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When Juan Toscano-Anderson’s career was on shaky ground, Mexico supported him – now, he’s giving back

justin quinn
·6 min read
2

For most of the NBA’s history, Mexico City was not exactly a hotbed of basketball fandom, with other, more established sports like soccer and US rules football outpacing local interest. But over the last few decades, the league has been increasing its footprint in the country as the local fans grew swiftly — now estimated at over 20 million in the country.

Much of that growth has been by design, with the NBA putting one of its Global Academies in San Luis Potosi to help generate interest in the sport in between instances of regular-season and exhibition games being played in the country as they have been since the 1990s. But some of that growth has also been organic, driven by players whose roots run deep in the US’ southern neighbor, such as Los Angeles Lakers forward Juan Toscano-Anderson.

Toscano-Anderson grew up in Oakland, California, but kept his culture inherited from a grandfather migrating to the US from Mexico alive at home, speaking Spanish and celebrating Mexican holidays as well as US ones.

Conversely, as a native of Connecticut who ended up in Mexico City by chance, it had been rare to see basketball captivate the national consciousness outside of visiting NBA teams until the Capitanes became the first G League (or any level of NBA play) team in Mexico.

Even then, the timing in the midst of the pandemic forced the team to play their first season in the G League in Dallas/Fort Worth Texas to avoid the headaches of international travel at that level with a cloud of uncertainty still hanging over things.

But now, with the Capitanes poised to play in Mexico City for the first time and interest in the sport at a high after Toscano-Anderson won a title with the Golden State Warriors, the Oakland native elected to hold a camp in Naucalpan, Mexico State just a few minutes’ walk from Mexico City’s metropolitan border.

Near the Periferico expressway encircling the bustling city, an NBA oasis appeared almost as if by teleportation from the States, with various vendors hawking everything from jerseys to insoles in front of the arena Toscano-Anderson’s camp was scheduled to be held at.

Inside, the medium-sized venue was surprisingly packed for a Tuesday afternoon, with hundreds either in attendance for the camp or in the bleachers cheering the Lakers wing on.

A rapt audience listened to Toscano-Anderson’s counsel on how participation in such events helped change his life, and the advice he offered them to help them on their way if they too chose a path pursuing the sport.

Later, when we met for our interview, he was as warm and welcoming as he’d been from a distance, eager to talk about the sport he loves and its expansion into his beloved Mexico.

Now the vanguard of Mexican professional basketball players with a title to his name, to say that Toscano-Anderson was passionate about the sport would do him a disservice.

And while I suspected I knew at least some of the answer, I had to ask him what motivated him to make the trip to Mexico City to hold a youth camp only a few weeks removed from one of the greatest milestones any NBA player can achieve.

“Well, I started my career here in Mexico — actually Mexico City,” explained the Lakers forward. “After college, I came and played FIBA here in 2015 (for the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship).”

“Honestly, the way that people cheered for me and the way that people supported me was nothing I had ever experienced or seen in my life,” he continued, “and I couldn’t understand why at the moment.”

“But now that I’ve had a tenure here for five years playing in the league, I’ve been playing with the (Mexican) National Team since 2015, I have indulged in my culture and embrace it and understand the history,” related the Lakers wing.

“I understand why they were cheering for me so hard, and the support has been very consistent. Since then, even before I was in the NBA, like when I went to the G League, that was a huge deal. And in the NBA, you can easily be forgotten. There are so many amazing players, especially for a guy like me who’s playing on minimum fresh in the league. I don’t have much of a resume as much as some other guys. It’s easy for people to forget about them, but I’m the only guy who openly represents his Mexican heritage.”

“I don’t want to say I’m the only one of Mexican descent in the league — I know Devin Booker is mixed,” said Toscano-Anderson. “There are other guys, but I openly represent and portray that.”

“So, I just thought it was my way of giving back here,” added the Oakland native, circling back to the question we started the interview with. “The support that I’ve gotten here over the years is inexplicable.”

“The support that I get here is 10 times more than the support I get in the States and that’s total support — I mean total — with total respect to my fans in the States.”

 

As the face of NBA excellence in a country of more than 120 million with a fifth of them already fans of the sport, the next generation of Mexican NBA champions could very well have been on the court, electing to follow Toscano-Anderson’s path to fame.

It’s easy to fall in love with the game, and despite what one often hears about Mexico, quite easy to fall in love with the country.

So for Juan Toscano-Anderson, creating a bridge between his twin loves wasn’t just a passion project, but something that tied together his past and present in a way that will help build for the future.

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Story originally appeared on Rookie Wire