[Vancity]

Here's an article related to bball, and somewhat to the NBA potentially coming back to our beautiful city.
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Vancouver's Howard Kelsey joins Basketball Canada as executive vice-president

BY TONY GALLAGHER, THE PROVINCE NOVEMBER 18, 2010 BE THE FIRST TO POST A COMMENT


Basketball Canada has just added a whole big bundle of energy to its arsenal in the battle to get the sport front and centre in this country.

Howard Kelsey, who at 53 has headed up the Canada One basketball foundation during the past few years here in Vancouver, has been named executive vice president of Basketball Canada. He joins a team that Wayne Parrish started turning around three years ago when he took the head job of the organization in Toronto.

Kelsey gives Basketball Canada huge presence in the west now and the timing couldn’t be better for the former member of the Canadian national and Olympic team, as a group of outstanding young players are emerging in the country and the restoration of the men’s national program is now a significant probability despite difficulties at the recent world championship.

Kelsey, who along with his brother Doug, Lars Hansen, Ron Putzi and Misty Thomas, has been doing the heavy lifting for the successful HSBC high school basketball tournament, the B.C. Boys championship and Kits Fest. He is full of ideas for the sport in Canada and here in Vancouver and it’s no secret he is keen to see the NBA return to the city because he’s convinced it can be a success. He and the Aquilini family, owners of Rogers Arena, have had their issues working together in the past but hopefully they can bury the hatchet and work toward the goal of restoring the city to NBA status with Kelsey now in an official capacity.

Kelsey already has an outstanding working relationship with women’s national coach Allison McNeill and men’s national coach Leo Rautins, both of whom have recently been rehired. He also has first-hand, personal knowledge of many of the young players in their late teens and very early 20s who will soon turn Canada into a force internationally as they develop their pro careers.

“I’m excited about Howard coming on board,” said Rautins, who hopes that Canada will, within the next five years, become among the best in the world in the men’s game. “He should be able to help us in a number of different ways, his versatility will be important for us. ”

Perhaps what Kelsey does best is connect good events with sponsorship and connecting good companies with advertising opportunities, If he’s able to bring any of those talents to Basketball Canada, even more of the financial woes that Parrish has already begun to dissipate with further be banished.

“I’m really looking forward to this opportunity,” said Kelsey, whose 11th annual HSBC basketball tournament happens in early December. “We’ve been talking about this for a while and it’s nice to finally be able to start work officially. Obviously I love the sport and I’d like to see us build on this momentum we have internationally in both the women’s and men’s game, and I’ve got lots of other ideas as well.”

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