Jamaal Magloire, Tammy Sutton-Brown and Paul Jones among Ontario Basketball Association Hall-of-Fame inductees
August 21, 2025
For most professional players, the chance to play for a team in their home country is a dream few realize.
When Jamaal Magloire became the first Canadian-born player to sign with the Toronto Raptors in December 2011, his joy was palpable.
“Leaving home at age 18 and coming back home 16 years later to finish where it started was my dream,” he said in his acceptance speech at the Ontario Basketball Association (OBA) Hall-of-Fame induction ceremony at Durham College. “That was very humbling for me.”
Toronto is near and dear to Magloire who was selected 19th by the Charlotte Hornets in the 2000 National Basketball Association (NBA) draft.
The Raptors chose Morris Peterson with the 21st pick.
“I sat there hoping and wishing that Toronto selected me, but it didn’t happen,” the Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) Scarborough Shooting Stars vice-president and senior advisor said. “But things worked out in the end and I am happy.”
Magloire became very emotional when talking about the support he received from his home base during his professional sports career lows.
“There were times when I went to my locker and my jersey was not there which meant I was not playing that night,” he tearily recalled. “Through all of that, I had the support of family and friends in Toronto.”
After the team released the veteran centre in October 2012, he stayed with the franchise as a basketball development consultant and community ambassador. He was also on the coaching staff when the Raptors won the NBA title in 2019.
“Coming from Flemingdon Park and working in the NBA for the last 25 years makes me humbled and honoured to be standing in front of you guys as I enter the province’s hall of fame,” Magloire added.
On his 18th birthday on May 21, 1996, he signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Kentucky.
To celebrate the occasion, parents Garth, who died in April 2021 at the age of 71, and Marion put on a barbecue.
Garth and Marion Magloire hosted a barbecue in 1996 for their son Jamaal Magloire to celebrate his 18th birthday and signing with the University of Kentucky (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
In his final high school season at Eastern Commerce after two years at Wexford Collegiate Institute, Magloire led the team to a 39-3 record and the Ontario title, averaging 23 points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots.
He was a member of the Wildcats team that won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) title in his sophomore year in 1998 and the college’s All-Time blocked shots leader with 268 in 145 games.
Magloire was an All-Star – the second Canadian after Steve Nash -- in 2004, scoring 19 points and grabbing eight rebounds in 21 minutes for the Eastern Conference.
In 2017, he launched the Jamaal Magloire Foundation, which, among other things, offers academic scholarships and free basketball clinics and runs youth mentorship programs.
Three days before being inducted into the OBA Hall of Fame, the Toronto Revellers Cultural Association Mas Band that Magloire founded in 2006, the same year he was inducted into the Scarborough Walk of Fame, won the Toronto Caribbean Carnival Band of the Year title for the first time along wth the King & Queen crowns.
The other 2024 inductees were Tammy Sutton-Brown and Leah MacNab.
Sutton-Brown, whom MacNab counts as one of her business and basketball inspirations, enters the provincial Hall-of-Fame two years after being inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall-of-Fame.
After leading Markham District High School to provincial silver medals in 1992 and 1993, she had a decorated career with Rutgers University, leading the team in scoring (11.8 points), field goal percentage (.568) and blocks (1.3) in her senior year while earning a Women’s Studies degree.
In 2013, Sutton-Brown was inducted into the university’s Athletics Hall of Fame.
She was the second Canadian drafted (Cal Bouchard was the first in 2000) in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 2001 by the defunct Charlotte Sting with the 18th selection.
When the Sting folded in 2006, Sutton-Brown signed with the Indiana Fever which won a championship in her final season in 2012.
Tammy Sutton-Brown showcased the first in her series of children books at the inaugural Black Arts & Innovation Expo in February 2015 (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
In her 12-year WNBA career, she played 388 games which is the most by a Canadian.
The two-time All-Star represented Canada at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and played five seasons in Turkey, three in Russia and two in South Korea before retiring.
After two years as Associate Basketball & Franchise Operations/Team Player Development director with the Toronto Raptors 905 team, Sutton-Brown joined Nike where she is a Global Lead for Sports Marketing for Running Track & Field.
Born in Almonte which is the same Ontario town that gave birth to James Naismith who invented basketball and was the OBA’s first Hall-of-Fame inductee in 1999, the 5’5” MacNab with minimal hoops talent never thought she would be in a basketball Hall-of-Fame.
The Canada Basketball board director has spent the last two decades working in the NBA in various roles, including Senior Vice President & Managing Director, Marketing & Retail Partnerships Director, Managing Director with responsibility for overseeing the league’s basketball and business operations in Canada and Head of International Strategy & Operations.
Leah MacNab (Photo contributed)
In her current role, she leads global growth initiatives, designing operational strategies to maximize revenue, deepen fan engagement and support the expansion of new leagues.
“I love basketball and it has taken me around the world in this new job that I have doing meaningful work and work that I love,” noted MacNab who played a key role in bringing the first WNBA game to Toronto in 2023 that set a league pre-season attendance record with 19,923. “I want to thank my colleagues at the NBA, especially those in Toronto, as Canada Basketball staff and Board for your mentorship, your partnership and your shared commitment to growing the game. I truly believe there is room in this sport for everyone and it is incredible to get to work alongside all of you.”
