Alumni Shines a Light on Canadian Basketball Talent

Libaan Osman (external link)  ‘21, says he launched The Canadian Basketball Show (external link)  to give a voice to basketball players, coaches, stakeholders and others in the Canadian basketball community.

The weekly podcast (external link)  offers exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes coverage that you may not hear in the regular news cycle.

At first, Osman wondered, “Am I filling a gap?” “Why do I need to have a voice?” and “Will people care?”

After planning a year-long guest list and finding a recording spot at a non-profit in his neighbourhood, The Esplanade, he realized he could (and should) pursue his passion.

The following is a Q&A with Osman.

How do you choose who to highlight?

I wanted it to be an educational place too. I haven’t touched on that aspect yet, but touching grassroots, the people involved in making the next stars of tomorrow.

The people in charge of helping that we don’t often get to hear about, their stories about how they’re making an impact in the Canadian basketball landscape.

As someone in the media [who] covers Canadian basketball talent, we often only care about basketball players and NBA, WNBA talent when they’re making a name for themselves.

Why do we care so late? In the U.S., they have a whole system tracking these people when they’re young.

It’s hard to build a relationship with an NBA guy when they’ve already made it because they’re like, “Why would I want to speak with you when you just learned about me?”

On this podcast, I’m hoping to establish relationships with these players before they’ve even made a name for themselves.

Who were your inspirations for the podcast?

Will Lou and Alex Wong used to be on Sportsnet with “The Raptors Show (external link) .” Now they have their own show, “Hello and Welcome (external link) .”

I listened to it whenever I slept, worked, or multitasked.

And when I was just hanging out with them, learning the ins and outs, the process, how they do it, it made me want to do this.

I love how they do it.

How has the feedback been since you’ve launched?

I’ll get random messages from people like, “Hey, are you going to talk about this on the podcast?” “Are you going to talk about this?”

I want them (the audience) to dictate the conversation. That’s my big thing: tell me what you want me to hear.

I went to a basketball event, I just launched the podcast, and I’m thinking that not that many people are tapped in or interested.

I walk in and I’m getting congrats from people and people that I interviewed in the past or looked up to, coaches in the scene are asking me stuff and giving me ideas.

I just gotta continue to grow it, and I’m excited for the future of it.

What advice do you have for students who want to start a podcast of their own?

The biggest thing is finding your niche. Everyone kept saying that to me at journalism school. 

“What makes you unique?”

[Will Lou and Alex Wong] their angle is comedy mixed with the fan aspect, and being relatable. There’s other people that cover the Raptors that take it from an analytical approach. Some people take a long-form, storytelling approach.

I’m from The Esplanade area in Toronto. I know a lot of people in the local basketball scene [who] have stories that I think are interesting; they deserve the spotlight, but often, they don’t get told.

I know people from neighbourhoods like Rexdale, Regent Park, and they have awesome stories.

I want to tap into that more, because of my upbringing, I know all the cool niche stories that come from this area.

I want to cover Canadian basketball, but on a local lens, on a high school, on a collegiate level, where no one’s covering this scene. Everyone’s waiting for people to get to the NBA, WNBA.

How did you get your start in journalism?

The reason why I got into journalism was because of a guy named Morgan Campbell (external link) . He worked at the Toronto Star, but left right before I joined.

I was in grade seven, I was trying to skip class. I didn’t know it was a writing workshop.

He made me write something about LeBron James, and he said, “Keep at it.”

It was the first time someone told me I was good at something.

I remember going home and searching for everything about sports journalism that night.  I wanted to stay close to home. I live like a 10-minute walk from TMU, so I was like, “This is perfect.”

I got accepted to TMU three days after my birthday, and I sent a message to Morgan Campbell saying, “Hey, thank you. You don’t know me, but you changed my life with that workshop you did.”

He emailed me back 20 minutes later, saying he remembered me and invited me out to a tour of the Toronto Star.

A few years later, I ended up working at the Toronto Star full-time and covering basketball, kind of doing the stuff he did. It was a full circle.

When I told him about the podcast, he was like, “When are you gonna do it?”

Getting support from somebody who got me into journalism, that’s the greatest feeling.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.