three x three. Would you
be interested?

Speaker 4 (50:47):
And they had a conversation and they said, yeah, that's
something we could entertain. And I think it was the
following week Todd was on a flight and he came
with us to the World Tour Finals in Abu Dhabi.
Before he left, he ended up signing a three year
contract and we had our first ever World Tour stop
in Canada and it was here in Tasatoo.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
Then you talking about beautiful, iconic backdrop, so he had
the Besbro right there.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
That was the thinking.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
It was like it would be perfect. I was thinking
like right outside those front doors. But the intersection a
little bit further back was it's good you.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Get the focal length you know, you get that extra Yeah,
it is fantastic. I know one of the years there
was a pretty bad wind you had to deal with,
but that's three x three two, right, because it's an
outdoor game.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
The thing I really enjoy about it is that it
really really illustrates the true global nature of the sport.
There are teams and nations that are represented in three
x three that you maybe don't hear about in the
as much in the traditional five on five. You know,
the first one that obviously I think it was Mongolia,

(51:51):
Like you don't think of Mongolia really in any sort
of sporting context, but they're a big, big player and
there's a lot of money that flows in this now too, right,
Like it's become a pretty big ticket item and now
it's an Olympics sport. You got to commentate on it
for the Olympics. I mean, come on, Like that had
to be pretty cool too, even though you know, I
know you were in like an enclosed booth, like you

(52:11):
weren't actually at the venues, but but to be part
of the growth of the sport and then to be
able to see it in the Olympics, I know there
was you were hoping at one point to maybe be
competing those but to get to commenting, I must have
been I'm close to the next best thing too, right,
what was that like experience? And to learn how to
how to commentate on basketball too, that would have been
a new new experience for.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
You for sure. You know.

Speaker 4 (52:33):
While I was a player, I sat on the Phoeba's
three x three Players Commission, and once I retired from
the game, I was sitting on the FOBA three x
three Commission. So we were advising the central board for
FIBA in terms of the development or growth of the game.
So been heavily involved with three x three, you know,
from its second year of its inception. So it was

(52:54):
interesting when it became an Olympic sport because we knew,
like through our path they were working towards getting it
into the Olympics.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
Like that was foba's goal.

Speaker 4 (53:03):
Was to create a unified game of a version of
three x three that everybody knew because you know, you
said three on three, there's so many different ways you
can play three on three, you know, and the rules
so created the unified rules that everybody follows when playing
that style. But they wanted to see it in the Olympics, and.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
So we were a part of a couple.

Speaker 4 (53:25):
You know, they made a submission to Brazil, but they
withdrew it because of all of the conflict that was
going on there in controversy, and then they put it
into the next game. So we were actively working to
get our team in there, but we had some conversations
with Canada Basketball and we just decided that it wasn't

(53:45):
going to.

Speaker 3 (53:45):
Be for us.

Speaker 4 (53:46):
So to actually get the call from CBC to say, hey,
you're interested in commentating, and I was like, wellhy what
needs to happen. So they kind of explained it to
me and they're like, yeah, come on down, we'll do
an audition. So they flew me in and it was
like the first flight out like five in the morning.
I got off the plane, went straight to the studio
and it was it was kind of a setup similar

(54:08):
to this. There was a big screen there and they
just played some tape.

Speaker 3 (54:13):
They had some producers in a room right beside and
they're like.

Speaker 4 (54:15):
Okay, you know, tell us about this game live, like
while we're watching. I mean it was recorded, and so
we went through it and so they were in my
ear and they're helping me coaching me through it, and
so they were like, you know, what's you know, what's
this number mean on the on the clock or what
what just happened? So speaking to that and then we stopped,
and then the producer was like, yeah, no, we could

(54:37):
definitely work with you. I was like all right, So
I ended up getting a contract to the Olympics. Crazy
thing was is I never had any They didn't work
with me.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
You were just dropped you in cold in terms of.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
Like training or anything.

