For the last 16 years, Dr. Mark Leung has played a behind-the-scenes role with Canada Basketball.

When then-Senior Women’s National Team lead physician and former Toronto Raptors team doctor Dr. Doug Richards presented Leung with the opportunity to join the organization, it was “a no-brainer.” The chance came when Leung was graduating from his sports medicine fellowship in 2009 and, ever since, he’s been involved with Canada Basketball.

Since then, he has remained a dedicated presence across multiple programs — from the Senior Women’s National Team to the NextGen Men’s squads and the 3x3 Men’s Team — supporting athletes on their path to excellence at events ranging from World Cups to GLOBL JAM.

We spoke with the Toronto native about his path into sports medicine, his enduring commitment to Canada Basketball, and the role his Asian heritage has played in shaping his story.

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Q: How did you get into this?

Mark: My dad was a doctor and he was my hero.

He rose out of poverty in Macau, China through excellence in education.  He was a gifted soccer player in elementary school, but focused on academics rising to the top.  He gained acceptance to a prestigious high school a few hours slow ferry journey away back then in Hong Kong.  His family opted to send him away to study, mostly on his own.  He excelled there, and got into the top medical school in Taiwan.  He took that challenge.  He remembers the “semi-official” and possibly illegal boat routes then, across 800km of open ocean, many passengers vomiting from the awful conditions.  On arriving in Taiwan, he took that next challenge… not knowing a lick of Mandarin (he spoke Cantonese, which is Chinese dialect that has little overlap with Mandarin).

He learned to become a Doctor and Mandarin simultaneously!  Somehow he became fluent in Mandarin through self-learning, and excelled in medical school, too. However, poverty leaves its mark, and he had no status in Taiwan as a visa student, and none in Hong Kong which was a British colony.  So, he had to leave home for good as a young man, to a foreign place, new language, new culture.  The opportunity was in Toronto.  He trained as an international medical graduate, and became a Family Doctor in Toronto.  He met my Mom while interning in the downtown Toronto hospital, where she was a young nurse, whom trained in the UK.  She was the eldest of her 4 siblings, from a rural Chinese village in Toishan region, near Hong Kong. She was burdened with the need to succeed in school to raise her parents and siblings out of poor conditions.  She rose to the challenge, and was the first to leave home and familiar comforts.  She made it her passion to succeed to create a path for her parents and sibling to rise out of poor conditions and find a home where the next generations could succeed.  She is also my hero.  

Growing up in Toronto in the 1980 and 90’s sports scene, the Leafs and hockey were everything.  But, being a child of immigrant Chinese parents who struggled against all odds, hockey cost too much in skates, equipment, time away from work, missing academics, etc.  Playground basketball was much cheaper - 1 ball for 10 kids.  When I was around 10 years-old, my older brother, Tim, introduced me to the game he learned just before high school.  That excitement for ball grew, on a trip to Florida when my Mom had an emergency tension pneumothorax on the flight down, and went straight to hospital there.  So, we holed up in kind of a random hotel in St. Peterburgh, Florida, near the hospital as my Dad juggled the unexpected health emergency.  Tim and I found an outdoor basketball half court at the hotel.  We hadn’t played much before, and suddenly we were playing for hours and days on end.   It was a lot of fun and shoulder-to-shoulder brother bonding in an otherwise difficult time.  I’ve remembered it since then as a foundational moment when the spark of basketball started for me. 

That interest kept growing through high school at Toronto French School (TFS), where I got to grow in confidence by becoming “good” at something among my peers. This coincided with the arrival of the NBA and the Raptors in Toronto, who initially practiced at Glendon College, where I was going for gym class in 1995, as TFS didn’t yet have their own gym.  I remember leaving gym class, we’d get to see Coach Brendan Malone and looking up at my first 7-footer, Zan Tabak, walk into the gym.  Seeing the brand new Raptors up close and personal - I was hooked.  Playing basketball was often the common thread that bonded me with my brother, cousins, and my friends through high school, in undergraduate years at the University of Toronto, and in medical school at Western.  That was the Vince Carter era.

 Getting into Sport & Exercise Medicine also comes from my earliest personal memory of sports injury. That was kind of what made it a lot more real for me to be able to play a role in helping people who got injured. I was very close to that because I experienced that from a young age, an accidental collision in Grade 3 class resulting in a knockout concussion at age 8.

Thinking back to that concussion, everybody was just hovering over me.  My head hurt as I was lying on the court.  There was little to no understanding of concussion.  I remember my parents taking me to Sick Kids Hospital, and the main care I recall was basically being handed a bowl to hold in case I threw up. That was the management plan I recall.  I lost a lot of early childhood memories from that head injury.  That’s a big experience that colored what I’d want to do when I grew up. I do appreciate how much has evolved since then, including myself participating in disseminating concussion research, both through my role educating the public and especially teaching medical residents as Program Director for the Enhanced Skills Program in Sport & Exercise Medicine at the University of Toronto since 2014.

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Q: You’ve been a part of the organization since 2009 — what are some of your best memories working abroad with Canada Basketball?

Mark: Certainly, highlights include being part of the first International successes of many NBA stars today, like Andrew Nembhard, RJ Barrett, and Jamal Murray. You could easily see they're clutch as 14-15 year-olds. 

