Last Lightning game? It was Forte on fire

Columnist Jason Winders takes a look back at the last time the Lightning hit the hardcourt. Plus, notes from around the basketball — and sports — world.

(Photo: Luke Durda).

Cameron Forte had been almost everywhere before he took his shot in Canada.

The Arizona native had been playing professional basketball consistently after his NCAA career with the Georgia Bulldogs and Portland State Vikings ended in 2016. His passport was punched with stops in Mexico, Hungary, Kosovo, the Balkans, and Iceland before he landed midseason in London as a member of the 2019-20 Lightning squad.

“I knew about the Lightning. I knew they were a good team. They’ve always been a top-tier team in that league. I saw it as a great opportunity – and I took it,” said the American standout.

While unfamiliar with Canada and Canadian basketball when he landed in the Forest City, Forte found that he loved the competition of the NBLC, crediting its high level to the mix of Canadian and American talent that the league attracts.

“The difficulty, the skill level definitely caught me by surprise,” he said. “Take our team. It was full of good players. There are some good leagues around the world right now. I’ve played in a lot of them. But this was a good league – and that was a great team.”

The 2019-20 Lightning were coming off a first-place league finish in 2018-19, but a disappointing first-round playoff exit, denying the team a NBLC championship three-peat. This squad looked to be different, with a new coach and a renewed championship drive.

But it wasn’t to be.

While Forte’s career lasted just four games before the pandemic wiped it away, it was his performance in his final game – the last time we saw the Lightning on the floor – that still echoes through the Budweiser Gardens rafters.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020. The Lightning shrugged off a slow start against the Sudbury Five to earn a 122-113 victory that night. Forte led the comeback with 41 points and 9 rebounds. It was exactly the kind of performance that new Lightning coach Doug Plumb expected from his six-foot-seven forward when he signed him two weeks earlier.

“We had just taken a road trip to play them the game before at their house. They beat us. I could just tell they thought they were better than us,” said Forte, who was named NBLC Player of the Week in his first week with the squad. “That trip was weird, and we didn’t end up playing well. So, I was really locked in when they came to town. I was just trying to make a statement – and we got the win.”

He looked forward to building on that performance and continuing to be a key part of a potent Bolts offense.

Just days later, however, the league shut down. COVID-19 would become a reality in every life on the planet.

When the season ended, the Lightning were 15-9 and leading the Central Division by a game and a half. The franchise was tops in the league in terms of total and average attendance. It was a good year all around.

Forte’s Lightning career ended averaging 29 points, 7.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists per game – and one big regret.

“That Lighting team was a special team and, well, I think we could have won the championship easily if everything would have played out,” Forte said.

Like many players, Forte’s career has been turned upside down by the pandemic. Leagues around the world have been off and on for nearly two years now. Most recently, he has played in China and briefly with the Fraser Valley Bandits (CEBL) before returning to Arizona.

“I still think about that time, about how nobody really had much information about what was going on around the world. We were one of the last leagues to keep playing. We kept seeing European teams canceling their season. Asian leagues going down. We were all confused about what was going on in the world. It definitely caught everybody by surprise.

“Still today, people are trying to figure out a way to pursue their professional careers.”

Forte feels the picture will clear for himself and his fellow players in the next six months. At 28, he is lucky that he has plenty of court years ahead of him, and he isn’t ruling out a return north of the border if he gets the call.

“Right now, I am sorting it out. I’m looking to get back to China. There’s a couple of other Asian countries that have teams. Venezuela and Uruguay are possibilities. It’s just a matter of figuring out what's best for me,” he said. “Maybe I could end up back in London. It’s a professional organization and we have some unfinished business.”

Cameron Forte slams home a pre-pandemic dunk. (Photo: Luke Durda).

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AROUND THE PERIMETER

Turns out, Michael Jordan is not coming to PEI. Instead, please welcome the Summerside (PEI) Slam to the Eastern Canadian Basketball League (ECBL) on Wednesday. The Slam becomes the third team, along with the Truro (NS) Tide and Saint John Union, in the new league set to begin play in March 2022. The ECBL is owned by Tim Kendrick, previously head coach of the Island Storm of the NBLC. With the Storm on a one-year hiatus, the Slam will be the only active pro basketball team on the Island. … We’re all shaking off the rust from missing the last few months. The NBLC Instagram account was recently deleted (not an easy task for the Zuckerberg-led time suck best known for crushing the mental health of teens …). Help them recover and go give them a follow. … Is there a worse streaming package than the one offered by the NBA League Pass? Between blackouts allowed for every SportsNet, TSN, or NBA Canada broadcast, you get a night Hornets game and nothing else. For a league with the youngest fanbase in sports, you’d think it wouldn’t bow to the non-cord cutter mafia. … Canadian Steve Nash landed on the NBA 75 list of the game’s 76 best players in its history (I know, I know, there was a tie). … What could go wrong?

BEYOND MY BYLINE

CTV News’ Brent Lale tracked down hoops phenom Shaedon Sharpe for a nice piece. Keep an eye on this kid; he’s going places. And so is Shaedon. (See what I did there?) … Kareem Abdul Jabbar is writing an amazing Substack newsletter. Well worth a read. Check out this amazing line about Packers QB, failed Jeopardy host and famed anti-vaxxer Aaron Rodgers: “Instead of consulting immunologists, (Rodgers) consulted anti-vaxxer and podcast host Joe Rogan, who also contracted the virus. If he ever requires open-heart surgery, will he hand the scalpel to romance writers because they know about matters of the heart?” … Is it tacky to promote the site I write for? Who cares when it’s this amazing piece by Bridget Carleton, the Minnesota Lynx and Team Canada standout who advocated for a women’s professional basketball league in Canada. One of my fave players and fave people in the game today. … Cool read on building British basketball. … Congrats to London running legend Lanni Marchant who fought back through a litany of injuries to land finish 11th in the New York City Marathon this week. … It's an article on freediving. And it’s wild. … This is not a piece from The Onion. I swear. It is from CBC News. (Insert own joke here.)