Victoria’s Hardwood Dream Comes Alive
On August 7th, time seemed to pause at UVic’s CARSA gym. Nearly 2,300 fans poured into every bleacher, spill-over standing room, and side corridor, creating the loudest, most electric crowd the Ball Don’t Stop Pro-Am had ever seen. For the first time ever, Canada’s premier summer basketball showcase had come to Victoria, and it was nothing short of magical.
This wasn’t just a game; it was a moment. A community, a university program, and a province were snapped into the spotlight, each heartbeat syncing to the thump of bouncing basketballs and hopeful dribbles.
When Pros and Vikes Shared the Same Floor.
You are walking onto your home court, and opposite you is Payton Pritchard- the Sixth Man of the Year in the Boston Celtics, point guard extraordinaire. Next to him, Jaylen Wells of the Memphis Grizzlies and Mouhamed Gueye of the Atlanta Hawks. These were not the NBA names–they were new teammates, transiently, on the same floor.
Vikes players such as Griffin Arnatt, Ethan Boag, Renoldo Robinson, Shadynn Smid, and Ryan Gallagher did not play to share that court; they lived a dream. The energy of the national title had passed down through these young players; now they were no longer spectators in the game; they were players in a game larger than U SPORTS, and with NBA magnetism.
A Night of Records and Revelation
The features appear as a Love Letter to Basketball. Pritchard also had 68 points, and that was more than he had made himself in his Pro-Am in Vancouver two years prior. Such a scoring is not a simple stat padding, but a piece of art, a performance differentiation of gravity that originated in deep, mid, and close-in with handles that protruded like fireworks.
Renoldo Robinson, on the Vikes side, 22 to the score,–the highest score by any of the UVic heroes that night. It was not merely a box score, but a statement: local talent can be as high as the lights shine.
A Camp That Lighted Fires, And Not Autographs.
There was another kind of fireworks the day after the showboat game: a youth pro-camp with more than 180 local kids, with their wide-eyed eyes and sneakers raised to the sky, training under the eyes of NBA stars. Payton Pritchard was spearheading that and transformed give-and-go exercises into gospel and relay sprints into rites of passage.
You had to be there, as assistant coach Terrell Evans, also founder of the camp, said, You really had to be there. I never saw a camp with 180 kids in it. They didn’t come for selfies. They were there to study and sweat and to make basketball feel like greatness.
From Momentum to Movement
This was UVic’s first national title in 19 years, and it could not have come at a better time. It was not a mere event; it was a launch, to propel the focus of the celebration to ambition.
Coach Murphy Burnatowski recorded it best: Victoria has never lacked heart, but now there is a spotlight and electricity and a story to tell.
Hoops, Hometown, and Hope
This was not a mere venue parachute, but it was pride. Assistant coach Evans, a former Vikes pro in Europe, began by establishing The Grind eight years ago so as to advance Island talent. The importation of the Pro-Am here was like raising a flag that said: dreams are nearer than you think.
“It’s powerful,” he said. Local children get to interact with pro athletes as opposed to seeing them on a TV screen, and this transforms stories. Now they distinguish possibility, not distance.
Beyond Tonight: What’s Next?
This isn’t a one-night wonder. The impact ripples.
- Recruits such as freshmen Tyler Felt, Toren Franklin, and Justin Hinrichsen received their introduction, and they performed in front of standing crowds and the gaze of NBA talent hawks.
- There was an apparent increase in the confidence of the community in UVic basketball. All the cheers, all the dunks, and all the tenacious rebounds planted seeds in shared pride.
- Those kids who went to that camp, most of them will go farther with basketball now, with an indelible stamp in their heads on how greatness once played through their gymnasiums.
Epilogue: One Game, Infinite Echoes
The Ball Don’t Stop Pro-Am at CARSA was not an exhibition but a bridge. It aligned dreams of the place with dreams of the world, flickering neon dreams into incandescent belief.
Victoria not only hosts a game. It embraced a future in which judicial courts could become legends, in which city districts could enlarge national titles, and in which the ball–indeed–does not roll.
