Canada create beacon of basketball in Edmonton

EDMONTON - The City of Edmonton and Canada Basketball have created a unique partnership that has enabled the Canadian women's basketball team to call Edmonton home.

This partnership is based on that fact that basketball runs deep in Edmonton. It is a community which looks at basketball as being a part of its history and identity - one that has had basketball rooted in its DNA for over 100 years.

The Edmonton Grads captured the hearts and imagination of basketball fans some four generations ago. The Grads were a women's team that started in 1912 and by the time the team disbanded in 1940 due to World War II, no other team anywhere in the world could match its success.

It was Dr James Naismith himself, the Canadian who invented basketball, who said the Grads were the "finest basketball team that ever stepped out on a floor."

By 1940, the Grads won 502 games with only 20 losses against the best the rest of the world had to offer. They swept four consecutive Olympic Games from 1924 to 1936, winning all 27 Olympic matches.

Sadly, their victories went unrecognized on the medal podium as women's basketball did not become an official Olympic sport until the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

The Grads got Edmonton hooked on basketball and that feeling has never left.

A new generation of women's basketball players is in keeping with that tradition now that Edmonton is the permanent home to the Canadian women who train and play in the city.

Building on the Edmonton Grads tradition, the City of Edmonton and Canada Basketball hosted the maiden Edmonton Grads Invitational Tournament back in June.

Brazil travelled to Edmonton to play three exhibition games against Canada at the Saville Community Sports Centre (SCSC). Thousands attended each game and helped to showcase Edmonton’s international reputation as a world basketball destination.

It was the Edmonton Grads International Classic, along with the City of Edmonton's continued support that secured another tournament that will continue to elevate Edmonton as an international basketball destination.

Meanwhile in August, Edmonton was awarded the 2015 FIBA Americas Championships for Women. This is the first time in 20 years that a tournament which could also realise an Olympics dream, will be played in Canada.

All 24 games will be played in Edmonton next August. Ten teams from across the Americas will play in the eight-day competition for the right to go to the Rio 2016 Olympics.

This level of passion and commitment is what Canadian women's basketball are also harnessing in Turkey as they represent Canada and Edmonton on the international stage at the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women.

FIBA