A Q&A with the Commish

Audley Stephenson, commissioner of the National Basketball League of Canada, talks about returning to the court, the long road to get there, and his passion for the league.

Stephenson (middle), participates in a pregame ceremony honouring Brenda Schultz and Karl Toulouse, members of the London Lightning stats crew, during the 2019-2020 season. (Photo: Don Rycroft).

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Audley Stephenson is one of those guys you like to have on your side.

He brings a positive energy to the room, to any conversation – the kind of energy that has you fired up and ready to run through a wall for a man. Whether hosting his podcast, or talking about the hoops league he loves so, the guy exudes authenticity and proudly wears passion on his sleeve.

For the last decade, Stephenson, Vice-president of Basketball Operations of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBLC), has been an ambassador for the league since its inception. He held a variety of roles before unanimously being appointed to his current position in May.

Today, Stephenson oversees day-to-day and game day operations of the league, in addition to business development support, cheerleading and advocacy, and, you would have a hard time convincing me otherwise, locking up every stadium at night.

You would be hard-pressed to find someone who has invested more sweat and emption in the league – and few would have taken the loss harder if the league did not return this year.

Gameday London’s Jason Winders sat down with Stephenson recently to talk about the challenges of a league emerging from pandemic and what the future might hold.

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Winders: A few months ago, even a few weeks ago, did you really think we’d be having this conversation about the league returning, Audley?

Stephenson: Quite honestly, we weren’t always sure what the path forward looked like. There was definite uncertainty, and we’re glad that we managed to figure it out.

Winders: You’re one of the more positive people I know. I watch your podcast (The Audacious Life Podcast), and I love the energy on it. But given your roots with the league, this has gotta be different, special. You have gotta be on Cloud 9 right now.

Stephenson: I am. To be honest, I vividly remember the day that the league collectively said, ‘OK, we're finally there.’ I had to take some time and it was a bit emotional for me, right?

In the last 10 years, I’ve invested a lot.

Time.

Energy.

Sacrifices.

Everything.

There’s been a lot of things that I’ve done because I believe in the NBL Canada, what we started off wanting to do, and what it is doing now. It was just in that moment – wow, we were finally able to pull it off.

There were question marks. There were things out of our control. The pandemic pulled the rug out from beneath all of us. We had to respond. Look at all your indoor capacity limits – they were just raised at the beginning of October. Up until that point, we weren’t entirely sure what that would look like.

We’re a gate-driven league in terms of revenue. A bubble isn’t ideal for us.

It’s nice to know that we’ve weathered those storms and have gotten past sort of these periods where (we were) quite uncertain as to how we would get to where we are now.

I’m extremely ecstatic, extremely happy. I feel great for our fans because, throughout this entire time, they have been asking about what’s happening, when are we coming back, where’s the league going to be at? To be able to finally give them a definitive response to those inquiries, to be able to tell those players who are interested in getting into our league, to our partners wanting to work with us, to be able to answer all those questions is a feeling of relief that I don’t know if I can fully articulate in words. But I am very, very, very pleased.

Winders: Take me a little bit inside the room. There had to be some dark moments. It’s the middle of a pandemic, you’re a butts-in-seats league, but there are no seats and no butts. Tell me a bit about when it was darkest for you and when that first crack of light came, and you knew something might happen?

Stephenson: Certainly when the restrictions were lifted, that was like a huge sign. But it was interesting with the capacity limits. That was one of the later things. If you recall, there were a bunch of things happening as we were starting to really open the country back up a few months ago. You sort of feel like, ‘OK, maybe something is happening’ – and then nothing.

The first indication that I got that maybe there’s something here was shortly before the Raptors released their schedule. I listened to (Raptors Team President) Masai Ujiri say that absolutely the Toronto Raptors were playing back home, that they need to play back home, and ‘we are playing – we are sure of that.’

I’m like, ‘Wow, if Masai knows something, then we’re gonna be fine.’ What’s that saying? ‘In Masai we trust.’

That provided a little optimism, that’s where we really turned for me, the beginning of it, if you will.

