Jamaal Magloire Wants to Give Back to His Community & Get Children Back Into Sports

Toronto Raptors assistant coach Jamaal Magloire is trying to break down the barriers preventing children from accessing sports in Ontario

Aaron Rose | Dec 17, 2021

Ancil London of London Images

Did you know a basketball can still bounce on ice or snow, Toronto Raptors assistant Jamaal Magloire asks me.

No. Or at least I certainly haven’t tried.

But growing up in Toronto in the late ‘80s, that’s what it took if you wanted to truly dedicate yourself to basketball. That’s why Magloire said he went out every recess with his basketball no matter the weather. It was that unwavering desire to reach the pinnacle of the basketball world that made Magloire one of the most highly touted prospects to ever set foot on a Canadian high school basketball court. And yet, for all his talent, all his size, a 6-foot-11, 260-pound behemoth of a man, he’ll admit it wouldn’t have been possible without his community.

“I think growing up in Toronto as a kid, [basketball] was an outlet for me, it was a way for me to meet new people from all different walks of life,” Magloire said. “It was a way for me to keep in shape. It was a way for me to learn a lot of values that even up to today as an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors, I can help others and instill in others.”

Today, Magloire looks around his community with concern. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced youth sports organizations to close down for months. Children have been forced to stay inside, prohibited from playing with one another and learning those valuable lessons on the court, the pitch, or on the ice. A recent study from the Ontario Sports Network reported that 35% of respondents saw their local sports leagues close during the pandemic. Another quarter said they didn’t have adequate access to sports programs in their community or quality coaches.

“One of my major beefs right now, obviously, is the fact that, yes, there are kids that have been inside, there are kids that haven’t been able to interact with one another, both physically or mentally outside of their phones and their computers,” Magloire said. “It’s accessibility. That’s my cry to everybody in Ontario. My cry is we need to get these kids playing.”

That’s why Magloire and the Jamaal Magloire Foundation have decided to partner with the Ontario Sports Network and the This Is Your Sport initiative to help reinvigorate youth sports in Ontario and break down the barriers that far too many Canadians see barring them from getting healthy exercise, social connections, and life skills learned through sports.

Even though we’ve come a long way from the 80s and 90s in this country when it comes to basketball, there’s still a lot more that needs to be done, Magloire said. That means helping to alleviate the financial burden not just of basketball, but of all sports. It means making sports more accessible to more people with leagues closer to home, better coaches, and coaches players can identify with. It means encouraging children to play multiple sports, to fall in love with sports the same way Magloire did all those years ago.

“Because let’s face it, sport and recreation are vital and getting us back to some normalcy in what we're going through right now,” Magloire said. “Being able to be outside and playing and having a good time is part of these kids getting back to normal.”

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