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Québécois in the finals: there will be more in the NBA than in the NHL
Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Like every year, almost always at the same time, the playoffs have come to an end in two of the five major sports leagues.

Indeed, in both the NBA and the NHL, we’ve reached the finals, with only two teams left in each league.

So, in both basketball and hockey, a 2025 champion will be elected in the coming weeks.

What interests us now, when comparing the two leagues, is the presence of home-grown Québécois in the finals.

And in the NBA, well, it’s a truly exceptional and unexpected situation, with two Québécois, and even Montrealers, facing off in the Finals.

Luguentz Dort with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Bennedict Mathurin with the Indiana Pacers will have the chance to win the championship.

This is really great for Québécois basketball, which is really on the rise, and is now guaranteed to see one of its products win the sport’s most prestigious trophy.

Now, when compared with the NHL, surprisingly there are more Québécois in the NBA Finals than in the Stanley Cup Finals.

In fact, only A.J. Greer represents Quebec in the Stanley Cup Finals, playing for the Florida Panthers. He is injured, however, having left the last game against the Carolina Hurricanes.

It’s really quite astonishing, and obviously there’s a combination of circumstances at play here, but it’s still crazy that in a sport where Québécois can practically be counted on the fingers of one hand, there are more of them in the final than in the final of the sport that prevails in Québec.

It just goes to show that Québécois are not as widely represented in the NHL as they used to be, and that they are less of a determining factor in their team’s success.

Québécois hockey has been in decline for a number of years, and this is just one example.

Fewer and fewer impact players are Québécois, leading to finals without any Québécois headliners.

In short, it’s a simple comparison, and in the end, it’s good news for Québécois basketball, but it’s still surprising to see a single Québécois in the Stanley Cup Final.


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This article first appeared on Dose.ca and was syndicated with permission.

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