TORONTO — The morning after the Toronto Raptors defeated the Miami Heat in Game 7 to advance to the franchise’s first Eastern Conference Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Connie Joseph got a text from an old friend.
She popped it open and there was a picture of Andrea Thompson, wearing her University of Texas basketball jersey, a reminder of the deep bond the women share as matriarchs of two of Canada’s leading basketball families.
"She just wanted to congratulate us and tell me how proud she was," says Joseph.
The feeling is mutual.
"I was so excited," says Thompson. "When I woke up and saw the score and I had to reach out, it was one mother to another mother."
Connie Joseph and Andrea Thompson have watched their sons play a lot of basketball together over the years but never on a stage quite like this.
No one has.
Their sons, Cory and Tristan, are two of Canadian basketball’s luminaries starring on opposing sides in the Eastern Conference Finals which will touch down this weekend in their hometown for the first time, a confluence of “never befores” that seem impossible to calculate.
Then again, Joseph and Thompson are accustomed to breaking new ground and defying expectations. They started out as fierce rivals in club basketball, playing for Scarborough and Brampton, respectively. They joined forces on Grassroots Elite — Canada’s first dominant AAU team — to help put the bubbling Canadian youth hoops scene on the map with an out-of-nowhere win at the Adidas 64 event in Las Vegas as teenagers in the summer of 2008. They went on to win a pair of national high school championships in the U.S. playing at Findlay Prep in Las Vegas before starring together at the University of Texas.
They became the first two Canadians drafted in the first round of the NBA draft in the same year in 2011 and last summer each signed lucrative free agent contracts — Thompson for five years and $82 million with Cleveland and Joseph for four years and $30 million to come home to Toronto.
Joseph has a championship ring in his pocket thanks to his time with the San Antonio Spurs, but would love to pull what would be a massive upset and help the Raptors make it to their first NBA Finals.
Thompson lost in the Finals a year ago but is now riding shotgun for LeBron James on an emerging Cavs juggernaut.
Something will have to give; only one of the long-time friends will still have their dream alive at the conclusion of their first playoff series against each other.
In the short term, it’s their relationship that has been put on hold.
Before the series Thompson said he wouldn’t even be texting with Joseph until it was over. Through two games, the childhood friends are strangers passing through the spotlight, though not without a hard pick being set as required.
"Everyone knows me and Cory, how far back our relationship goes. Now it’s the playoffs and I’m locked in," says Thompson. "I’ve got some good screens on him. He knows where the love is at, but we’re enemies right now."
Joseph is on the same page. Told of Thompson’s comment, Joseph took it a step further.
"Who’s cool?," said Joseph. " We’re not cool. What relationship?"
He was laughing, but was also serious. Thompson and Joseph have made their mark in the NBA in large part because they are unflinching competitors and make no exceptions for friends.
"All that reminiscing stuff, that’s for after," said Joseph. "I’m not worrying about him right now."
Joseph and the Raptors have plenty to worry about, in truth. The Cavaliers appear to be a team on the crest of something big, a collection of talent coming together at the perfect time under the leadership of James, the hometown boy trying to bring the first championship in any sport to Cleveland since 1964.
For their mothers, however, it’s a little different. They don’t have to put feelings on hold. It’s easy for them to think back to when their sons were the stars of their respective club teams.
Thompson is the oldest of four kids and Connie Joseph remembers Tristan as the big “man” in the middle who was more than a handful for Scarborough to handle. She can still see Andrea cheering on her boy, usually with a couple of his brothers at her feet and another on her hip.
Joseph is the youngest of his three brothers and sisters. Andrea remembers a soft-spoken boy who would rain jumpers on Tristan’s team all day and then always come by after the games to say hello and have a hug.
"He was so cute," says Thompson.
When they started AAU basketball, playing for Ro Russell with Grassroots, there were road trips to showcase tournaments across the U.S., packed in cars, driving through the night, eating out of hand-packed coolers, feeding an unlikely dream. As the kids got older and more successful, the chances to see them play grew few and far between given the cost and distance. There were a few trips to Las Vegas while they were at Findlay Prep and a few more to Texas.
Even when they weren’t nearby, their moms’ influence contributed to their sons’ successes.
"I give so much credit to Andrea Thompson and Connie Joseph because they allowed their sons to go away and trusted us to do our thing and it worked," said former Findlay Prep head coach Mike Peck. "That’s a big reason they had so much success. They weren’t helicopter parents."
It’s no coincidence that Joseph and Thompson have carved out similar reputations in the NBA as team-first grinders fuelled by a bottomless work ethic.
"That’s just the make-up of how we are, that just comes from our families," said Joseph. "The selflessness starts there."
Add in a little bit of the edge required as Canadians trying to prove themselves south of the border, and you have the kind of formula that makes for good pros.
"Growing up, we always wanted to go out there and win," said Joseph. "We were always the underdogs coming up, coming from Canada and going to America, we always played with a chip on our shoulder and had to learn how to adapt to win.
"We understood that not every tournament, not every time we were going to be ‘the man.’ We were okay with someone else being the man, we had no jealousy on our teams with someone scoring or taking all the credit."
It’s an attitude that has taken them farther than could have reasonably been expected. And while their boys are perhaps too focused on the task at hand to reflect on the moment, for their moms the chance to see them play together on such a grand stage, if on opposite teams, is precious, even if it can be hard to comprehend.
"It’s hard to describe, sometimes," says Connie Joseph. "It seems like a dream, but it’s a reality. Everyone says, ‘You must be so proud, you must be so proud.’ Of course I’m extremely proud, but it’s hard to put it into words."
"Even going back to when they were at Findlay, both him and Tristan, just seeing how hard they worked and how focused and determined they were to get better and be the best they could be and then to see them in this kind of situation, it’s an incredible feeling, and for them, you’re excited for them."
Their sons have put their friendship on pause, but it’s never really far away. And they don’t have to hide the fact it’s a special moment for their families and their mothers in particular.
"They’re loving it," says Tristan. "For them to see us, me and Cory, they’re very proud. Our journey together has been fun for them to watch."