 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won the Canadian athlete of the year award | | | The NBA and men's national basketball team star was voted the winner of the Northern Star Award today by a group of Canadian sports media people. Gilgeous-Alexander, 25, is the second basketball player to receive the award formerly known as the Lou Marsh, following Steve Nash in 2005.
The other finalists in today's vote were NHL MVP Connor McDavid, swimming phenom Summer McIntosh, hammer throw world champion Camryn Rogers and golfer Nick Taylor.
Last spring, Gilgeous-Alexander completed the best season by a Canadian NBA player since Nash's heyday, which included back-to-back MVP awards in 2005 and '06. The Oklahoma City Thunder guard finished fourth in scoring with 31.4 points per game and placed fifth in MVP balloting after leading his rebuilding team to a play-in berth. This season, Gilgeous-Alexander is still averaging north of 30 points, with better assist and rebound numbers, and the Thunder are 14-7 — the second-best record in the Western Conference.
But SGA likely made his biggest impression on the Northern Star voters with his performance at last summer's Basketball World Cup in Asia. The consensus best all-around player in the tournament powered Canada to a bronze-medal upset of the United States and, more importantly, its first Olympic men's basketball berth since Nash led the way in 2000.
Each of the other finalists also had major accomplishments this year. McDavid captured his fifth NHL scoring title with the highest point total since Mario Lemieux and was a near-unanimous choice for his third MVP. McIntosh, 17, won two more world titles to bring her career total to four. Rogers became Canada's first women's track and field world champion in 20 years. And Taylor authored his country's most thrilling sports moment of 2023 with his sudden-death playoff victory at the Canadian Open, becoming the first Canadian to win the tournament in 69 years. | | |  | Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Canada to a bronze medal and an Olympic berth at this summer's Basketball World Cup. (Michael Conroy/Associated Press) | | | Quickly… | | | Some other things to know:
1. The federal government is launching a three-person commission to investigate systemic abuse in Canadian sports.
Today's announcement by Sport Minister Carla Qualtrough stopped short of calling for the national inquiry demanded by elite athletes, advocates and a parliamentary committee. Qualtrough told CBC News that a public inquiry could have put victims in a vulnerable position by exposing them to "combative" cross-examinations to prove their claims. Instead, she opted for a process modelled "very closely" on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, which was designed to provide a safe space for people to share their experiences.
Qualtrough said the commission's work is expected to take about 18 months and will be "trauma-informed, victim-centred [and] forward looking." The commission members are expected to be selected early next year. Read more about the minister's announcement in this story by CBC News' Ashley Burke.
2. The baseball world (and Blue Jays fans especially) are still reeling from the Shohei Ohtani megadeal.
Mega is probably not a strong enough prefix for the Japanese two-way sensation's 10-year, $700-million US contract with the Dodgers. It's the largest in North American sports history by $250 million, and Ohtani's average annual salary of $70 million shattered baseball's previous record by about $27 million. It's also higher than the 2023 opening-day payrolls of the AL East champion Baltimore Orioles ($60.9 million) and the Oakland Athletics ($56.9 million).
In hindsight, it's hard to imagine the Toronto Blue Jays being able to afford Ohtani. But hopeful Jays fans spent Friday parsing dubious reports, private-jet flights and even restaurant reservations in search of a sign that the two-time AL MVP was headed for Toronto, only for Ohtani to announce Saturday on his Instagram account that he'd picked the Dodgers.
With Ohtani off the market and Toronto seemingly willing to spend, the team could turn to Japanese-league star pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto or Chicago Cubs outfielder Cody Bellinger as its next target. But forgive Jays fans for being a bit more circumspect this time.
3. Patrick Mahomes lost his cool on a wild NFL Sunday.
Livid over an (objectively correct) offside call on Kansas City receiver Kadarius Toney that negated what would have been an incredible 49-yard trick-play touchdown and led to a 20-17 loss to visiting Buffalo, the reigning NFL MVP screamed at officials on the sidelines and later told reporters it was "elementary school [stuff]" for the refs to… um… enforce the rules?
Losers of four of their last six, the defending Super Bowl champs are now 8-5 and just one game up on surprising Denver for the AFC West lead after the Broncos routed the Chargers for their sixth win in seven games. Buffalo (7-6) boosted its wild-card hopes a few days after coach Sean McDermott landed in hot water for some truly bizarre 9/11-related comments.
NFC champion Philadelphia had another rough day, losing 33-13 to surging rival Dallas after getting blown out by San Francisco a week earlier. The Eagles (10-3) have dropped into a tie for the NFL's best record with the 49ers, Cowboys and Baltimore, which beat the Rams with a punt return for a touchdown in overtime. Miami (9-3) can join them with a win over lowly Tennessee tonight.
Elsewhere, Chicago stunned Detroit 28-13 while the much-maligned Zach Wilson threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Jets' 30-6 upset of Houston. The surprising Texans' playoff hopes took a hit as rookie of the year favourite C.J. Stroud (concussion) and star receiver Nico Collins (calf) both left the game with injuries. | | | And in case you missed it… | | | A few more things from the weekend that you should know about:
Canadian short track speed skater Jordan Pierre-Gilles captured three gold medals.
The 25-year-old won both men's 500m races at a World Cup stop in Beijing and helped his Canadian relay team to gold. Pascal Dion, Steven Dubois and William Dandjinou skated with Pierre-Gilles in the relay final, and Dubois and Dandjinou each added an individual medal.
At the long track World Cup stop in Poland, Canada's Laurent Dubreuil won a gold (his first of the season) and a silver in the two men's 500m races. Ivanie Blondin took silver in both the individual women's mass start and the women's team pursuit with Valérie Maltais and Béatrice Lamarche, who was filling in for star Isabelle Weidemann. The triple Olympic medallist sat out the World Cup's two European stops to prepare for the North American leg of the season, which begins in January and leads into the world championships in Calgary in February.
Canada finished with two bronze medals at the Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final.
After Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps placed third in the pairs event on Friday in Beijing, defending ice dance champions Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier did the same on Saturday. Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates won the dance gold to complete a perfect Grand Prix season. In the singles events, which did not include any Canadians, American teenager Ilia "the Quad God" Malinin and two-time women's world champion Kaori Sakamoto of Japan both won their first Grand Prix Final title.
The Canadian figure skating championships are coming up in early January in Calgary, followed by the world championships in Montreal in March.
Mikaël Kingsbury had a more Mikaël Kingsbury-like weekend.
After a disappointing (for him) bronze at the moguls World Cup season opener in Finland, the Canadian star bounced back with a sweep of the men's events in Sweden. Kingsbury won Friday's moguls competition, then added another gold Saturday in the non-Olympic dual moguls for his record-extending 82nd World Cup victory.
Three other Canadian freestyle skiers reached the podium. Jared Schmidt won his first career men's gold while Britt Phelan took the women's silver in Friday's World Cup ski cross events in France, and Amy Fraser landed a bronze in the halfpipe season opener on Saturday in China.
Other top Canadian results: Golfers Brooke Henderson and Corey Conners placed second to New Zealand's Lydia Ko and Australia's Jason Day in the mixed-team Grant Thornton Invitational. Canada lost the Para Hockey Cup final to the United States, which won the title for the eighth straight time. Olympic weightlifting champion Maude Charron took bronze at a Grand Prix event in Qatar.
Non-Canadian stuff: LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels (a mid-first-round prospect for the next NFL draft) won the Heisman Trophy; the Columbus Crew dethroned LAFC to capture soccer's MLC Cup; and the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Indiana Pacers to win the NBA's new In-Season Tournament. | | | Share this newsletter | | or subscribe if this was
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