You just knew Joe Raso was going to be a big part of this.

And there he is: the inaugural director of basketball operations for the nascent professional Canadian Elite Basketball League.

Raso, the 58-year-old Hamilton native who coached St. Mary to the 1991 OFSAA basketball title and McMaster to four OUA championships, will be responsible "for vetting all things basketball," says league CEO Mike Morreale.

"He's a guy who's been there and done it at all levels of basketball in this country," Morreale said. "And he's local, not that that was a deciding factor, but he's right on the ground in this sport."

Morreale, of course, is a former McMaster and Tiger-Cat football player and has known Raso well for about 35 years.

Raso adds yet another Hamilton component to the six-team league which begins its 20-games-per-team spring/summer schedule in May. The Hamilton Honey Badgers join Niagara and Guelph as founding Ontario teams while Edmonton, Saskatoon and Abbotsford, B.C., comprise the western slate.

Raso's CV reads like the blueprints of the Canadian men's basketball pyramid. He went to St. Mary and McMaster, and as McMaster's all-time winningest men's coach, had 20 or more victories in 17 of his 18 seasons, winning four silver medals at the national championships. He has worked at the grassroots level but was also an assistant coach for the Canadian men's national team for five years and has served as an advance scout for the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets and Denver Nuggets of the NBA.

Last season, he was head coach and general manager of the National Basketball League of Canada's Niagara River Lions, who are moving over to the CEBL.

"I got a good taste of pro basketball with that," Raso said. "As much as I thought I knew it, there's nothing like experiencing it."

Raso will be responsible for forging business relationships with other professional, amateur and college basketball leagues and with Canada Basketball, the sport's national governing body.

He'll also develop the officiating structure and, most prominently, will oversee the identification and signing of players and coaches for the new pro league. All contracts will be owned by the CEBL head office.

"We won't have any of this, 'So-and-so is making this under the table,'" Raso told The Spectator. "There will be financial transparency and parity within the league."

Raso also confirmed that the league wants to eventually forge a formal relationship with Canada Basketball, now run by Glen Grunwald, the former Toronto Raptor executive and, until recently, the athletic director at Mac.

"It will be a working relationship from the beginning," he said. "We're trying to satisfy what they would like to see in a pro league."

Raso, who says he's "a St. Mary's guy, through and through," feels the CEBL will attract Canadian players who are playing in pro winter leagues around the world, and that Canadian players will make up "more than 50 per cent of the roster."

"That's a part I really like about this league."

His immediate priorities will be to set up on-court officials and to work with individual franchises in hiring their head coaches.

smilton@thespec.com

905-526-3268 | @miltonatthespec

Steve Milton | October 9, 2018 | The Hamilton Spectator