TORONTO — Canada's women's basketball team is a legitimate medal contender at the World Cup that tips off on Saturday. Canada's men's team is in the thick of its own World Cup qualifying, and could field a squad next fall in China stacked full of NBA players.
And the country's U19 men's team won a historic gold medal at last summer's World Cup.
It's a good time to be a basketball fan in this country, and Glen Grunwald plans to take that message to corporate Canada.
"There's a lot here that fans can get behind but certainly corporate Canada should understand and celebrate and associate with the very strong brand of Canada Basketball, to connect with our demographics and our people," Grunwald said. "A lot of people, a lot of companies would benefit by working with us, and that's going to be one of my objectives to make sure they're enlightened and know what great opportunities exist to work with us."
The long-time NBA executive, sports administrator and lawyer is Canada Basketball's new president and CEO, and in between settling into his new digs in the sport organization's west Toronto office Wednesday, the 60-year-old chatted about his vision for the program.
It begins when the women's team, ranked an all-time high of fifth, tips off the World Cup on Saturday in Tenerife, Spain against Greece.
"First of all, I want to make sure everyone understands and appreciates and can be proud of all the success Canada Basketball has had the last decade basically, or longer," he said. "And getting everyone behind our women's team starting this weekend, I feel like if people knew about it, they would say 'Wow, this is a great story,' and hopefully they'll be successful out there, and people will jump on it."
His next step is to tackle Canada Basketball's financial challenges and find the resources to "continue to be successful and even more successful. That's going to be one of my primary focuses."
At the Canadian men's camp last week in Laval, Que., Cleveland Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson applauded Grunwald's hiring, saying he'll challenge Canadian corporations to get on board.
"Obviously Hockey Canada does a great job. But at the same time basketball's on the rise, and it shows in the product with the amount of NBA players we have, so it's time for our Canadian corporations to be a part of this," Thompson said.
Funding amateur sport in Canada has always been a stiff challenge, Grunwald said, but he sees it as one that can be overcome.
"I'm going to work really hard to do that."
Grunwald was the Toronto Raptors' GM from 1997 to 2004, a stint that saw the team acquire superstar Vince Carter. He moved on to the New York Knicks beginning in 2006, where he became GM in 2011, a position he held until 2013.
Grunwald was most recently the athletic director at McMaster University, a position he held for four years. He resigned last month in order to take on a consulting role with the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies.
"I like to say I'm Jerry Colangelo 2.0," Grunwald said with a chuckle — Colangelo is a consultant with the Philadelphia 76ers, and also the executive director for USA Basketball's men's team.
Canada Basketball has reportedly been in touch with former Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo about a role with the organization.
Grunwald, meanwhile, is happy to be back in basketball full-time.
"I loved McMaster and all the different sports, and learning about them and cheering them on, but at heart I'm a basketball guy," he said. "And we have good basketball programs at McMaster, but because there's so many other things to do, you really can't focus on the basketball teams as maybe I would have liked."
Grunwald's wife Heather Bird is a defence attorney in Hamilton.
Lori Ewing , The Canadian Press