Working with Canada Basketball abroad always brings that family feeling - being part of the team and having lifelong friendships united through the struggle of going for gold together, each member playing their role. I first travelled to China with the Senior Women’s Team for exhibition games in 2009 and 2010. I loved being part of the team, and being able to do what I never dreamt possible - combine my passion for basketball with my career.  

I started with Canada Men’s Basketball in 2011, after the team lead by Kevin Pangos, Olivier Hanlan, and a 15 year-old Andrew Wiggins won bronze at the inaugural FIBA Men’s U17 world championships. I’ve loved this age group, especially growing with the program that started Junior Academy a few years later, spearheaded by a bright Asian in Coach Chris Cheng, my guy. The quality of our program really rose there, and I have so many fond memories working with the former Next Gen Lead Athletic Therapist, Mary Lalancette, through those years.  We advocated for proactive approaches to play our role in the background to help Canada Basketball’s FIBA Boys’ ranking rise all the way to #2 after the historic 2017 gold medal win. That Summer 2017 was also a historic personal milestone, as my wife, Harmony, and I first became parents with the arrival of my son (Ethan).  It was a miracle, with him coming out tiny around 4lbs.  So, that gold medal was the 2nd most exciting thing of that Summer for me and my family (laughs).

Being there for kids as they grow up speaks a lot to my role with Canada Basketball. Getting a window into the lives of these super talented boys, especially when they’re most vulnerable with injuries or illnesses that prevent them from high performance.  Following them through the age groups, through to U23 and now with 3x3 Men’s, is a lot like that.  I’ve now been part of the program long enough to see some of these young boys grow to be Dads and even start the transition to their post-professional basketball careers and lives.  Meeting GM Rowan Barrett, his wife Kesha, and his boys years ago, really gives a sense of that family feeling.  We all lost something when Nathan passed away last year, again reflecting that “family”. 

I always enjoy the family reunions every training camp for any International Basketball event, which include lots of key people whom I gotten to know over the years, like Assistant General Manager Michael Meeks, Director of Basketball Operations Seb Arnold, team managers like James DePoe and Scott “Boogie” Waithe, coaches like Nathaniel Mitchell & Dave DeAveiro among many others - they are big parts of my fond memories traveling with Canada Men’s Basketball.  I won’t forget the day we took the boys on an impromptu visit to the Canadian World War 1 Memorial at Vimy Ridge in 2012.  It was a tough time, as our team was struggling to come together, and it felt like there wasn’t enough time to train.  DePoe took a bold step to push for this, and I think it emboldened our Canadian identity, that there’s a bigger game to learn about than basketball here. 

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Q: What’s it like for you to follow in the footsteps of your dad?

Mark: As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a doctor.

I think my family and friends had heard it enough times from a childhood. As a young kid, you always kind of look up to your dad anyways, but when I was actually able to work at my Dad and Mom in the same clinic — and I’ve actually taken over and grown his downtown Toronto clinic since then — it’s really given me a tremendous sense of pride.

Being able to carry on this legacy, that was forged out of adversity, but translated into giving back, by helping the less fortunate, injured, sick, and needy. My parents, both the first Christians of their generation, impressed on me all those values from a young age as myself and my family follow in that faith journey.

I see a lot of our men’s basketball players in what was my Dad’s downtown Toronto clinic as well, which helps it come full circle. It reminds me that I carry on my Dad’s legacy and I’m also bringing in my own passion, seeing my career intersect with my passion for basketball. 

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Q: When you reflect back on your 13-year-old self, it has to be a pretty sweet feeling.

Mark: For sure. Thinking back to that age, I don’t think I ever thought I’d be in a field related to basketball. As an Asian kid growing up, you don’t really have any role models who are in basketball or in sport, especially being kids of immigrants, where a lot of the values are in safer opportunities — sports is definitely not meant to be something that you would incorporate in your career, it’s supposed to be at most a hobby when you’re done your “real” work. It’s something you just do for fun. But being able to work alongside elite basketball athletes — the best in Canada — and see some of the young talent grow up, that’s not something I would say I was really exposed to at that age.

I don’t think that was in my realm of possibilities, as an Asian kid going to high school in Toronto in the 1990’s, the Raptors were not yet formed, certainly there were no Chinese basketball ambassadors yet, like Jeremy Lin or Yao Ming at that point. I didn’t really see basketball in my career. I would see it as fun — I really enjoyed it, and I’m still very passionate about basketball. I still try to play, but I’m a lot older and I have 2 kids now (laughs).

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Q: What do you think about when you think about Asian Heritage Month?

Mark: When I think about my own Asian Heritage, it brings me back to my family. My dad and mom being Chinese and immigrating from Hong Kong, against odds, and persevering against those kinds of cross cultural challenges and being able to establish themselves here in Toronto, my dad as a doctor and my mom as a nurse.

But neither of them had grown up the same way I did — they grew up in poverty and needed to beat those odds. That definitely impressed upon me the importance of hard work, perseverance and being able to overcome challenges that come along way. It helped highlight to me how this big world isn’t so far — they came from the total opposite side of the world and are now here.

When I look at Canada Basketball now, looking a lot more global and diverse — it’s pretty amazing to reflect upon that.

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