Dalton Higgins, a former music journalist who taught the much-publicized course Deconstructing Drake & The Weeknd at Toronto Metropolitan University, hasn’t switched gears by writing 101 Fascinating Basketball Facts for the Dundurn Press series. It was his first love.
The book — available online and by most retailers, including Indigo — uses experts in the subject to pull together 101 phenomena from the sports and entertainment industries, so far hockey, golf, football, Canadian film and TV, and Canadian music.
“I played basketball at a high level in high school back in the Stone Ages,” Higgins says, who attended Oakwood Collegiate but says at 5’11”, “undersized,” knew he was not destined for the NBA or even NCAA.
Now, while he mostly makes his living as a publicist — and wrote the book Far from Over: The Music and Life of Drake, The Unofficial Story in 2012 — he is still consumed with basketball. “A lot of my waking hours are spent in basketball chat rooms and WhatsApp groups,” he says. “I’m tapped into all of the major players of basketball, pretty much talking to me to every day.”
But Higgins’ son followed in his school-age dream of a basketball career and on the many trips to the U.S. for tournaments, until he too packed it in two years ago, Higgins was armed with Canadian facts.
“The Americans would say stuff like, ‘Oh, in Canada, you guys have a really cool ball scene there; I thought it was all curling and ice hockey,’ and then I would have to hit them with a bunch of facts tied to how Canada has engaged the sport.”
Most of us already know basketball was invented in America by a Canadian, Ontario-born James Naismith, in 1891, but with the Toronto Raptors home opener tomorrow (Oct. 22), Higgins reveals some of the Toronto-area facts that make up the 101 in his book.
“The first NBA basketball game ever played was in Toronto in 1946, at the Mattamy [Athletic] Centre. That’s the old Maple Leaf Gardens,” offers Higgins. The Toronto Huskies played the New York Knicks. So, Toronto Raptors are not the first professional basketball franchise here at all, and there was the Toronto Tornadoes [1983-85].”
The Huskies, who lost to the New York Knicks, disbanded the following summer.
Today, Higgins says there is an “explosion of players” coming from Toronto that are getting big NCAA college scholarship offers or are playing in the NBA.
“I don’t think it’s by chance that arguably the best player in the NBA now, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, was born in Toronto and raised in Hamilton. He plays for Oklahoma City Thunder who won the NBA championship [2025] and voted the most valuable player,”Higgins says.
“But what you have happening is the floodgates have been opened in Toronto, where you have a local product like RJ Barrett, whose father, we call Ducky, Rowan Barrett, works for Canada Basketball.
“There’s so many homegrown products, kids from Toronto, Dalano Banton from Rexdale in the league now,” he says of the first Canadian drafted by the Raptors back in 2021 and who just signed to the Dallas Mavericks two weeks ago. “So, a lot of Toronto kids are then, ‘Hey, if I see it, I can be it.’”
One thing Higgins talks about in 101 Fascinating Basketball Facts is name, image, likeness, otherwise known as N.I.L.
“This is where you essentially get paid to play college basketball,” Higgins explains. “So, you have the top tier kids that we call like four- and five-star athletes from Toronto, a whole flurry of them are playing Division 1 NCAA men’s basketball and making a lot of money.
“There’s one interesting story, this kid Xaivian Lee [is] from here and he played college basketball at Princeton for three years and now he’s playing for the University of Florida. And this kid is now commanding about $6 million to play for the University of Florida. That’s a combination of N.I.L. money, name, image, likeness. He has a shoe contract.”
In June, Lee, who went to high school at the private Crescent School, signed a deal with sneaker brand Serious Player Only projected to be worth $6 million for 2025/26.
“Just think about that. He’s 21. $6 million to play college basketball, and he’s from here,” marvels Higgins.
With the Raptors season just starting, playing their home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks, tomorrow, Higgins shares his predictions for the one-time NBA champions.
“The Raptors are now Masai Ujiri-less; they are being led now by Bobby Webster,” he says of the new general manager. “So, what that means is that Toronto Raptors, their last two seasons were lousy. Two years ago, they were playing 500 ball. Last year, they were almost in the basement of the Eastern Conference. I think they came 13th.
“So, they’re going to have to take a page out of the notepad of the Toronto Blue Jays and turn things around and actually start winning games. They have a good enough starting lineup, or what we suspect will be the starting lineup. Brandon Ingram has been added. He has size; he’s a prolific scorer. So, we’re going to just watch and see how he gels with Scottie Barnes, a known entity, R.J. Barrett, the hometown kid. Gradey Dick, he’s going to have to step his game up. He played for the University of Kansas, where he was a great shooter and scorer and then he hasn’t been able to make the transition in the NBA to make those efforts.”
And will Higgins watch the home opener or be tuned in to the Jays for Game 1 of the World Series?
“Oh, boy, despite my devotion, my obsession and fixation with the game of basketball as a former player and someone who’s documented basketball, I will be tuning into the Toronto Blue Jays for sure,” he says.
“I’m old enough to recall when the Blue Jays won in 1992 and 93 back-to-back World Series champs. We went down to Yonge Street and were screaming at the top of our lungs. I want to be able to relive those magical feelings. So, I will be watching the Blue Jays games, and then once they win the World Series, not if, but when they win the World Series, then I’m going to turn my attention towards the Toronto Raptors again.”
