Gaines still balling during global pandemic
A.J. Gaines, a top player for the London Lightning in 2019-2020, is keeping his game fresh in Finland while the NBLC remains on hiatus.
A.J. Gaines averaged 17.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game for the Lightning in 2019-2020. (Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography)
A.J. Gaines keeps working because he knows that even a global pandemic won’t slow down the competition.
“Being a professional athlete and finding a team, the odds are not great. Not many people are able to do it – and this pandemic has made those odds even worse,” said the London Lightning forward. “No excuses. You have got to be the best; you have got to stay focused; you have got to get up every day and work on your game and be ready when that opportunity comes.
“With the pandemic, that opportunity can even take longer – but you just gotta know it’s gonna come. So don’t shortchange yourself. Be ready. There’s always somebody out there working ready to take your spot.”
Like dozens of players across the league, Gaines finds himself in limbo as the pandemic continues to hold the NBL Canada season at bay. But that hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm the Shreveport, La., native has for the Lightning, the league, or the game.
In his two seasons with the Lightning, Gaines has become a fan favourite, an up-tempo, big finish forward who feeds off the energy of the crowd. When there is one.
When the league stopped play last March, he was top 10 in the NBL for total points, steals, and total rebounds. In his last NBL game, a 122-113 win over the Sudbury Five on March 11, 2020, he had 15 points and six rebounds in 30 minutes.
He was named to the All-NBL Canada Second Team in July.
Gaines has been playing out the pandemic with Kobrat in Korisliiga, the top-tier professional basketball league in Finland. One of the league’s top stars, Gaines ranked top five in the league in both points per game (19.3) and steals (2.3) through his first 15 games.
Unlike Canada, the games continue in Finland – although played in front of limited crowds.
“What’s going on back home isn’t really happening here,” said the 27-year-old forward.
“We may have three or four cases in this city. The country is obviously better off than the United States and Canada. They just took better initiatives on how to control it than we did back at home.”
Finland kept infection levels five times below the European Union (EU) average, thanks to early government action, including a two-month lockdown in March and a ban on travel in and out of the capital. Its society has largely re-opened with a test-and-trace system implemented via a smartphone app.
That has meant Gaines is back playing in front of – admittedly smaller – crowds. In a matter of months, he went from playing in front of thousands in London to a few hundred socially distanced fans in Finland.
He admits the lack of a crowd changes the game on the court. He forgets when lost in focus during the ebb and flow of a game, but then there are those moments in between when the action stops and the reality sets in. Free throws are shot in silence. A coach’s instructions echo throughout the arena during timeouts.
“It can feel like a scrimmage every game,” Gaines said.
Unlike Canadian crowds, however, European fans make up for the size thanks to a tradition of bringing drums and horns to play during the action.
“It is not something I hope catches on in Canada,” he said with a laugh.
The NBL is taking a cautious approach on their return to play. A planned Boxing Day return was later pushed back to March 12, 2021. That is the official date, although the league has issued no statement since it made that announcement in November.
There has been no game schedule released.
If that start date stands, it would be one year to the day when the league halted play on March 12, 2020. As soon as games stopped, players hurried to return home as Canada-U.S. border restrictions began on March 21.
“It was unreal. In a professional league, you think they got everything under control, that they have a plan for everything. I didn't really realize how big this pandemic was at that time – none of us did – until the shutdown. Things got real serious real fast,” Gaines said.
He got back home to Louisiana just a day or two before the border shut down. That’s when reality started to set in. “Basketball is nothing compared to this. We’re talking about people’s lives,” Gaines said.
At home, he found a hotbed. While Louisiana had its first reported case of COVID-19 on March 9, 2020, experts traced its origins to late February when more than one million people descended on the state for Mardi Gras festivities. Infections exploded after that.
Gaines was in Louisiana with his family when NBL Canada canceled the remainder of its 2019-20 regular season on March 31.
In addition to European play, Gaines also got engaged to his girlfriend of two years last summer. The couple plan to marry in June 2021.
Although unsigned now, Gaines is interested in exploring a third season with the Lightning. With an uncertain pandemic response and pending nuptials, though, he said he’ll have to weigh his options for a return to London this season.
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