Celtics' Oshae Brissett becomes 10th Canadian NBA champion, third in a row

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There’s a run on Canadian NBA champions.

Until recently, only seven players had won it all in the world’s top hoops league, but when the Boston Celtics put the finishing touches on the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night, Toronto native Oshae Brissett became the third Canuck in a row to win the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Brissett, who started his career with his hometown Raptors after going undrafted, plays sparingly for the league’s deepest team, but did get into 65 games this season (55 in the regular season and 10 more in the playoffs) and is one of the few Canadians who can say he was on the floor as the final seconds ticked off before his team won the championship. Brissett played the final 38.9 seconds Monday after Jrue Holiday was subbed out.

Last year, Jamal Murray won the title with the Denver Nuggets. Andrew Wiggins did the same the year prior. Both Murray and Wiggins were widely considered the second-best player on their team during their runs to the championship.

Brissett, like fellow champions Cory Joseph (2014) and Tristan Thompson (2016), was born in the Greater Toronto Area and finished his high school years in the U.S. at Findlay Prep in Nevada. His older brother Dejon plays for the Toronto Argonauts, meaning the Brissett family now boasts both an NBA champion and a Grey Cup winner.

The first Canadian NBA title winner was Mike Smrek, of Welland, Ont., who backed up Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the Showtime Lakers and won in 1987 and 1988. Montreal’s Bill Wennington was the backup centre on the dynastic Chicago Bulls, winning three-straight from 1996-98.

Toronto-born Rick Fox equalled the feat, winning three straight (2000-02) with the Los Angeles Lakers, starting at small forward for the final two years of that dynasty. Montreal’s Joel Anthony won with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013, while Saint Lucia-born, Montreal-raised Chris Boucher was on the roster for both the champion Golden State Warriors in 2018 and the Raptors in 2019.