Speaker 4 (54:52):
And then I met I believe it was Peter Rhett Gezer,
who was, you know, providing some of the analytics for
that at first Olympics we did, which was Tokyo twenty
twenty rackets one.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
That's right, that's right. He postponed the twenty twenty games.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
Yeah, and so it was it was it was really cool.
I mean he was a professional and working with professionals.
It's you know something where they help you through it.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
You gotta you gotta, I mean just for you gotta
get in my shoes. Though here I'm going like, geez,
this guy he's been he's accomplished so much in so
many parts of life, and now he's getting on my
corner here. Well, I'm gonna be out of work. I mean,
it was really cool to watch it. I mean even
these last games too. I know you're involved as well,
and it's I mean, I mean, you know, I'm from
Saskatoon as well. You know, grew up here, and I

(55:39):
mean I always rooted for the people who are from here.
You know, when I was a kid picking my favorite athletes,
it was like, you know, the hockey players were from Saskatoon,
you know, the Brian Scrudlands of the world. Not sorts
of things. And I mean, I remember we're about the
same age. I think I might have a couple of
years on you, but I mean I remember, you know,
your exploits being documented in high school, you know, at
Mount Royal in the paper and reading about that and

(56:00):
all sorts of things. So always kind of kept an
eye on things. But I'm going, geez, now he's getting
in a that's like the one thing I can do.
Come on, let's go. Although I will say this, that
would be a very It would be really cool. One day,
maybe we'll be making this happen. Someday we could call
a Rattler game together. I would have fun doing that.
That happened. Let's get to the ratlers, because this was
kind of like I want to like it was kind

(56:21):
of like your your your your your your final bow,
your your your swan song if you will, and you
get to go out as a champion in the pro ranks.
Were you sniffing around that as soon as you kind
of heard about the cebl or you know, did Greg
because Greg Jockolins as he comes up again, he was
the head coach GM of that first team. Did he
come to you saying like I want I want you

(56:42):
involved in this year one? Like how that takes you? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (56:46):
Actually it was. It was it was Lee.

Speaker 4 (56:48):
Lee reached out to me, you know, when he was
before anything was public, you know, he had reached out
and said that he would like me to be a
part of the team some way, shape or form. And
then once they made the announcement where Greg was, you know,
GM coach Greg had reached out to me and he
was thinking his initial idea was to really bring like

(57:10):
our core guys of who won the national championship together,
but just didn't pan out, Like there was some injuries,
guys hadn't been playing much. And one of the reasons
why I agreed to play, you know, because because I
was at the end of my career, like I had
nothing more to prove or to really do. Was because

(57:32):
I knew the importance of representation and I thought about
the little kid, like the me, the little me, because
it was a full circle moment because a long time ago,
the Saskatchewan Hawks, we're playing at Sastel Center, and they
had a player by the name of Russ R. Shamble

(57:53):
and he was from Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and he
was a phenomenal athlete. But I was a and I
remember practicing with the team and going to games and
I was standing on the court and we were just
shooting around like they kind of had a practice or
it was a pregame, and I was like, wow, it's
so cool to see another Indigenous player here at this level.

(58:13):
So it gave me the ability to aspire to be there.
And so I remember stepping on the court and I
was like, I remembered that. But why I agreed is
because I knew how many First Nations children would be
at that game and see somebody that looked like them,
to give them the ability to aspire to play, you know,
at that level. So to go out with a championship

(58:37):
was you know, just the icing on the cake. But
you know, there were so many things that just fell
into place, like you know, them deciding to have the
first championship here in Saskatoon, and then us winning it,
and then my teammates throwing me up on their shoulders
at the end of the game.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
So great, there's great, great photos that are you know, yeah, iconic. Really,
it was very very cool, even just to be a
building for that. You mentioned that representation piece, and I
mean that's obviously important. That can be a real wait
for some people, I can almost feel like a burden.
I would imagine for some folks, it feels like you've
really embraced it and leaned into it. At what point

(59:16):
did that kind of Chris or was that always top
of mind for you or was there a point at
which you kind of kind of latched onto that realization
or that desire to want to really stand up.

Speaker 4 (59:29):
Well, we talked about having a platform, you know, so
knowing that I had a spotlight on me in the
sporting world, I knew that there was always eyes on me,
and I think the first time, yeah, the first time
I spoke publicly, I was sixteen, so being asked to
speak at a youth conference, so I knew that there
was always eyes on me, but I always had the

(59:53):
understanding where I was looking at it from little Michael
in terms of how would you know this affects you
or how would it inspire you? Because we've all met,
you know, people we look up to, and to be
able to have you know, young people who come up
to me all the time and want to be basketball players,
it's it's heartwarming. So I know how important it is

(01:00:14):
for us to have representation. So I've never found it
like having pressure personally, but to be able to recognize
that there's a lot of people where it means a
lot because you know, just like you said, you know,
when you see people from Saskatoon doing well, like you
feel good because it's like it's almost like a part
of you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:33):
And it's the same thing.

