'Inbound' documentary shines light on how immigration has shaped Canadian basketball

Toronto Raptors forward Chris Boucher (25) drives to the net as Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) defends during the first half of NBA basketball action in Toronto on Tuesday, February 25, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Thomas Skrlj

A new documentary makes the case that a change in Canada’s immigration policy more than 50 years ago has fuelled the country’s current boom in NBA players.

“Inbound,” a short film on how Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau’s multiculturalism policy in the early 1970s brought an influx of immigrants to Canada whose children and grandchildren are now becoming professional basketball players premiered in Toronto last week. After a limited engagement in Cineplex theatres across the country, and will be available to be streamed online through TSN, Crave and the NBA app in mid-March.

The family of Montreal’s Chris Boucher, a backup forward for the Toronto Raptors, is prominently featured in “Inbound.” He said that the documentary’s thesis reflected his lived experience.

“My family was definitely part of the immigration program and it definitely shows the opportunity it gave us,” said Boucher, whose mother Mary MacVane emigrated from St. Lucia to Montreal.

“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.”

Article written by John Chidley-Hill.