Devoe Joseph’s return home to Scarborough a family affair

Devoe Joseph is typically eager to exit the building after games.

Now, it’s June 21 — his 35^th birthday, and the Scarborough Shooting Stars guard has already been held up by media responsibilities following a resounding victory over the Brampton Honey Badgers.

Finally, he’s able to leave the locker-room area, traverse back across the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre court, climb up the stands and open the door onto the concourse level.

He’s greeted by a group of around 25 family and friends, including his dad and CEBL championship-winning assistant coach David, his mom Connie, his sisters Chantal and Danielle and his brother, 2014 NBA Champion and ex-Raptor, Cory.

They immediately burst into song.

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy biiiiiirthday dear Devoeeee, happy birthday to you.”

David hits Devoe with a couple celebratory pats on the back as the group cheers.

For the first time in his long and winding professional basketball career, Devoe, the Pickering, Ont., native, is playing near home. Other stops on his journey have included – deep breath now – Turkey, Montenegro, Israel, Greece, Finland, Poland, Romania, Kosovo and Mongolia.

“Sometimes you just wake up and you feel blessed that you got to play basketball for so long, you had a healthy career — knock on wood — and then you get to see all these places and meet all these amazing people,” Devoe said.

“And then now, coming back to Scarborough, it's like full circle, right? This is where it started. … And even while I was playing professionally, I never really imagined playing at Scarborough. I can't tell you how happy I am for this opportunity.”

Amid all the movement, there’s been one constant: family.

While the Joseph brothers count Pickering as their hometown, they were both born at Scarborough’s Centenary Hospital.

Now, they’re reunited in the area. Cory said he’s coming to as many games as possible, and he even drove out to Niagara to see Devoe play. David has attended every single game Devoe’s played in the Eastern time zone.

“When you have kids, you've got to back them up first of all, and then when they're doing what they love, you can back them up even more,” said David, who along with Connie trained Devoe and Cory from a young age.

“I obviously love basketball too — I shouldn't say I. My whole family loves basketball. All his friends love basketball. All the friends are just like family.”

In many ways, Devoe paved the way for Cory to succeed in the NBA. Cory, two years younger, was able to learn from everything Devoe did, good and bad.

In high school, they played on the Pickering High team together and won back-to-back championships together.

Devoe’s game-winning shot in one of them has become lore.

“Just electric. We were down one, we called timeout. The whole gym was packed,” David, who was the team’s coach, recalled. “Drake was there, I mean everybody was there. [Devoe] says, I got this, I got this. We all knew he got it. And then he came out, hit the game winner, and everything else is history.”

Cory said Devoe’s attitude from playing together in high school stuck with him throughout his pro career.

“He’s got that killer mentality. So I mean, people knew when they see Pickering, it was Devoe, and then it was me on the defensive end and offence as well, but Devoe was a straight killer on that offensive end. And it was just so much fun,” Cory said.

Cory went on from Pickering High to play NCAA Division I college basketball at Texas before being drafted by the San Antonio Spurs, where he won the 2014 title, and spending time with the Toronto Raptors, Indiana Pacers, Sacramento Kings, Detroit Pistons and Golden State Warriors.

The high-profile success meant Devoe soon started becoming better known as Cory’s brother – a joke Devoe even made at Cory’s wedding last summer.

“It was all fun and games. I never mind being called his brother,” Devoe said. “We get associated with each other a lot. Joseph brothers, they put us in categories, but having my family at the game, having my brother at the game, who most times when I'm not playing in the summer time, we're in two different places all the way across the world. So having these people at the game to get to see me play, it means everything to me.”

Still, Cory remains the typical younger brother. His face lights up when asked about his first time beating Devoe one-on-one.

“A lot of excitement. I'll beat up on him now,” Cory said with a grin, “but he would beat up on me and I got a lot of my toughness and my grit and that dog [in me] from him beating up on me at a young age. That's why I learned that defensive mentality because he was a hell of a scorer and a player.”

Devoe, who in his first season in the CEBL is averaging 8.6 points per game, said he considered coming to the league earlier in his career but was tied up with his wedding two summers ago and Cory’s last year.

He’s been impressed with his first taste of CEBL action.

“As long as I have free time, I would love to keep playing in this league,” Devoe said.

There’s just one more thing to tick off his career-long checklist – an on-court reunion with Cory.

“That's kind of what we talked about, you know? Like at the end of our career, playing one more time before we finish. I think that would mean a lot,” Devoe said.

In this moment, Devoe is trying to help the Shooting Stars win their second straight championship – something that would be a definite high on his self-proclaimed “roller-coaster” career.

“When you're young, when you're going through the roller-coaster, it can be emotional. But then as you get older, you kind of get the appreciation for the roller-coaster,” he said.

“You know that, OK, there's tough times, but good times are to come. And even when there's good times, I'm sure there's going to be a tough situation to come. And you just embrace it and just keep going with it.”

For Devoe Joseph and family, these certainly seem like the good times.