Island Storm prepares for new basketball season
Maybe it's from watching the Grinch, or coming in second two years in a row — Island Storm coach Joe Salerno believes he's been a bit greedy.
"We were to focused on the end result, and not the process to get there," Salerno said on Monday. "As a team in training camp we haven't talked at all about a championship."
In his fifth year as coach of the National Basketball Association of Canada team the coach said he is working on the present day, one practice, one game at a time.
And if you can hire a player from an opposing team who gave your team a tough go on the court, all the better.
"I turned to my assistant coach Mike Leslie and I said this guy is going to be a real problem," Salerno said of Malcolm Grant who played for Halifax a couple of seasons ago. "We were happy to see him go to Europe, when he was playing with Halifax," coach said with a laugh.
Grant played his college ball in Florida, taking jobs in Cyprus, Australia and Sweden before taking this second job with a Canadian team.
"It's amazing, it's a great organization. Coach is great, the whole town is great I'm just really happy and humbled to be here," Grant said of finding a home with P.E.I.
"I'm really, really excited and anxious to get this thing going, I need to hold that trophy."
NBL grows up
Now in its fifth year, the NBL is drawing more attention for attracting players like Grant to the eight-team league.
However, it is also recovering from a bizarre ending last season when Halifax refused to play game 7 of the finals, opting to forfeit a game to Windsor, after a brawl between the teams earlier that day.
"Everything from dress attire to league standard drug testing, all those things that are kinda cleaning up the image after the unfortunate finish last year," said Salerno.
"The league is on an upswing, I think commissioner David Magley has done a nice job, he has been very proactive."
Cape Breton will be joining the league next year.
The NBL season gets underway on Boxing Day with the Storm playing at home to Saint John.