As for those darker moments, I mean it’s hard to say as we’ve been dark for so long, right? For the longest time it was always just dark. Forget about basketball, we literally had a pandemic where people’s lives were being impacted. It was tough. It was always a dark moment. And although the world was starting to slowly open up, there was never really any real assurances until we saw what the Raptors had done and we thought, ‘OK, maybe there’s something happening here that we need to keep our eye on.’

Winders: You make a good point. Is there an advantage to being the last league to open up? To seeing how everybody was doing it, what was working, what wasn’t. Have you taken any lessons from watching any of the other leagues return to play?

Stephenson: There’s much to be said about being the last to the party, not that we planned it that way, but that’s how it kinda worked out and we’re taking advantage of it. Six months ago, the border was still closed and Americans couldn’t come over the border. We wouldn’t even have the opportunities we do now.

We’re also watching what the OHL is doing, as we share a number of those arenas, and paying close attention. We’re in a good position.

Winders: You touched on it a bit there. One of the exciting parts of the new season is going to be that partnership with The Basketball League (TBL). Talk a bit about how that came about and what you see that bringing to the league.

Stephenson: That relationship with (TBL founder) David Magley was formed when he was here. He came here in Canada as the head coach of the Brampton A’s. That’s where I first met him. That’s when we became friends. Through the years, we worked closely together and developed a mutual respect for one another. We certainly appreciate what each bring to the table.

When he moved into the role of a league commissioner, I got to work even closer with him. Quite frankly, he was a big contributor to my development into my role that I’m in now. I have a great deal fondness for him. I love him dearly. He is a good man and a very, very good friend.

So, when we talk about how this happened, that’s a starting point. It doesn’t hurt the relationship that here’s a guy who is familiar with our league, familiar with our teams, he spent two years here learning and understanding the basketball culture in Canada, more than two years as league commissioner. I was approached by another league with an almost the identical offer on the table, but there just wasn’t the interest.

In any kind of venture like this, you need to have a great deal of comfort, of trust in the other side for it to work. We had that. And, so, when we talk about the potential for what it does for our league now, it certainly gives us something specially and different as we celebrate our 10th season, which is very much a big deal for us. We can celebrate in a special way, in a unique way.

This has never been done where two leagues in two countries are coming together to collaborate in this fashion. We are excited. It provides a different look. I know a number of their players look to our league as a potential landing spot. We have had players from TBL play here and back: (London Lightning guard) Xavier Moon came to us to London by way of the TBL, as did (Lightning guard) A.J. Gaines and (former Island Storm guard) Jonathan Lloyd. We have had a number of players who played in the TBL make their way to our league. I think that will only strengthen this relationship and be a very, very positive thing for everybody.

Winders: It’s an interesting and creative way to balance out the schedule with the loss of the Atlantic division.

Stephenson: Absolutely. We were sitting at the table wondering what the path forward looked like. It was never part of the conversation that we’re not proceeding ahead, right? Although it kind of felt like it, looked like we weren’t sure, it was never really an option for us. It was like, ‘Well, how can we make it work and what are we prepared to do?’ So, there was lots of conversations about that.

It was a timing thing more than anything else, and I can't even recall who called first, or who suggested what first, but right away we thought, ‘Hey, this can work.’

Winders: You have an Ontario locked league right now. How do you go about building it back out nationally?

Stephenson: I want to say that we are very much focused on what we have in front of us right now, which is this year. Year #10. We’re not about Year #11, 12, or 13 right now. We have made no commitments beyond this year. We have just been focusing on what we have in front of us.

But if you were to dream a little bit with me right now …

There’s a potential where maybe you have the two champions of their respective leagues play each other for some kind of championship. Let’s say hypothetically – and, actually, this was sort of on the table before we decided not to proceed with the Atlantic Division – TBL teams go and play in Atlantic Canada. There are four teams within a bus trip that could go up there and help out with that. Even going westward, there are TBL teams in the northwestern part of the country that could potentially play Canadian teams in those areas.

It is intriguing. It does offer some potentials.