Speaker 4 (01:00:34):
Within the indigenous community but also the community of Saskatoon
and a broader But you know, when I've had success,
it's like everybody shares a bit of that success.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
So how does that inform the community. Because now, of
course your playing career has been over for a few
years here, but you've obviously still been very involved in
the community in a lot of different levels. So Kiss
Win Solutions is one of your many ventures. Boys with
Braids is another one. Do you just need to be
busy all the time? Like, what is the like and

(01:01:06):
how much of sort of what you've learned over the
course of your athletic career has kind of informed the
community work that you now do.

Speaker 4 (01:01:13):
Yeah, How I would I guess correlate is I've on
the basketball court as an individual, but also being part
of teams, I've done things that have never been done before.
And how that transition is. Do I always need to
be busy?

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
But it's it's like what are the needs? Yeah, and
why aren't people answering those needs? Well, if nobody's going
to answer those needs, I'll step up and answer them.
Because I said, it's there's nothing special that I've that
I'm doing or that has been done because anybody can
do it, for example, like the basketball court. You know,
I once I retired, I look back on my career

(01:01:52):
and I was thinking about what's the what's the how
can I replicate what helped me to potentially help the
next year generation of up and coming basketball players? And
so when I looked at my career. I learned how
to play on an outdoor court. It was a freshly
built court outside my school yard at Saint Mary's Community School.

(01:02:12):
That's what inspired me to play, so huge milestone. How
do I recreate that as a kid? I was like,
why doesn't Saskatoon have a nice outdoor court where everybody
could play? Because when I was a kid, we would
always meet at that playground at that park and we
would always play and we would have games all the time.
There was no central court that Saskatoon has where people

(01:02:35):
knew where to go or called it the court or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
So that was my endeavor.

Speaker 4 (01:02:39):
It was like, okay, you when I knew in order
to accomplish these things you need a team. So I
reached out to a couple friends and then from there
we went to the city. We asked them, hey, we
want to build you infrastructure, borrow us land and we
gift it back to you. City doesn't have people coming
up to them saying we want to build you infrastructure,
so they had to create this whole process. We worked
through it together. And while we were going through this

(01:03:02):
process of working and trying to figure it out as
we go, basically stumbling through the dark. Canadian entire Jump
Starts Charity found out what we were doing and they
wanted to jump on board. So they came to the
table with a significant contribution, basically bankrolling the whole thing
for us to get.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
A court built. So it was important to.

Speaker 4 (01:03:21):
Also continue the legacy of my ancestors in our language,
so named the court pawte Tan in Cree. What that
means is let's dream together. And we have the centered
logo piece, which is the National Residential School Survivor's flag.
So in honoring those who came before us, and Jumpstart

(01:03:44):
was all for it. They said, yeah, we want to support,
we don't want to take it over. And so that
was their first because they build multi sport playgrounds, this
was their first basketball court only. So helped in the
design in terms of because people will build courts, but
they don't know how courts like should go or flow.
So was giving them guidance in terms of like, like

(01:04:07):
this is how the layout should be.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
And it worked out and.

Speaker 2 (01:04:10):
It's it's I mean, I drive it by it all
the time, I've been walk by it all the time,
and it's there's always some some action going on there,
even when even if the weather's not all that great,
there's usually it's just a wonderful And you know, it's
one of those things too that you know a lot
of people probably didn't even think about that we didn't
have until we had it. Then you go, man, how
did we not have this before? So, I mean, that's

(01:04:32):
just one to make. I think that dovetails nicely because
we were getting short on time, but obviously I wanted
to have you on here at this time of year
because we've got the Urban Games coming up and we're
gonna have this episode will be out just a day
or so before those happen here this coming weekend, and
you're a big piece of that happening, right because that
started last year. I believe last year was the first one,
so we're the second one. What do you learn in

(01:04:55):
year one? And what are we gonna what are we
expecting here? What? What tell us about it? Because it's
there's a lot going.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
Yeah and see and kind of tails onto your last question.
Do I always need to be busy?

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
No? But I just said that a little facetiously. But
it feels like you have so much on your plate
at all times.

