Glen Grunwald, the former general manager of the Toronto Raptors, is still lobbying to have an NBA game played in the Newfoundland capital, even though he is no longer working in the league.Glenn Lowson/The Globe and Mail
It is a promise that Glen Grunwald has been trying to fulfill for 11 years.
It was on Oct. 23, 2003, that the former general manager of the Toronto Raptors walked out to centre court at Mile One Stadium (now known as Mile One Centre) in St. John's and made the pronouncement that everyone was dreading.
The National Basketball Association preseason game between the Vince Carter-led Raptors and the Cleveland Cavaliers – with their rookie sensation LeBron James – was to be postponed due to unsafe playing conditions.
Condensation had built up on the wooden floor, making it impossible for the teams to play. The 7,000 fans who had packed the house were not happy about the news, and boos rained down as Grunwald tried to speak.
"I will make you one promise," Grunwald continued. "The Toronto Raptors will return to this arena and play a game within two years."
Those two years have now stretched into 11, and Grunwald is still lobbying to have an NBA game played in the Newfoundland capital, even though he is no longer working in the league.
"I'm just trying to deliver on a promise – that's all I'm trying to do," said Grunwald, who in August was named the new athletic director at McMaster University in Hamilton. "And it makes good sense, too, because there's great folks out there in Newfoundland and they really like basketball. That's the main thing, right?"
Grunwald has recently been in contact with the Raptors, NBA Canada and businessmen in St. John's, trying to drum up support to bring an NBA game to the East Coast. But so far the idea has yet to be acted upon.
The NBA, through its NBA Canada Series, stages exhibition games every year in Canada in cities outside Toronto. During the October preseason schedule this year, the Raptors played the Sacramento Kings at Rogers Arena in Vancouver and the New York Knicks at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
Dan MacKenzie, vice-president and managing director of NBA Canada, said that while he would never rule out St. John's to host an NBA game, it is premature to state right now the location of any future league endeavours.
"The only thing I'd say in terms of the future, we're always looking for the right cities to go," MacKenzie said. "There's a ton of factors that go into it in terms of arena availability and team availability and dates.
"We're always looking for places to play, and St. John's would definitely be in the mix. But right now we're not in a position where we're ready to announce anything about where we're going for 2015-16 or beyond."
The game's cancellation in 2003 was the start of a rotten year for Grunwald.
The Raptors finished with a 33-49 record and missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year. Grunwald was fired from his job toward the end of the season, and the Newfoundland game was the last thing on his mind.
In 2006, he landed with the Knicks as vice-president for basketball operations. When he was elevated to the post of interim general manager for the 2012 season, he began to revisit his Newfoundland promise.
In the summer of 2013, he thought it was all going to fall into place.
He had secured an agreement with the Washington Wizards to play an exhibition game last month at Mile One Centre, but the event had not yet been officially announced.
Then in September, just before the NBA training camps were about to get under way, he was abruptly fired from his New York job and replaced by Steve Mills.
Without Grunwald's presence, there was no real reason for the Knicks or the Wizards to play a game in St. John's, and the event was scuttled.
"Now that I'm back in Canada, I'm working with NBA Canada now to try to resurrect the idea to bring a game back to St. John's," Grunwald said. "That's my last NBA endeavour right now – to try to get a game back there."
He has kept in contact with Glenn Stanford, who was operating Mile One Centre back in 2003 during the basketball fiasco and is currently the governor and chief operating officer of the St. John's IceCaps, the American Hockey League's affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets.
Stanford was the person who accompanied Grunwald to centre court when he made that unpopular announcement to the Newfoundland basketball fans in 2003.
"There was such excitement in the air that night – certainly with the Raptors. And the team they were playing had a pretty good player by the name of LeBron James," Stanford said. "What should have been a wonderful night for everybody instead turned into a disappointment."
Stanford, who has stated in the past that bringing an NBA game to St. John's "is on my bucket list," said that Grunwald has kept in touch about the possibility of trying to do just that.
"I certainly have to give Glen credit for perseverance," Stanford said. "We're a big basketball community here and we would certainly love to see it and have the NBA come back and be able to fulfill that promise."