The crowd at Mattamy Athletic Centre had been waiting for hours, and when Scottie Barnes and Malachi Flynn finally led a group of players onto the court, they all rose to their feet.
Basketball fans had gathered to watch the first pro-am game in Toronto in almost three years after the pandemic interrupted what used to be a summer tradition, with NBA stars coming through the city to both shoot hoops and have some fun.
And they were not disappointed this Saturday night. The Barnes-Flynn connection was noticeably on display and hard to handle for the opposing team.