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Edmonton Stingers are in the Basketball Champions League Americas

Analysis – The Edmonton Stingers (from the Canadian Elite Basketball League) will be in the 2021-22 edition of the Basketball Champions League Americas. There will be 12 teams from this competition from seven countries. This includes Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Edmonton Stingers.

Edmonton Stingers are the First CEBL Team in the Basketball Champions League Americas

There are six other countries with 11 teams in the competition. Of the 12 in the competition, Argentina (three), Brazil (three), and Uruguay (two) are the only countries with more than one team represented.

Edmonton won two straight Canadian Elite Basketball League (CEBL) titles in 2020 and 2021. Now, they will be the first Canadian team to participate in the Basketball Champions League Americas. This includes possibly facing teams like São Paulo FC, which has two former Toronto Raptors players in Lucas Nogueira and Bruno Caboclo.

The Stingers will be in this tournament by virtue of their 2021 CEBL title. In the 2021 CEBL season, they only lost one game in 14 games. They won the 2021 Canadian Elite Basketball League title with a 101-65 win over the Niagara River Lions.

The Big Impact of the Edmonton Stingers in this Competition

As CEBL commissioner Mike Morreale said, one of his goals was to make the league one of the best in the world according to the CEBL:

“With Greg, Lee, John, Glenn and the rest of our CEBL team we bring decades of rich experience in sports and league management to ensure our league becomes one of the best and most competitive basketball leagues in the world.”

The winner of this competition will play in the FIBA Intercontinental Cup. In that competition, there is one-two European club team, the Basketball Champions League Americas winner and possibly also the winner of the NBA G League. The last time an NBA G League team was in the FIBA Intercontinental Cup was in 2020. This was when the Rio Grande Valley Vipers represented the league. Also in 2019, the Austin Spurs participated in the same competition.

Yes, the NBA is not in these competitions, but there is a pathway for the CEBL to prove that they are one of the best leagues in the world. For example, Flamengo, who is part of this competition won the FIBA Intercontinental Cup back in 2019. If the Stingers or another CEBL team one day wins the Basketball Champions League Americas and possibly the FIBA Intercontinental Cup, they will remember this announcement.

This announcement also makes the CEBL the premier pro basketball league in Canada (not counting the Raptors or the Raptors 905). Credit and admiration should be given to the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL of Canada) for growing the game of basketball in Ontario and Atlantic Canada. However, there is no pathway for them like the CEBL to become one of the best leagues in the world.

The Edmonton Stingers and When They Make Their Debut

The format will be in four groups of three. This will be announced in the month of October. Games will start on December 2021 and end in April 2022. There is a question of how many of the Stinger players will play in the Canadian Elite Basketball League. However, it seems that the CEBL has tweeted that there are possible plans to deal with that situation.

The CEBL has done a good job of broadcasting the games. This year, for example, some of their games were shown nationally on CBC. This included the 2021 CEBL playoffs. They also announced two expansion teams with the Scarborough Shooting Stars and a Montreal CEBL team. Now they have taken another big step with this announcement with the Basketball Champions League Americas.

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Raheem Bashir, Site Manager

Raheem Bashir, Site Manager

Raheem Bashir started blogging on a Gmail site called Blogger and has covered sporting events in rugby union/league and soccer. Since then he has become the Last Word on Sports writer for rugby, soccer, and previously basketball. He is also a member of the North American Soccer Reporters and The Rugby Union Writers’ Club. Raheem graduated from George Brown College with a Digital Media Marketing Post-Grad Certificate in 2019. From the same college, Raheem also did a post-grad certificate in Sport and Event Marketing in 2017. Lastly, he did an undergrad Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 2016.

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