Speaker 4 (01:05:09):
But it's like there's there's so many things that can
be done. So where the whole concept, So yx Urban
Games is another baby of mine, But where I got
that was Foba asked me to present at the World
Urban Games. So there's a World Urban Games. There's certain sports,
but the concept of the Urban Games is something that
again I was like, Saskatoon could could do this, Like

(01:05:30):
this is wonderful. So the whole concept is to be
able to bring high level athletes adults, but also have
youth divisions in each of these categories because again that representation.
We're seeing high level athletes to inspire you. And it's
all sports that are not your big ticket sports, your

(01:05:52):
you know, your top five year hockey's, football's basketballs, like,
it's none of those sports. It's all kind of like
in between or lesser known sports, which I like to
say that are more accessible, especially when it comes to cost.
So any kid can show up and see these high
level athletes playing, but they could also register in a
youth division and play as well. So it's a really

(01:06:14):
cool weekend coming up this weekend and there's a lot
of activation that's also happening. So what's also unique about
Urban Games is you don't come just to be a spectator.
You can come and there's different things that you can
actually try. So I think that's really cool and was
just at the last committee meeting and Kara Laki and

(01:06:36):
all of the executive committee and volunteers have been phenomenal
in making this happen. I can't take any credit for
this year because they've been running it very smoothly in
terms of the preparation. But what I realized in that
meeting is it's not just a sporting event. What we're
actually doing is we're building community because breakdancing is in

(01:06:59):
the Urban Games as well, which it doesn't cost you
anything to break dance, but there's high level breakdancers who
are actually mentoring younger breakdancers who are just getting into it.
And there's actually a category of a mentor, so there
will be a mentor and somebody who's new as a
breakdancer to be able to compete.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
In the games.

Speaker 4 (01:07:19):
So I realize that we're building community. But then Kara
said to me, she goes, this is actually built by community.
So it was really interesting because all of the different
demographics of sport are the ones that are running their
respective because they are the experts in their field, so
they're the ones who are running those specific tournaments. So

(01:07:41):
this year we have over a thousand athletes who are
coming Sastoon who are registered. It's continuing to grow, you know,
with anything new, you know, sponsors are always a bit
hesitant in terms of what is this is it all
want to show right, So you know, this is year
two and it's growing. We've added pickleball to the mix

(01:08:03):
and last I heard there was like one hundred and
twenty teams.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
Pop We've got it's a populash. We've even got our
own pick up all venue now in town near the
old Granite Urling Club.

Speaker 3 (01:08:11):
So looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 (01:08:13):
And that's and that's gonna be. There's gonna be things
happening all over town. But is there sort of a
central is that going to be kind of centered around
Victoria Park or.

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
H Victoria Park.

Speaker 4 (01:08:20):
So working very closely with the City Festoon as well
as the Jazz fest So we'll be utilizing a lot
of the infrastructure that's up right now to stop with
some of that takedown setup. There will be a few
adjustments to it, but that's gonna be kind of the
central hub. There will be metal presentations on Saturday. On Friday,
we're going to have our opening ceremonies and a huge

(01:08:42):
kickoff to the game. So weekend passes are available for
people to come and you can go and see any
of the venues.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
And I mean it is like I was thinking of
the word festival. It's almost like a full on right
because you've got there's parts, installations, there's music, there's other performances. Obviously,
there's tons of the great sports and excitement like that.
I think it's just a tremendous event. I'm very excited
about it. Before I let you go, this is completely
out of the left field, but I had to because

(01:09:08):
I mean, the one thing I haven't even mentioned. I mean,
there's a lot of things I haven't mentioned, but I mean,
you were just on the Amazing Race Canada, and last
time I talked to you, it was after you had
taped the show, but you could it hadn't gone to air,
so we couldn't talk about it in any great detail.
But I just I wanted to. I'm not going to
grill you about it, but I mean, just that experience,
and I wondered if there was any particular momento that

(01:09:28):
you that you brought home with you from from that experience.

Speaker 4 (01:09:32):
Yeah, well the experience was was phenomenal, so much fun,
like to be able to do that with my son.
I guess a token that I brought back was I
have a couple of the amazing race envelopes. So yeah,
I mean there's no clues in the but but yeah
we brought it and of course very iconic to be

(01:09:53):
able to see one of those that have them. So
but in terms of that whole experience, yeah, it was.
It was a lot of fun, but crazy. We were
the only first team from Saskatoon I know, ever be
on that race, and we were the first first Nations
or Indigenous father son duo to be on.

