Canadian Kelly Olynyk flourishing for Heat on NBA's biggest stage

Miami Heat forward Kelly Olynyk (9) takes a shot over Los Angeles Lakers' Anthony Davis (3) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

TORONTO – With a little under three minutes to play in Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat, LeBron James grabbed a defensive rebound and was looking for a transition opportunity with his team down eight.

Always a fundamentally sound player, dribbling the ball with his head up as he appeared to be probing for a gap in the back-pedalling defence to attack, James made a rare mistake of unawareness, not hearing the footsteps of Heat forward Kelly Olynyk coming from behind and poking the ball loose, forcing James’ fourth turnover of the quarter, helping seal Miami’s big Game 3 victory.

It was a big play made by the Canadian down the stretch of a big game, and one that was just so very Olynyk.

“I looked at the moment and it was near the end of the fourth quarter when the game was getting tense and I'm looking at LeBron James coming down on the break and I'm looking at Kelly, who's played a lot of minutes at the big position,” said Olynyk’s high school coach Del Komarniski in a recent interview. “I'm looking at him sprint, catch LeBron, tip the ball and it's a steal and I noticed the wind sort of leave the sails of the Lakers at that point and I called that the proverbial dagger.”

Komarniski’s point is well made. Despite there certainly being enough time to get back into it, Los Angeles could only get as close as five points as the heroics of Jimmy Butler and Tyler Herro finished the job for the Heat in the closing minutes of the game.

But the opportunity for Butler and Herro to put the game to bed couldn’t have come without the contributions from Olynyk, who has quietly been enjoying a fantastic Finals off the bench as Miami’s third-leading scorer, averaging 15 points and seven rebounds per game on 50 per cent shooting and a 42.9 per cent mark from deep.

In particular, in the absence of the injured Bam Adebayo, Olynyk has thrived in Miami’s past two games with a Game 2 performance of 24 points and nine rebounds followed by a 17-point, seven-rebound job in Game 3.

Olynyk is flourishing on basketball’s grandest stage right now and is helping shine a light on British Columbia’s basketball community in the process.

“I mean, that's kind of what it's all about,” said Olynyk Monday. “Obviously, kind of hardly home, always representing. You know, I'm proud to be Canadian, be from B.C., Kamloops. And, you know, I've grown a lot, grown up there. Kind of built what I was there as a basketball player and it's prepared me for everything I'm doing now.

“You know, hopefully that inspired some kids back in B.C., whether it's Kamloops or Vancouver, are watching and know this stuff is possible. If you put in the work and the effort and stay true to yourself, you can pave your own path.”

Olynyk is the first man from B.C. to play in the NBA Finals since Bob Houbregs reached the championship round in 1956 with the Fort Wayne Pistons.

And, as he said, he’s particularly proud of his Kamloops roots where he credits most of his personal journey stemming from.

“When I go back to Kamloops it's wonderful. I love that place, that town, my family. That town really raised me. It's been unbelievable,” said Olynyk. “I'm glad that I can bring them along with me on this journey to the Finals, and hopefully they keep watching and stick with us and we can do something great.”

Though born in Toronto and first starting his basketball career as a youngster playing alongside Cory Joseph on the Scarborough Blues club team, Olynyk and his family headed west to B.C. when his father Ken – who was the head coach of the University of Toronto’s men’s basketball program – took a job as athletic director at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.

And while Olynyk credits Kamloops for his development, he had some serious reservations when his family first moved.

“Well, you know, when we're moving and we're looking at that move to Kamloops one of the things he was concerned about was like, 'Who's ever gonna see me in Kamloops?' We were coming out of Toronto and Kamloops at the time was like 80-85,000 people. So he just had no idea,” said Ken. “So what I said to him at the time was that if you're good enough, they're gonna find you. You don't have to worry. Like, if you are good enough they will find you. In today's world there's no way that you're going to get missed.”

As evidenced by what he’s doing in the Finals right now in his seventh NBA season, Olynyk certainly didn’t get missed and successfully showed that Canadian prospects don’t necessarily have to go the prep school route in the United States to get noticed. Thanks to his time with Komarniski’s South Kamloops Secondary School program he was able to get the exposure he needed to play Division I NCAA hoops, enjoying a four-year career at Gonzaga.