As the first woman to helm NBA Canada, she champions women’s empowerment through her leadership, mentorship and public initiatives and is looking forward to the Toronto Tempo beginning play in the 2026 WNBA season.
“It is a huge chance for all of us to continue to champion women at the professional level,” added MacNab who, in 2018, was a recipient of Canadian Sports Business 'Five to Watch' award as a top sports executive under 40.
Because of COVID, there were no ceremonies for the 2020 and 2022 inductees.
They were honoured at the event on August 5.
The Class of 2020 included analysts Michael Grange and Jack Armstrong and broadcasters Daniel Gladman and Paul Jones.
Basketball has been a key that has opened many opportunities in Jones’ life, and he doesn’t take that lightly.
“My love affair with the orange ball started when I was nine years old when mom and dad dropped my brother and me at Parks and Rec on Tuesday and Thursday nights while they went off on their second and third jobs to keep the family together,” he remarked in his acceptance speech. “There was a guy who drove a taxi who taught me how to play basketball. That is when I fell in love with the game and it is never going to go away.”
For some, basketball may be a game and an object.
For Jones, it is more than that. It is family.
The way teammates support each other, celebrate victories and handle losses mirrors what families feel like.
Making the transition to announcer and travelling with fellow journalists on team flights and staying in hotels creates a unique bond that makes that group become like an extended family.
“On the late-night plane rides, Dan Gladman would shake me at 2 a.m., saying ‘Come on Jonesy, we have landed, let’s go’,” he noted. “Then I roll over to my right and elbow Jack, saying ‘We have landed in Milwaukee, let’s go’.”
Family has always been essential for Jones who recognized the support of his three children, partner Susan and parents Marjorie Jones, who is 98, and Hugh Jones who passed away 10 days after the Toronto Raptors championship parade in June 2019.
Paul Jones with parents Hugh & Marjorie at York University Bryden Awards gala in November 2009 where he and his brother Mark were honoured (Photo by Ron Fanfair)
“It was as if dad stuck around until everything was done,” he said. “It was like he took up his glass and said, ‘Alright, I am done.’ My dad always used to say, ‘Love the game beyond its rewards. I didn’t understand what that meant when I was 18 or 19 and came home after a loss, throwing my bag against a wall. He would put the paper down and ask what happened. When I told him we lost, he said, ‘You can’t win all of them’. Now, I understand what he meant. Loving the game, loving this family member has given me so much.”
Behind every game, there are custodians keeping the courts clean and trainers keeping players strong.
Jones acknowledged them along with administrators, tournament organizers, volunteer coaches and referees at every level.
The high school standout at Oakwood Collegiate Institute where he graduated at age 17 which was a year younger than the rest of the graduating class was the Most Valuable Player on York University’s Ontario Universities Athletic Association championship side
Bob Bain, who coached at York for 38 years and attended the ceremony, was a key part of Jones’ growth.
“I remember walking into Bob’s office as an 18-year-old, saying I want to try out for his team,” he recounted. “He didn’t know who I was or my name, but four years later he turned me into one of the better players in the country.”
Jones was a two-time Canadian representative at international tournaments and an assistant coach for three years at Western University where he acquired his Master’s in Sports Psychology.
He spent 22 years with the Toronto District School Board, rising to Principal before taking a two-year leave of absence in 2004 and finally resigning two years later to become the Raptors’ play-by-play voice on the FAN 590 radio broadcasts.
Before joining the FAN, Jones was an editorial and production assistant with TSN’s news and programming departments where he became associate producer of the network’s Blue Jays Show.
He also served as an associate producer for CTV’s 1992 Barcelona Olympics national broadcast, anchored the University of Toronto men and women basketball team’s radio broadcast for four years up until 1993 and teamed up with the Raptors first play-by-play voice – Mike Inglis who was the Miami Heat English Language radio voice for 23 years before retiring in 2021-- to broadcast World Basketball championship games in Toronto in 1994.
The play-by-play voice for the Raptors on Sportsnet 590, the FAN and TSN 1050 and NBA TV host/co-host/reporter/analyst has missed just one game in his 30 years covering Canada’s only NBA team. That was 22 years ago at home against the Phoenix Suns on February 21, 2003 when his third and last child – Michael – was born.
Carl Sosua, who championed youth basketball in York Region, former OBA Executive Director Jason Janssson and the late Wallie Landicho, who pioneered youth basketball in the Filipino community in the city, and John (Coach P) Petrushchak, who coached at Runnymede and George Harvey Collegiate Institutes, were the Class of 2022 inductees.
“Coach P built a powerhouse program known for discipline, unity and championship-level play, amassing four OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) gold medals, five silvers and two bronze over 25 years,” noted Master of Ceremony Savanna Hamilton. “But beyond titles, Coach P, who was beloved by his players, was a mentor, father figure and a coach who cared more about character than stats. His former athletes became leaders in all walks of life, thanks to the values that he instilled.”
OBA President Ryan Xavier said the class of players, voices and visionaries represents the heart and soul of basketball in Ontario.
“From courts to communities, their contributions have shaped the game in meaningful ways,” he pointed out. “We are proud to honour their legacy, celebrate their stories and recognize the lasting impact they have had on basketball across the province.”
Executive Director Claude Nembhard said the Hall of Fame honours those who have paved the way and laid the foundation for others to follow.
“Sometimes we get busy and forget to think about the past and those who created opportunities,” he added. “This is a chance for us to acknowledge people who have done great things.”