Speaker 2 (01:10:11):
That right because they had the doctors won it a
couple of years before that, but they went over they
finalist like but wasn't a Father's Hunt teams, So yeah,
you're pioneers there as well in that sense. That's very cool. Yeah,
it's funny how I mean, we we have that underdog
mentality in Saskatchewan, right because if we don't get a
lot of that. I remember auditioning for the old Drafted

(01:10:34):
show that used to be on the Score Network, the
broadcaster like you know, be a broadcaster show. It was
like the sports broadcasting version of of you know, Hell's
Kitchen or something like that. But I remember pitching myself
to them because it was for like season four of
saying like, you've never had anyone from Saskatchew on this show,
like come on.

Speaker 3 (01:10:52):
And let's go. And now it's why I stilling the producers.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
I didn't make it, but you know, but but it is. Yeah,
it's so that must have been that has been nice
to get you. We were waving a few flags, I
guess on that show, right, But.

Speaker 3 (01:11:03):
That's what I told them.

Speaker 4 (01:11:04):
I said, there's so many phenomenal people and stories from Saskatchewan,
like you got to get more people on there.

Speaker 2 (01:11:10):
Had you watched like previously and been like you know
with you and a Maari like ah, you know, this
is how we would do it or I would do it?
Or were you a big fan of show previously.

Speaker 4 (01:11:17):
Or yeah, like I had watched a lot of them
more so like Leafers was the one that kind of
put me on to it, and so I was able
to see a couple of the shows prior to us
going on. And you try to prepare, but you really
can't prepare, and you know, what I could share with
you is that you you really have no idea what's

(01:11:37):
coming next. You wake up in the morning and they
take you to a location and then they tell you
what time you're because it's all based on time in
terms of how you finished. And so they give you
an envelope and once you rip that envelope, that's when
you know what you're doing. So just as the audience
watches it, it's we're getting We're aware of it as

(01:11:59):
we eat it, and then we got to figure it out.

Speaker 2 (01:12:01):
What was the most memorable challenge that you had to
had to do?

Speaker 4 (01:12:04):
Having my son repelled down Niagara Falls was one of
the coolest. One of the funnest or funniest was when
we were curling. We had a blast curling. And I
mean what was also funny but not great for me,
but was when we were in Regina.

Speaker 3 (01:12:20):
We flew through that.

Speaker 4 (01:12:21):
But was the eating challenge and my son, you know, puking.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
It was hilarious to me.

Speaker 2 (01:12:27):
Well, it was pretty iconic and just another chance for
you know, folks here to root on one of their
own again, to be like, hey, hey, it's where we're
represented again, and multiple levels just very very cool. Stuff
urban games. Congratulations on that. Really excited to see your
two here and and and really excited to see what
else you've got cooking and down the road, because I

(01:12:48):
know you've got you've always got some projects on the go.
So you know, a man, a true man in full,
a true renaissance man right here. Mike, thanks so much
for giving me so much of your time and share
and some of your story with us. I mean we
only hit some of the highlights. There's again I hope
you got a book deal coming or something, because you
got to get this documented properly, not just in a

(01:13:08):
forty five minute chat. So but again, thanks so much, man,
and best of luck with everything you've got coming for you.

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
Good spot.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
Well, what a fantastic chat with Michael link later and again,
so many different roads we could go down with that.
I'd love to have him here again just to talk
about all kinds of different things. But we had I
helped hopefully we hit some of the main highlights, especially
when it comes to the basketball part of his life. Courses,
it is a sports show, but again someone who is

(01:13:36):
very proud of where he comes from and is very
determined to represent his community all of his communities and
to support them and to give back to them as well.
We need a lot more Michael link Laders in the world,
if you ask me, the world will be a much
better place if we have more people like him. But

(01:13:56):
we got to celebrate the people like him and him
for doing what they do, not just in their sport,
but in life as well. So thanks so much to
Michael for being here, and we'll see if we can
get a good sports pump off of him as well
before we go, of course, as always, we go to
end off the show by saluting our good sport of
the week, and we're gonna stick with basketball here and

(01:14:17):
we're gonna go back to the Saskatchewan Ratlers, who, despite
having a disappointing year thus far, have had a few
bright spots, and certainly the brightest of them has been
their captain from Plainfield, New Jersey, Nate Pierre Lewis, who
has been a rock throughout the year. He has maintained