“We would always go to the Gonzaga team camp and I've been taking my teams there for a long time -- I think we've gone for 20 years,” Komarniski said. “So when it became apparent Kelly was Division I-bound I had a pretty good relationship with the Gonzaga people and I like the program there, I like the culture, and I was hoping Kelly could get a piece of that and so I kind of facilitated the introduction.

“But it was Kelly that got himself to Gonzaga, I mean, a lot of coaches offer their players to programs like that, but they do their homework and they decide on who they want and that's who they recruit. And it was Kelly's efforts that got him there. The only thing I did was really introduce them.”

With the credit Olynyk gives to Komarniski – “He's always been in my corner. He's been huge influence on me as a player helping me get to where I am,” – he’s likely just being modest.

After all, it was partially thanks to Komarniski that the skills we’ve seen from Olynyk in these Finals – shooting, passing and handling the basketball – at his size were developed.

As the old story goes, like so many of the NBA’s “unicorns,” Olynyk was about six-foot-two in Grade 10 and was playing point guard learning those skills, but then he just kept growing but never lost the guard skills that came with his previous size and so Komarniski just decided to keep him at the one to great success.

“He just kept refining his game and making his play at the point guard spot invaluable,” said Komarniski. “We kept him there. We'd rotate him into the post, but the bottom line is his vision and skillset, his decisions with the basketball were something that we wanted and we made that work and it was very good for us.”

This rare combination of size – Olynyk is listed as six-foot-11 now – and remarkable ball skills has caused problems for the Lakers so far in the Finals, with the likes of Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard reticent to step out to the perimeter where Olynyk has feasted with open looks from three.

“You just try to space the floor. Draw them out the paint. When the Lakers go big they protect the rim really well, protect the paint, and it really makes it difficult on our guards and guys like Jimmy [Butler] to get in there and to do damage,” said Olynyk. “If we can spread the floor and make it difficult on them, whether they're trying to switch or do whatever, we got to be able to capitalize and just using your skills to your advantage.”

But in order to play as well as Olynyk has in a player’s first Finals, it requires more than just skills, talent and ability. In order to not get swallowed up by the magnitude of the moment, a certain level of big-game experience is likely required and thankfully for Miami, Olynyk has plenty of that.

A member of the Canadian national team for over six years and having suited up for his country 41 times, Olynyk has been one of Canada Basketball’s true stalwarts, reliably competing for the nation whenever duty calls in important international events around the world.

Playing in those kind of high-profile matchups has helped prepare him for the Finals.

“Yeah, the national team has been huge for me in my development, just playing against pros all the time,” said Olynyk. “Basically, when you play with the national team every game is a do-or-die game, a playoff game when you're in those tournaments. That's basically what you're playing right now in the playoffs. It's definitely been great preparation for me. Playing with the national team and having to be an option and a guy that is counted on a lot, that goes into stepping into a role right now where my team is counting on me to do some things out here and be great.”

It also helps, as his dad said, that those kind of pressure-cooker moments he experienced with the national team are ones that he lives for.

“I know that he loved playing for Canada from the very first day when he told me that he wanted to play in the national program,” Ken said. “He was always very proud of being Canadian and representing Canada and he's got that opportunity many times. He always wanted to make the team and he was always available for the team. So I think that was something that he's always wanted, he takes pride in. And I obviously had a lot of experience with the national program. I was involved in a national program at the coaching level for about 16 years.

“So I think that played a part in it, always being connected to the national team. Plus, whenever the national team would beat Toronto when he was younger when they had games we'd go to the games and he'd get to see Steve Nash and all the great Canadian players. So I think that was really big for him and important. So I think it's a pride thing and he really loves wearing the maple leaf on his chest.”

As Olynyk said a few years ago: “I love the game of basketball, I love my country. Simple as that.”

And it really has been that simple for Olynyk when it comes to playing for Canada, and he’s made it look pretty simple playing for the Heat in the Finals so far, too.

Though not a superstar like James, Olynyk was still able to secure Miami’s Game 3 win with a play he made against the sure-fire Hall of Famer by simply just being himself.

“He's gonna give you 100 per cent of what he's got 100 per cent of the time when he's competing,” Kormaniski said. “And that's what you get when you put Kelly Olynyk on the floor.”

Regardless of how this series turns out, Olynyk has showed out and represented Kamloops and all of Canada with a tremendous amount of pride. There’s not much more you can ask for.

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