PAUL JONES BELIEVES that, even if we’re not a contender on the court yet, the Greater Toronto Area is still a top-notch place for athletes to live and play, and you need look no further than Richmond Hill to see why.
As the Raptors retool their team in the wake of the departure of all-star Chris Bosh, Jones, the voice of the Toronto Raptors on the city’s allsports radio station, the Fan 590, has been as busy as ever, chasing down interviews and doing segments on the team’s recent departures and arrivals.
Given Jones’s comfort on the air, it’s hard to believe that not long ago he was principal of Richmond Hill’s Roselawn Public School.
During the beginnings of a broadcasting career that would include courtside reporting for Sportsnet, Toronto’s 1994 World Basketball Championships and coverage of the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, the Jamaican-born, Canada-raised sports nut led a double life.During the day, Jones would teach with the old City of York.
At night, he would edit clips for TSN when that sports network was in its earliest days, in the mid-1980s. Long days, but he had the energy for it.
“It’s the sort of thing you can get away with in your 20s and early 30s,” says Jones.
Jones was a member of Canada’s Commonwealth Games basketball team in 1983 and a provincial all-star during his days at York University and he has a master’s degree in sports psychology.
All of which made him a great catch for TSN at a time when the network needed plenty of experts to get itself off the ground. Jones says it wasn’t too far removed from his day job.
“They demanded the same thing: a lot of patience,” says Jones. “You’re dealing with a staff of 30 to 35 teachers and about 500 kids. And you’re working with people. It’s the same kind of thing in broadcasting. You might have an interview with a Raptor at 5:20 p.m., but he’s getting treatment or he’s got a warm-up, and that 5:20 p.m. interview becomes 6:10 p.m., and right after that, I’ve got to on the air live.”
Both careers would eventually yield success. Jones left sports journalism for a time, a tough decision given that he was initially offered a spot on the Raptors’ broadcasting team in 1995, but he had a family to think of and opted for the safety a job in education brought.
For Jones, Richmond Hill and the surrounding area was the perfect place for his wife, daughter and two boys. The family often found themselves at Hillcrest Mall running errands or just hanging out and having fun.
For his own part, Jones was well-acquainted with the Uplands Golf and Ski Club, practising his golf swing with sports colleagues.
But a wealth of amenities aside, it was the cultural diversity of Richmond Hill that drew Jones and his family.
“What I liked about the community is that coming from somewhere that was very multicultural (Jones grew up downtown with brother Mark, a sportscaster for ESPN) Richmond Hill had a little bit of that,” he says.
“I think it’s a strength of that area, it’s a strength of the GTA and of Canada. Being a visible minority, being married to someone who is of majority culture, I wanted that for my kids. I wanted them to be comfortable with everybody, and, as my dad put it: ‘Hang with everybody. Don’t complain about things. Learn the system, make it work for you and be a productive person.’”
That he did, and it was eventually noticed by the right people. In 2004, Jones was tapped to join the Fan 590’s radio broadcast of Raptors games. Today, Jones also shares his expertise on Sun TV’s The Grill Room and TSN’s Off The Record and as an online columnist.
“Things just kept evolving for me,” says Jones. “I never wanted to leave the security of teaching because I know how volatile the media business can be. Being in education, you always tell kids to follow their dreams. In 2004, here I was, in my 40s, as a principal, and the dream was sitting right there for me. So when I got a tap on the shoulder and was asked to be part of the Raptors broadcast crew, I said, ‘Why not?’”
These days, Jones is as busy as ever. The Raptors have seen some turbulent days of late, thanks to the changes in their lineup, giving him plenty of grist for the mill.
You won’t see some of the same faces next season that were seen in the past, the most conspicuous absence being that of star player Bosh, who left Toronto for the sun, surf and glamour of South Beach where he will now be playing for the powerhouse Miami Heat.
A familiar story for the Raptors, a franchise where the old adage of “plus de change, plus de meme chose” is certainly fitting.
In its 15-year history, the team has gained a reputation for garnering young, world-beating talent, only to lose them once they gain a modicum of attention from teams south of the border.
You only have to look at the A-list names that have graced the back of a Raptors jersey: Marcus Camby, Tracy McGrady and Vince Carter among them. They were all stars who cut their teeth in Toronto then bolted for other cities at the first opportunity.
So what is it about Toronto that makes our best head elsewhere? And can we ever win an NBA title? Jones thinks the team is a victim of a Catch- 22. He explains that, as a star-driven league, NBA players typically gravitate to teams with higher chances of total victory and championship glory: the Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics and so on. You can’t achieve such success, however, unless you have the best in the world.
“It takes some convincing, it takes results and it takes winning,” says Jones.“The other part of that is money. Once guys get better and show that they can play, all of a sudden other people are willing to offer them the money to leave. Not that Toronto is unwilling to spend money, but there’s that old grass-is-greener syndrome, and it looks that way. And most of the North American players — call them what they are: “Americans” — they have the chance to go back to the U.S., where they’re comfortable, and that’s what they choose.”
But for Jones the grass is greener on his side of the fence. The GTA has blessed him with everything he has ever wanted in life: a family, basketball glory, a chance to mould kids into good citizens and a high-profile sports journalism career. Jones found them all right on his doorstep.
“As much as people say that some of us Canadians have this complex about Americans not wanting to play here, that’s garbage,”says Jones.“I’ve been to those cities, and the Canadian in me says that cities like that can’t hold a candle to Toronto. They can’t even touch us. We’re a world-class city.”