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The first-ever Canadian Raptor is receiving the country’s highest basketball honour. Toronto-born hooper Jamaal “Big Cat” Magloire has been inducted into the Canadian Basketball Hall of Fame, according to an announcement from Canada Basketball. The 48-year-old won an NCAA national championship, was an NBA All-Star, previously served as a Raptors assistant coach and is currently a community ambassador for the franchise. “This is such a tremendous honour, and I am so humbled,” Magloire said earlier this week. “Basketball is my life’s passion, and it’s been a great road. I look back on it all … high school, my college days, learning how to grow from a boy to a man, being drafted into the NBA, being one of only three Canadian players in the league at that time and now we have 25 Canadian athletes. It’s good to see how the game has evolved, and it’s good that I was able to come back home to the place where it started for me.” From Scarborough, Ont., Magloire led his high school team, Eastern Commerce, to back-to-back championships, earning a scholarship to Kentucky. They won the big dance in 1998, and Magloire is still the Wildcats’ all-time leader in blocks. The six-foot-11 centre went on to be selected 19th overall in the 2000 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets, and went on to play 12 seasons split between the Hornets (Charlotte and New Orleans), Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trail Blazers, New Jersey Nets, Dallas Mavericks, Miami Heat and eventually the Raptors, where he played out his final season in his hometown. He was also part of Nick Nurse’s championship-winning coaching staff in 2019. Magloire averaged 2.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 0.9 blocks over the course of his career, and his best season came in 2003-04 when he had 13.6 points, 10.3 rebounds and 1.2 blocks over 82 games, earning an All-Star nod. “What I think about most today is the way that the game has evolved based on the Toronto Raptors, the Raptors 905, and now the Toronto Tempo. We didn’t have these tools back then, but today young people have an opportunity to see it and believe it. You go to the Scarborough Shooting Stars games in the summertime and it’s accessible to everyone, giving kids a chance to see players live and to have that dream.” Magloire, who is also a vice president and special advisor for the Shooting Stars, said.