OVO Niko Talks About Transitioning From Music Industry To Co-Owner Of Pro Hoops Team
Niko Carino vividly remembers growing up in an obscure neighborhood on the east side of Toronto called Scarborough in the late '80s and early '90s. Back then, basketball was just a Canadian sport. However, in the Carino family, basketball was everything.
A first-generation Canadian whose parents immigrated from the Philippines, Niko grew up around hoops since he could remember.
“Filipinos in general, we love basketball. That's what I was exposed to at a very young age. I got good at playing. I played in OBA—it's almost like AAU but the Canadian version. I played for an organization called the Scarborough Blues, which produced a lot of basketball players who are playing in the NBA right now—whether it's Corey Joseph, Kelly Olynyk.” Niko said. “My father played college football in the Philippines and when he came to Toronto in the 1970s, he rediscovered his love for the game in the minor leagues for adults. He was bringing me along and that's how I loved this game.”
Finally, the Toronto Raptors came to town, and Niko says he still remembers going to the franchise's first youth camp. Like many hoopers, however, he eventually realized that it would not be something he could pursue professionally. As fate would have it, it was the music industry that he would enter, helping his close friend Drake become a global icon.
Even so, Niko still finds ways to stay close to the game. He launched OVO Bounce, a local summer pro-am tournament that drew NBA stars from across the border. OVO Bounce exploded and became the staple of summer hoops. However, for Niko this was just the beginning of his journey with this sport.
As his name and reputation grew—known for being Drake's right-hand man from Day 1 as the founder of OVO and for helping push hoops in Canada with his OVO Bounce tour—he says he was eventually approached by a position in the Canadian Elite Basketball League. -pandemic about helping to establish a new professional group in Toronto.
His first response was that he would only be interested if the team would be based in his hometown of Scarborough instead. As expected, his response raised eyebrows at first but the league eventually agreed and the Scarborough Shooting Stars were soon born, with Niko acting as owner.
“I have to give a shout out to the commissioner, Mike Morreale, because at first when I brought that up, everybody was like, Why? Why do we do Scarborough? Scarborough is a small place, and they obviously wanted the Toronto team because it's a big market and they took advantage of that. But my heart wouldn't be in it if the team wasn't at Scarborough. I am passionate about raising me… [Marreale] it was like, there's this guy who's as passionate about Scarborough as you are. i'm like Yes? Who? That's how I met Sam [Ibrahim]—he is one of our partners who contributes greatly to this organization.”
Shooting Stars serves two purposes: community culture and winning culture. Although the Raptors are still a global icon, and remain active in the community, their demanding schedules and court commitments in many ways limit how accessible the players are to the public. This is where Shooting Stars comes in. Niko says the goal was to host some kind of community event every week during the season—either camps, clinics, or meet-and-greets. And that doesn't just apply to the players, he's also applied that burden of accessibility.
“When we made this group, I wanted to talk about the youth. For a kid who couldn't afford Raptors tickets. I didn't go to a Raptors game until I was 18 years old. “Shooting Stars is one of the things where it is accessible,” he said. “Let's reach out to all the youth and high school basketball programs, and give them tickets. Doing camps and meeting the players and meeting myself. And you go through a full day of what it's like to be a professional basketball player. I'm just trying to find a way to encourage the kids… I'm just trying to stay as connected as possible to them and be human with them. We are not accessible. I want Scarborough Shooting Stars out of reach. You can reach out and shake hands. We, as a community group, can do that.”
The CEBL, launched in 2019, has 10 teams across Canada that play 20 regular season games and a single playoff structure, where after the quarterfinals are played at home, the semifinals and championship games are played in a round robin fashion. neutral site (last year it was in Vancouver, this year it will be in Montreal) during the championship weekend. The league, which runs from May to August, has unique rules that aim to prioritize local Canadian talent. For example, only 4 imports are allowed per team—3 of them are Americans and one is an international player from somewhere else. Another program is all Canadian hoopers. The league also requires two Canadians per team to be on the court at all times. If a team doesn't follow that rule, it's an automatic technical foul.
The way the season is structured presents some challenges, of course. The list is made up of guys who play well in the EuroLeague and other top leagues around the world, as well as the NBA G League and the regular Sumer League. Some of the players on the list from previous years include Jalen Harris, Isaiah Mike, Cam Chatman, Kassius Robertson, Kyle Alexander, Cat Barber, Kalif Young…and J. Grammy winner Cole.
But with great talent comes obstacles. Some of the players arrived late when their overseas season falls into the middle of the playoffs, some have to leave early if their international teams start early, and some were even invited to the NBA Summer League in the middle of the CEBL season. It creates a system puzzle that Niko and his staff must navigate with precision, predicting which players might lose or start without them and come up with contingency plans. For Niko, navigating through the word order means that his boys experience career progression and that Shooter Stars plays a role in their development.
However, on the court those challenges have not affected the team's success at all. In just two years of existence, the team made it to the championship game in its first year and won it all last year. The early success comes as no surprise to Niko, whose highly competitive personality helped set expectations for a top spot right from the start. He knew that the team would automatically have more eyes and pressure on them (and naturally haters, too) than any other team in the league because of their association with OVO and Drake.
Whether he's in the studio with The Boy, or on a world tour, or in business meetings to talk about the most popular male artist, everything is ready for Niko this time.
“I learned a lot from Drake about how he's involved in everything he creates—whether it's his music video concepts, mixing beats, writing, hooks, no matter what, he's involved in everything. And that's what I did with this. “On a typical day, I'll go to training camp, watch film with the guys, go to coaches' meetings—I'm just learning and soaking it in, and giving it my all,” he said. “I wanted to win or lose myself, and I didn't want it to be impossible but I was right. So, I wanted to participate as much as possible, so if I lost, it was because of my own merit.”
“There are a lot of expectations. We are remaking the big city. We're bringing back the east side of Toronto We're relaunching OVO. We answer Drake. There is a lot at stake here. I think that's something I don't take lightly. I want to compete here. I learned a lot from Drake, you can't settle, you can't be satisfied. We will not have a successful season. We have to continue to find ways to stay at the top one way or another.”
Beyond wins and losses, X's and Os, and competitions, Niko's story has more to do with the innate human experience. The last one focuses on finding your true purpose and your calling in life, live your life not only for yourself but also well while drawing those around you. It's been a full circle season for the Scarborough native.
“When I was growing up, I wanted to be a Raptors guard. But, obviously, since I'm Filipino, I haven't grown that much,” Niko said with a laugh. “I didn't really know what it was [else] I wanted to be. I went to college for one year before Drake snatched me up and brought me to the streets. I went to college to become a social worker. So, I always wanted to encourage and help young people, children with problems. I don't want to say I was a troublesome child, but I wandered. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I always felt stuck. I never thought that I could be the owner of a sports team, work in sports professionally. Now, I just want to encourage those who look like me.
“It was difficult, in terms of this feeling of being stuck—it's a scary thing. That feeling of helplessness. Like, what's next? Waking up every morning and being, like, Yo, what's next? What will I do? Like, I don't know what to do. There is life after that. As long as you keep at it, good things will happen to you.”
Photo credit: LocationNEW.
