YORKTON - The Toronto Raptors recently held their second annual Indigenous Heritage Night.
Eight athletes were honoured at the Nov. 15 game in TO “to provide public education that tells the national story of Aboriginal athletes in history,” noted the team website.
The night is also in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Action 87, with basketball being a vessel for reconciliation and meaningful change.
Among the eight athletes was Mike Tanton of Saskatchewan.
“It was so crazy. It was surreal. It was a whirlwind of excitement and joy,” Tanton told Yorkton This Week, adding he just tried to soak in the experience “being the happiest kid I could be.”
Sport fans might not recognize Tanton, but he was a fine basketball player at the university level, and now is a driving force with the Living Skies Indigenous Basketball League (LSIBL) which is Saskatchewan’s first provincial-wide Indigenous youth basketball league.
Although the league was initially founded for Indigenous youth, all athletes are welcome to participate.
The Raptor website notes, “Tanton is a dedicated coach, mentor, and youth advocate, whose identity goes beyond the basketball court—he is a devoted husband and father. What sets him apart is not just his excellence as a basketball athlete but his commitment to building programs that benefit both Indigenous and non-Indigenous athletes of the next generation.”
It was through the Living Skies initiative Tanton and the Raptors first connected. He explained a couple of years ago he talked to the NBA team and that led the Raptors to holding a development camp in Saskatoon.
“We had as many of the kids from the league (involved) as we could,” said Tanton, adding it was the best turn out among Raptor camps and “they loved what we were doing.”
Tanton noted that Living Skies is not just for First Nations, but for all young players.
“If we can play together we can live together,” he said, adding the program sees a community as a team and that means working cohesively to be successful.
Athletes from the ages of 11-17 can participate in the league.
Tanton said the program is about using basketball as a foundation to building a community for all.
In that regard he said the Raptors and the NBA are an example of being as inclusive as possible. He said the NBA is “a more global game.”
That inclusiveness is important because youth can see themselves in the faces of the league.
The game was bigger than sport for Tanton.
“The game of basketball saved me in a lot of ways,” he said, adding he hopes it can do the same for others.
As for the spotlight in TO, he said it remains almost unreal.
“It was very humbling. It made me feel really good that I was on the right path . . . The experience was just next level,” he said.
Others recognized in the Raptors-TTC program included the legendary Onondaga distance runner Tom Longboat, who in 1907 became the first Indigenous person to win the Boston Marathon and Michael Linklater a retired professional and national team basketball player who was ranked number one in FIBA 3x3 in Canada.
Linklater last played for the Saskatchewan Rattlers in the Canadian Elite Basketball League.
