“Obviously, it feels good. It’s not something I get to talk about a lot. It’s been a long journey to get where we’re at right now.”

Canada is second only to the United States in producing NBA players, with 22 on rosters at the start of the current season. Hamilton’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his cousin Nickeil Alexander-Walker of Toronto, RJ Barrett of Mississauga, Ont., Toronto’s Zach Edey, as well as Luguentz Dort and Bennedict Mathurin, both from Montreal, are some of the NBA stars whose families are featured in the film.

“As we looked at each of the players, it was a glaring reality that there is this beautiful background and ethnicity and journey to become or have their opportunity just to be born in Canada,” said executive producer Mark Starkey. “When that started to show consistently in their stories, as we started to dig into these players’ histories, we just thought, ‘gosh, there’s a beautiful foundation here to celebrate.’”

“Inbound” was shown in a double feature with “We The North: From Prehistoric to Historic,” another documentary about the 30-year history of the Raptors, at 43 theatres across Canada this past weekend.

Starkey said on Wednesday that the response he’d gotten after that limited engagement was overwhelmingly positive.

“That was the goal, to celebrate a story that was really a little bit untold, and I think that we’re hitting that mark,” he said. “We are here to shine a light, a very, very bright light, on what it means to be a Canadian professional basketball player, but also to be part of the basketball community, because it is just booming.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2025.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press