In a return to his old Prince George stomping grounds, former Duchess Park high school star Nathan Yu brought with him the first basketball team from Hong Kong ever to tour northern British Columbia.
Yu, 35, showed off his U16 elite travel team from the Triple Double Basketball Academy he started a three years ago in Hong Kong Monday, July 29. They took to the court at Cedars Christian School against the host Northern Bounce Academy U15 boys.
The P.G. boys had a height advantage but the visitors from Hong Kong matched that with their tenacity. It was a close game throughout, ending in a 69-64 Northern Bounce victory.
Some clutch three-point shooting from Gabe Tabora and six consecutive points from Kai Kim gave Northern Bounce an 11-point cushion midway through the second half. After a late push from their Asian opponents reduced the gap to just four points, Taylor Hodgin put the game out of reach with a steal and consecutive baskets.
Although there was no scoresheet recorded, James Koo had nearly half his team’s points in his team’s first-ever game on Canadian soil.
The same teams were due to meet again today at noon at the Roll-A-Dome for one final tune-up before they head to Langley for the Canadian Club Basketball Championships starting on Thursday.
The Hong Kong visitors arrived in Prince George last weekend and in addition to their two-a-day workouts on the basketball court at the Roll-A-Dome they spent some time at Cluculz Lake, west of the city.
“I started playing basketball with TDBA, they basically taught me how to play the game and have been like family ever since,” said Jake Tam, who moved to Hong Kong from Vancouver four years ago.
“Nathan is one of the rare coaches you’ll find in Hong Kong, and he does care about your development and how you play, it’s not just about scoring,” said the five-foot-eight point guard, 17.
“He’s really detail-focused and he won’t let you slack for sure. He’s hard on us but it’s something I’m grateful for. I expect it to be more physical, more intense, people are bigger and stronger here, you can’t get away with as much. Nationals will be a really good experience.”
Tam was blown away by the new standalone gym that opened at Cedars in 2022 and his time on the lake will no doubt stand out as one of the trip's highlights.
“This is a crazy gym to have at a school. Some schools (in Hong Kong) don’t even have gyms and other schools the courts are outdoors and the rims don’t even have nets, sports are not as big of deal” said Tam. “It’s a great opportunity to come over and experience this, I’m just grateful to be here. I jet-skied for the first time and that was so fun."
The water was colder than he expected, he said: "The water was freezing. I’ve heard it freezes over in the winter and you can drive trucks on it.”
Before the game Monday the Hong Kong players met Mayor Simon Yu, Nathan’s father, at his office at city hall.
“That was insane, it was like seeing the president, he’s a great guy,” said Tam.
Nathan Yu, who led Duchess Park to the double-A provincial championship in 2006, completed his Grade 12 year at Vancouver College and went on to a storied career in university basketball with the UBC Thunderbirds, which included two national silver medals (2009, 2010) and one bronze (2011).
He’s heading into his eighth season playing professional basketball in the 10-team Hong Kong A1 pro league. After eight seasons with the South China Athletic Association he’s switched teams and now plays for Winling after signing a two-year contract.
“I’ve just been lucky and blessed enough to have a (Chinese) passport to play overseas because my dad was born there,” said Nathan. “I started a basketball academy with one of my teammates and it’s always been a dream of mine to bring them back to where I came from and show them Canadian basketball.
“My brother Jordan started Northern Bounce in Prince George and we just started this partnership and now we’re here. I’ve been working with some of these kids for three years and we don’t have a lot of height, that’s hard to find in Hong Kong, but we’ve got some speed and some skill and some shooting and it’ll be good for them to measure up against Canadian boys.”
Hong Kong is a densely packed city of seven million and Yu says there are thousands of basketball players there. It’s the second-most-popular team sport, after soccer, but it’s not as organized as it is in Canada.
“All the kids love basketball over there, it’s growing a lot,” said Yu. “The growing of the NBA in China and social media has had an effect. It started with Yao Ming and it grew from there and they did a good job of growing the game in Asia.”
Yu, a six-foot-two shooting guard for Winling, grew up with basketball mentors in-house trying to keep up to his older siblings Lee-Wei, Reena and Jordan, who all played the game at a high level.
“Being in the driveway on Kingsley Crescent in College Heights I always had a dream I wanted to get paid to play this sport,” said Yu. "I was lucky enough after UBC that I got an offer and I’ve been there since getting paid to play the sport I love.”
The pro league season starts in two weeks. Each team plays a 26-game schedule that runs through the end of February. His schedule allows him to run the academy, which is based on the Northern Bounce business plan. Northern Bounce and its off-season training program didn’t exist when Nathan played youth basketball.
“I couldn’t imagine what my career would have been like if I had easy access to training like this as a young player,” he said. “We trained with UNBC And I had regional training with Todd Jordan, which helped a lot. These kids are really lucky and I’m happy for all the young basketball players in Prince George.”
Nathan plans on hosting a Prince George Northern Bounce Academy team in Hong Kong next year.
Jordan Yu wanted to be there for Monday’s exhibition game but was 750 kilometres away in Langley coaching his 17U girls team to the bronze medal in the Silver Division at the girls club nationals. On Tuesday, his Northern Bounce U13 boys team got started at club nationals.