(01:14:37):
his even keel, he has kept the team up despite
some low moments, and his performance on the court has
been spectacular. Now he likely will not get MVP consideration
just based on the team's record, but for my money.
He's been one of the two or three best players
in the league this season. And the scoring numbers might

(01:15:00):
not jump off the page at you, but how about
the assists as Nate Pierre Louis And this is why
he's our good Sport of the Week this week, because
by the time this episode goes live, I can confidently
say this he will have set a new CEBL record
or assists in one season. He entering play on Tuesday night,

(01:15:21):
he was three assists shy of tying the record, which
is one hundred and twenty six assists that was set
by Corey Davis Junior of the Calgary Surge just last season. Now, interestingly,
Corey Davis is in Vancouver this season playing for the Bandits.
He did join them part way through the season though,
so he's not going to have a chance to surpass
his own record. But Nate Pierre Louis again was just

(01:15:44):
three shy. As we record this episode, they hadn't played
that game yet. By the time you see this episode,
they will have played the game, and based on the
numbers that Nate Pierre Louis has put up, I can
very confidently say that he has broken that record. I
hope I'm not putting a weirdly time a time travel
jinks on it here, but I'm gonna go out on
that sturdy limb because, you know, just putting up crazy

(01:16:08):
assist numbers he had, He's broken the franchise record for
assists in a game not once, but twice this season.
He had a thirteen assist game and then a fourteen
assist performance in that electrifying win over Ottawa about a
week and a half ago, and then he had another
six assists in that loss to Winnipeg, which put him

(01:16:28):
within three of tying the records. So the other impressive
thing is that even though the season has been expanded,
the schedule was expanded from twenty to twenty four games
this season in the CEBL, he's going to break the
record inside twenty games. So you won't have to have
anyone putting any ass risks on that saying, ah, yeah,
but Corey Davis did it in twenty games, Nay, Pierre
Lui is gonna do it in seventeen games, So no

(01:16:51):
fears about him, you know, having to do it and
needing twenty two or twenty three games to break that record.
Just a tremendous year and The remarkable thing about it
is this is really the first season in Nate pier
luiz basketball career that he's really played significant minutes as
a point guard. He's always thought of himself as a
point guard, but very few coaches have really trusted him

(01:17:12):
with that role over his career. In fact, he was
telling me he's been he's been cut from teams or
released from teams because coaches didn't really know where he
fit within the offensive scheme. They didn't feel comfortable making
him their point guard. Well, Eric Magdan's and the Rattlers
have entrusted him with that role this season, and he's
rewarded them in spades. He is certainly not not the

(01:17:36):
person that you're going to point any fingers at because
of the when you want to find someone to blame
for the four and twelve record. He has doing everything
he can to get the Rattlers over the hump, and
so I wanted to salute him because in the midst
of a tough year, he's having a tremendous campaign and addition, dimes,
so many dimes you can make a long distance call.

(01:17:57):
It's been fantastic and super fun to watch. So Nate
Pierre Luis for that reason is our good Sport of
the week and that wraps up another edition of good Sports.
Thank you so much again for watching, and a reminder
you can follow the show watch all of our episodes
at your leisure on the Dufferent Avenue Media Network YouTube channel.

(01:18:19):
I want to thank the folks here at Different Avenue
Media Network, as I always do, for making this show
possible all the work they do behind the scenes. Thanks
delb for producing and putting this episode together. And please
please do like, share, subscribe. Let's get this thing going bigger, bigger,
bigger as we continue to go on here, maybe that

(01:18:40):
and we've definitely had our biggest guests so far here
this week. So thanks again to Michael link Later for
being here and joining us, and tune in next week
to find out who's going to be in the hot
seat as we keep on cooking. Plenty of good sports
still on the horizon. I'm Ryan Flaherty, Thanks so much
for watching it. Of course, be a good sport.

Speaker 1 (01:19:00):
Whatever makes you happy, what gets you out of bed,
whatever kicks the cop website, you'll join in instead a
victorious day dream.

Speaker 2 (01:19:17):
That's my glory of.

Speaker 1 (01:19:18):
Fame, that's bing me all on the same team.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
That is the name of the game.

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Michael Linklater, Community Leader | Good Sports EP9

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Michael Linklater, Community Leader | Good Sports EP9