A weekly pickup game that has lasted 25 years has reflected basketball’s growth in Toronto

Basketball has been a part of Trevor Lui’s life for as long as he remembers.

Growing up in downtown Toronto with immigrant parents from Hong Kong in the 1980s, Lui spent his Sundays watching the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics on TV with his grandfather. He started playing organized basketball in Grade 9 and was part of some local pickup games in his early 20s. He was invited to a weekly game at the Harbourfront Community Centre in 1998 and, more than two decades later, attends the same game every Tuesday night.

“It’s been our outlet for the past 20-plus years,” says Lui, the co-owner of Superfresh, an Asian night market located in The Annex, and the author of a cookbook. “It’s the one day where we don’t have to deal with stuff at home or at work. We just show up, talk s--- to each other and play ball for two hours.”

Lui, who stands six-foot-one in his throwback Ben Wallace Detroit Pistons jersey and Nike sneakers, still gets a thrill every time he scores a basket. “There’s an inner kid in all of us. I still feel like when I was 17 hitting a basket at a high school game.”

The Tuesday group has the typical archetypes of a weekly game: the grumpy old head who disagrees with every foul call; the nonathlete-looking dude who grabs every offensive rebound; the cocky kid who takes every available jumper; the annoying guy who you have to chase for an hour as he runs through every screen. But there is also a shared camaraderie among lifelong friends who have forged a connection through their love of basketball.

When people point to the impact of a pro basketball franchise in Toronto, they talk about the “Vince Carter effect” and the rise of Canadian players in the NBA. But the Harbourfront pickup game is another reflection of the growth and popularity of basketball in the city.

Michael Chow, who has been part of the pickup run since its inception, didn’t even play basketball growing up in Toronto. “It was ice hockey and ball hockey,” he says, “until the Raptors came here.”

In 1997, two years after the Raptors’ inaugural season, Chow and a handful of friends decided to rent a court at Central Commerce Collegiate, a Toronto high school now known as Central Toronto Academy. Eventually, a Tuesday spot opened up at the Harbourfront.

“It was a hodgepodge of close friends,” Chow says. “It was just a bunch of guys goofing around.”

A few years later, Lui was invited. He had dropped out of Western University and was working in the hospitality sector. And when he received a job offer in the Niagara region, Lui would occasionally make the hour-long drive so he wouldn’t miss the weekly run. He has made friends at the game, friends that reflect the Toronto diaspora.

Adrian Pryce was born in the city but spent most of his childhood in Jamaica, where he learned to play basketball barefoot on the concrete in the scorching summer heat. Pryce, a TTC employee, has been part of the game for 18 years and schedules Tuesday nights off at work.

“It’s a priority,” he says.

Jeff Regular, who runs several popular Thai restaurants, including Sukhothai and Pai, shares the same sentiment. “Everyone knows to not book anything on Tuesday nights for me,” he says, laughing.

Growing up in Scarborough, Regular played in Filipino leagues and volunteered at Raptors games during their first season at the SkyDome. The downtown location of Pai has become a popular hangout for NBA players, starting when Jonas Valanciunas and Patrick Patterson played in Toronto.

But not even a photo-op with some of his favourite players would keep Regular from his weekly game. He often brings his son, his brother or staff members with him.

The love of basketball that has been shared by first- and second-generation Canadians in this pickup game for 20-plus years is in line with a recent study that says basketball is the most followed sport among newcomers to Canada. According to the 2021 study from Solutions Research Group, 56 per cent of newcomers follow the NBA. The Raptors were No. 1 when new Canadians were asked to identify their favourite pro sports teams from North American leagues.

“I grew up in an age without internet and cellphones, predominantly in immigrant-heavy neighbourhoods. We relied on the playground community life, spending hours on hours living out those game-winning-shot moments,” Lui says. “These youthful memories essentially helped shape who we are today as we’ve grown with the culture of sport in our communities. These weekly runs are really reliving those moments.”

Lui had talked to Regular and others about organizing a basketball league for restaurant staff across the city. Then the pandemic hit and the pickup game was shut down. Regular missed it so much he built a basketball court in his backyard to fill the void.

There were also bigger problems to worry about. The restaurant community took a massive hit during the pandemic, especially the Asian businesses.

Lui re-examined his identity and what he wanted to represent. He consumed videos of hate crimes committed toward Asians and became more outspoken on his social media platforms. He now runs an agency with his sister Stephanie with the goal of providing representation for Asians in the hospitality space.

“I don’t want to be ashamed of being Chinese anymore,” he says. “The pandemic gave us a retrospective look at who we are as immigrants and what our purpose is.”

The demographic of the weekly pickup game, which resumed in December, is also changing. “In the last few years it’s become heavily Asian,” Lui says. “Now we all visit each other’s restaurants. We’ve watched our children be born and raised. My daughter is 17 now … I don’t think we actually understand what we have.”

Having suffered through multiple concussions, a broken back and shoulder and knee surgeries over the years, Lui has considered walking away from Tuesday night basketball, maybe when he turns 50 in a few months. Standing on his feet at work the following day feels more painful now. The recovery time from each pickup game extends several days.

But the camaraderie between the group, and a desire to keep this weekly routine a part of his life might overrule any of his physical concerns.

“I don’t want to give up my run,” he says.

Alex Wong is a freelance writer based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter @steven_lebron