On July 25th the CEBL became the first Canadian professional sports league to return to play under the pressures of COVID19 and on August 9th we fulfilled that legacy with an incredibly successful CEBL Summer Series Championship game seen live on CBC and across the world through our international broadcast partners.
What an incredible ride it was with the pathway there riddled with potholes and obstacles, and dozens of sleepless nights. To truly appreciate these lofty accomplishments you have to go through the battle scars. People often use war references as examples of facing the toughest adversities but I believe the reference relates much better when describing the teamwork it takes to come face to face with those challenges when you are putting it all on the line. Knowing you can rely on your colleagues to have your back is why we were successful.
The challenges of playing in a pandemic are endless and forever changing. There are no days that you can turn it off or wish it away, rather it consumes every part of every daily task. Rallying staff, players and coaches in these conditions is not easy, in fact it’s particularly hard given the emotions that hang on every test date, every result, every protocol or every news item.
Most would stop there and figure the risks outweigh the rewards by a long shot but we chose to be different. We looked at the experience as something we could manage if we all worked together, and that meant 250 people all rowing in the same direction, all the time.
We had our challenges and we dealt with them head on and never looked back. This is a testament to everyone who chose to be unselfish so that we could accomplish what seemed to be impossible. This is ultimately what the CEBL is all about.
I owe a sincere debt of gratitude to our players, coaches, officials, stats crews, broadcasters, sponsors, medical teams, trainers, media partners, team and league staff and others who worked their tails off to bring the CEBL to our fans in 2020.
Going through this with them lets me know we can accomplish anything we put our mind and hearts to. This has made me a much better person and leader by simply watching everyone take responsibility for our success over their own.
As a fan it was amazing watching basketball over those several weeks but it was way more enjoyable seeing the joy on everyone’s face when the final buzzer sounded and the trophy was raised. That was an immensely proud moment for me because all the people that made it happen realized they just made history…..together!
Here’s to 2021 and what lies ahead. I have a feeling it's going to be pretty damn good…..
#OurGame!
Mike