Myck Kabongo has trouble remembering all the countries he's played professional basketball in.
"Sweden, Russia, Spain, France, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Mexico ... I might be forgetting some. I need to write it down actually," said Kabongo, the star guard of the new Guelph Nighthawks professional basketball team. "I think I've been on every continent except Asia."
According to his Wikipedia page, he forgot Romania.
But now the 27-year-old gets to play on his home turf, less than an hour away from his Toronto home and in front of family and friends.
Kabongo expected to be one of the best players for the Nighthawks, who kick off the inaugural Canadian Elite Basketball League seasaon Thursday night open on the road against the Fraser Valley Bandits in Abbotsford, B.C.
Their home opener is Saturday, May 11, at the Sleeman Centre beginning at 7 p.m. against the Saskatchewan Rattlers.
"Honestly, it's kind of cool. We've never had a summer league for Canadians to come back and play," Kabongo said.
"Normally in the summer I'd just be at home, training and maybe having the odd tournament. But an actual structured, organized league is something new."
He said he's been able to see the world and had both good and bad situations during his professional career after playing NCAA basketball at the University of Texas.
"This is a chance I'm not going to pass up. I could have been at home chillin' and been off, recovering from a long season over the winter.
"But this is a cool summer thing. You're working on your game, you get to get paid, new relationships in city's that don't have professional teams. There's definitely some excitement."
The CEBL consists of six teams for its first season, three in the West (Fraser Valley, Edmonton, Saskatchewan) and three in the East (Guelph, Niagara and Hamilton).
Teams play a 20-game regular season.
The team has been preparing the last couple of weeks.
"They're pros. They pick stuff up quick," said Nighthawks head coach Tarry Upshaw after a recent training session at the University of Guelph.
"You're not really teaching like you would in a high school or college situation. They know it already, they just come in and play," Upshaw said.
"The energy has been good. The guys have been working pretty hard."
In addition to Kabongo, Guelph's roster includes other former national team members Olu Famitini and Jamal Reynolds. It does not immediately include local product Connor Wood.
He was supposed to join the team after his winter season in Germany concluded but he was picked up by a team in France for their playoffs.
The Nighthawks hopes to have Wood in Guelph sometime in June.
"We've got some size, we're athletic and we're fast," Upshaw said.
Teams dress 10 players and carry five on the practice squad, including a pair of Canadian university products.
Abbotsford boasts seven-foot centre Dallin Bachynski, who most recently played professionally in Bulgaria, and Joel Friesen, who averaged 12 points a game for the Kitchener-Waterloo Titans of the National Basketball League of Canada last season.
Tickets for the Nighthawks home opener range in price online from $20 to $95 and can be purchased here.
The league also announced CEBLTV on Tuesday, where fans can watch all the games streamed online for free.
