Nothing but net

Blanchette’s smile was the picture of pride. “We have some basketball knowledge and had always been honest with him about what he had to do to get there,” she says. “And he did it. His path was not easy. But he persevered. And when you see somebody else notice what you’ve seen, you’re like, ‘Ah, finally.’”

“Some” basketball knowledge is a slight understatement. Olivier-Maxence may be the first in the family to make it to the NBA, but his mom, dad and uncle were all Concordia Stingers basketball stars. His sister, Cassandre, among the top five under-17 players in the world, was the Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association’s League Most Valuable Player for the 2021-22 season, as well as Finals MVP in 2022. She currently plays guard for the University of Notre Dame women’s basketball team.

But it’s not just basketball know-how that Olivier-Maxence and Cassandre’s parents and uncle have tried to pass down to them. The three have also tried to be models for the types of life lessons that can come out of playing a sport you love.

“There’s a saying that goes, ‘Make sure you use the game and don’t let the game use you,’” says Jay. “I would say that our family has definitely made sure we take full advantage of the game, and now every opportunity we have, we try to give back to it.”

All-star origins

Today, aside from Jay’s coaching duties, the family remains connected to the basketball programs and athletics in general at Concordia. It’s not rare to find Blanchette, Gaetan, Jay and even sometimes Olivier-Maxence attending games and walking the hallways of the Department of Recreation and Athletics.

“We hope our long-standing connection encourages others to do the same,” says Jay.

Looking back, all three say that although their basketball success with the Stingers was life-changing, they picked up a lot more than wins, including a few key lessons they’ve tried to pass on to their kids and players.

Number one was all about relationships, they say.

Olivier-Maxence and Cassandre grew up in Montreal watching their parents compete in senior basketball leagues, yet Blanchette and Gaetan say they never pressured their kids to play basketball or any other sport. “It was just important for us to expose them to sports and for them to do something,” says Blanchette.

“They could see how much fun we were having, working hard, working with lots of different players. And they could see our attitudes and how we behaved, like not complaining to the refs all the time,” she adds. “Those kinds of little things, I think, helped them understand how to behave when they’re playing or when they’re having difficulty on or off the court.”

All these years later, as Cassandre excels at Notre Dame and Olivier-Maxence settles into the NBA, Blanchette and Gaetan couldn’t be happier. “We’re proud because they truly want to do it,” says Gaetan. “They’re not doing it because Mom and Dad say so. They really put in the work to get to that level.”

Thinking back to that June night in Brooklyn at the NBA draft, Blanchette is still filled with joy. “It feels surreal,” she says. “But we’re so grateful and so thankful to all the people around Olivier-Maxence who helped him get there.

“It’s never just one thing or one person. It takes a village.”