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NBA All Star 2016 Live Stream Free Online
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When Greg Anthony arrived in Vancouver to join the inaugural Grizzlies team in 1995, the cash in his pocket wasn't the only currency that he needed to exchange.
Anthony was a star in college at mighty UNLV and went to the NBA to play for the Knicks, who took a back seat to nobody in New York during those playoff days.
Anthony was a star in college at mighty UNLV and went to the NBA to play for the Knicks, who took a back seat to nobody in New York during those playoff days.
In hockey-mad Canada, it was another story. There was no star treatment for hoop stars and no real understanding of the game. Local and national publications had to run basic tutorials that explained the rules of the basketball to fans.
"I don't want to say it was humbling, but to a certain degree it was. To go there where it was kind of a Basketball 101 for so many people," said Anthony, now an analyst for NBATV. "We all want to feel like what we do matters. It took a while for it to really matter for the vast majority of people in Vancouver."
Basketball has finally carved out a much higher profile in the country's sports consciousness, albeit 20 years after Anthony first set foot in Canada as part of the NBA's initial in-roads into the country.
The Grizzlies lasted only six seasons in Vancouver, but as the NBA's All-Star weekend kicks off on Friday night in Toronto, it offers Canadian basketball its first opportunity to really show the rest of the world how far the game has come.
Canada is ready for its close-up.
"You could put it up there with some of the biggest moments in Canadian basketball history," said Dan MacKenzie, vice president and general manager for NBA Canada.
That list isn't incredibly long. The Toronto Raptors, the other team to break into the league with the Grizzlies in '95, have lived a largely unremarkable NBA life with only one playoff series victory in franchise history.
Like the Grizzlies, the Raptors early days were difficult, with players and coaches often expressing reluctance about coming and staying north of the border.
My, how times have changed.
On the 125th anniversary of the invention of the game, the NBA is holding its midseason gala outside of the United States for the first time.
It comes during a period of rebirth for the Raptors, who have galvanized under the leadership of general manager Masai Ujiri and coach Dwane Casey. All-Stars Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan have led the team to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference at the break, giving its dedicated and vocal fan base reason to pack the Air Canada Center.
There are 12 Canadian-born players in the NBA, more than any other country outside the United States. And budding young stars Andrew Wiggins and Tristan Thompson have helped put Canada's national team on the map in international competition.
Television viewership of NBA games has doubled over the last three years, bolstered by an influx of immigrants from basketball-hungry nations like China and the Philippines.