A key aspect of the rebuild is that we play season #10. It’s a much tougher road had we sat out this year and then try to come back. A key component of rebuilding the Atlantic Division is that we continue to play, and so that’s what we’re really excited about.

Winders: Their size and regionality really open up some possibilities.

Stephenson: Right. But we were also very particular in our conversations with the TBL in terms of the teams we were prepared to face. For example, none of our teams play in gyms, but they do have teams that do. TBL teams have an interesting dynamic across the spectrum. You have teams that are resourced in different ways. Two of their teams have former NBA players who are owners and that comes with what it comes with, and then there are teams who don’t have that kind of capital resources behind them. It’s a really interesting spectrum.

We wanted to ensure that the professional level we set for how we deliver here was maintained when we go out on the road. That’s been a commitment. You can certainly look it up online, but all the teams that we’re seeing, they’re playing in arenas, and that’s what we wanted.

Winders: Somehow the pandemic is going to be two years old when you start. What is the league looking at as far as pandemic rules that they’re going to have? Is that a consideration you have to keep monitoring going forward? Are there any kind of requirements on player or staff vaccinations? What kind of considerations do you have to juggle?

With vaccinations, the U.S. players, of course, cannot get into the country without it. That makes it a bit easier from that standpoint. We still haven’t built all of our expectations fully, but certainly vaccinations would be a part of that, as would monitoring. We will need some COVID protocol rules, isolation steps in the event of an exposure. So, there will be the standard things that you’d expect to see.

Going back to what we talked about earlier, we can see how things work for other leagues and teams going through it now. We’re monitoring all that.

Winders: Let’s end a bit more positively. What sort of message would you have for fans heading into this upcoming season?

Stephenson: Thank you. First and foremost. I have a tremendous amount of appreciation and respect for the fans for their patience, their understanding, and their support. I’ve lost track of the number of messages, tweets, DMs, private messages, about the status of the league and if we’re coming back and what it will look like and when. It’s so nice to be able to provide definitive responses. For a long time, we were not able to because we didn’t know.

I’m also happy for players who have had a tough go the last couple years. So, for our players and our fans, we’re not just happy to be here, we’re ecstatic to be able to jump back on the court again. I can’t put into words what that green light saying ‘we’re good to go’ meant.

Winders: Let me ask one last one about you. I was telling someone the other day that the league is in good hands because this guy knows where the junction boxes are at in every stadium, let alone how to run the league. So, when you think about 10 seasons, what does it mean to you to see this thing grow for a decade now to walk it out again after a global pandemic.

Stephenson: It’s gone by so fast. I’ve appreciated and loved every step of the way.

My youngest son is 15 years old. I can remember bringing him to the Oshawa Power game in year one. So, when I look at his development as a basketball player (he has been playing basketball since he was 7 or 8 years old), it would be impossible to deny the fact that this league and its players influenced him, his own personal development as a player in some way.

To know that this league has given kids like my son heroes to look up to and now he is developing his own game, it gives me a great deal of pride.

I think I’ve done everything humanly possible to support this league. I’ve made sacrifices, given blood, sweat, and tears, and put it all out there, and continue to, because I believe what the league is doing. I am as excited today as I’ve ever been. It's actually nice for me now because I’m bringing people into the league that remind me of a younger version of myself.

This league has done so much for so many people. I have pride in knowing that I had a hand in part of that. That’s really, really exciting to me and that’s where my satisfaction comes from.

I keep saying it – I’m pleased. I’m so happy. I have felt really emotional about all this. There was just so much behind getting here. There was uncertainty. There was doubt. But we found a way to keep going.

When we prepared the final schedule and shared it with all the teams, and at that point we knew the PEI Storm wouldn’t be on that schedule, I remember the owner (Duncan Shaw) said, ‘I’m looking at this thing and not seeing the Storm bugs me.’ I get it. I understand what he's saying, because I had similar feelings about the prospect of the league not proceeding. ‘What do you mean? We gotta figure it out, right?’ And we did.

This league is something I’ve grown up with. I can’t see myself doing anything else. Now, we move ahead, and I’m charged up. I’m ready to go.