Gonzaga's Yvonne Ejim represents the new guard of Canadian women’s basketball

Yvonne Ejim has had one goal since being introduced to basketball at a Steve Nash camp when she was seven years old: to play for the Canadian senior women’s national team at the Olympic Games. Now, she will have a chance to see that dream through in what could be a historic year for Canadian basketball. 

The daughter of Otonye Idoniboye and Chucks Ejim, Yvonne grew up in Calgary, where she was a multi-sport athlete who excelled in volleyball, track, tennis and basketball for Edge School before moving onto Gonzaga University in 2020. Despite being a relatively unheralded recruit, Ejim improved each season while taking on a bigger and bigger role with Gonzaga during the seasons and Team Canada’s youth teams in the summers, eventually earning her a call-up to Canada's senior team at the AmeriCup last summer. She played in all seven games, averaging 7.9 points and 4.3 rebounds while helping Canada win bronze at just 21 years old. 

“Even just like getting the invitation to try out, that was a little bit surreal for me because it really just shows being on the senior team was truly one of my ultimate dreams when I was younger,” Ejim tells Sportsnet.ca. “I was like, 'Wow, I'm just getting a couple of steps closer to when my dream can become a [reality] type of thing.'”

Team Canada head coach Victor Lapena was impressed with Ejim when he first laid his eyes on her at the inaugural GLOBL JAM competition in 2022, a tournament put on by Canada Basketball and Sportsnet to fill the gap between Under-19 and senior-level FIBA competitions, where Yvonne helped Canada’s Under-23 team win gold. Lapena observed how Ejim adapted herself to any role she was asked to play, whether it was bringing the energy and doing the little things like screening, rebounding or getting deflections that Ejim and her ten siblings have become known for. Also, her ability to step into a bigger role when the other forwards were in foul trouble, using her athleticism and soft touch with either hand to score nine points and grab eight rebounds in the championship game.

He additionally noticed what kind of person she was and how she interacted with her teammates at meals and practices, calling Ejim “one of the best teammates I ever saw,” noting that she is always smiling, bringing positivity, telling stories, and trying to help her teammates. “When she smiles, everybody smiles,” Lapena says. “This is super difficult because [it means] nobody in the team is thinking bad or has bad thoughts about her, you know? So, this is the kind of player she is.”

After Lapena decided to invite Ejim to try out for the senior team, he noticed that she was nervous. But that changed once Ejim saw how much confidence he had in her and understood why he wanted her on the team. “She adjusted herself perfectly, and it was impressive how during the competition, she was rising, rising, rising and doing an amazing job,” Lapena says. “I have to say that was one of the keys of our success [at the AmeriCup].”

Ejim has carried that momentum into her senior season at Gonzaga, where she is averaging a West Coast Conference (WCC) leading 20.6 points and 7.7 rebounds on 65.4 per cent shooting, ranking 18th in the country in points and seventh in field goal percentage. Defensively, the 6-foot-0 forward is big, fast and athletic enough to guard most positions, averaging over a steal and a block per game, making her versatile on both ends of the floor. 

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs are 18-2 and currently rank 17th in the AP Poll, poised for its highest seed at the women’s NCAA Tournament in program history (they have been the fifth seed twice). In fact, Gonzaga is on a 13-game winning streak and hasn’t lost since Nov. 26, 2023 in large part due to Ejim, who has scored 20 or more points in ten of her last 14 games while dominating in the post. This includes a win over third-ranked Stanford — the highest-ranked opponent the Bulldogs have beaten since the team’s inception in 1986. 

“Yeah, I think it definitely helped me coming into the season just because I was able to experience such elite-level basketball and that's the basketball that I [always] said I wanted to play,” Ejim says about her senior team experience. “So, just wanting to keep that work ethic and that drive kind of bled into the start of my season, just continuing to want to get better and want to be the best I can be for my team.”

“I just want to get better, I want to keep playing elite-level basketball. So, whatever it takes to get there, I'm going to do it. If I have to like run myself out of the gym, I will.”

Despite this NCAA season being very important to Ejim, especially considering it will likely be her last (Ejim has a fifth year of NCAA eligibility due to COVID, but she has begun to pop up on WNBA Mock Drafts and was recently named the 25th best player in women's college basketball by ESPN). Ejim has convinced her coaches at Gonzaga to allow her to leave for a few weeks to join Team Canada in Sopron, Hungary for their final Olympic Qualifying Tournament in early February. She will be the only NCAA player on a Canadian roster that has to finish in the top-three of a group that includes Hungary, Spain and Japan to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

“I know that this opportunity that I have with Canada basketball, it does come once in a lifetime sometimes,” Ejim says. “So just really understanding that and honestly just advocating for myself to be able to go.”

“She's a real, true patriot. She wants those things really deeply,” Gonzaga assistant coach Craig Fortier says. “We recognize the value [of international competition] but also at the same time, we're in the middle of a great season. We have a really good team and she's obviously a key part of it. So, you're trying to weigh all those things.”

The relationship between NCAA schools and national basketball governing bodies is complicated, as each entity has its own priorities. And that has been a source of frustration for organizations like Canada Basketball dating back several decades, with FIBA competitions often overlapping with NCAA seasons, and colleges rarely allowing their players to go, even if they understand how important it can be for their development. 

In this case, there was a compromise, as Ejim will join Team Canada two or three days before the games, enabling her to miss as little time as possible for Gonzaga. But it’s the fact that Ejim advocated for herself that makes Lapena so excited to have her on the team, as that refusal to take no for an answer is rare in the current North American basketball ecosystem. It's something the Spanish coach is used to seeing in Europe and wants to see more from his players going forward if Canada is going to have a chance to win its first international medal since 1986.

“This is a super stressful moment [for the program], but I think it's the right moment for her,” Lapena says. “She’s coming because first of all, I trust her. I think she's ready to face this kind of level, or at least is ready to see if she's able to face this kind of level.

“And second, because she's fought a lot with her NCAA coaches to come and to represent Canada at this moment. [And] this is the kind of player we need,” Lapena adds. “You know what I mean? To feel proud of your country.”

When you look at the totality of Ejim’s career and how far she has come from a raw teenager playing in Alberta to a likely WNBA draft pick, it’s obvious why helping Canada qualify for the Olympics is such a big priority for her. After all, without the Alberta Basketball Association and Canada Baksetball, Ejim probably wouldn’t be in this position. 

Growing up in Calgary, Ejim didn’t have a lot of opportunities to develop; there wasn’t elite competition to test herself against or international tournaments to showcase her skills to talent evaluators. However, everything changed when she started playing for Team Alberta at the Under-15 level in 2016. She then steadily made her way up the ranks to Team Canada youth teams. This included appearances at the Under-16 FIBA Americas Championship in 2017, the Under-17 FIBA Women’s World Cup in 2018, the Under-19 Women’s World Cup in 2019, and GLOBL JAM in 2022 before joining the senior team last summer. 

“Those programs have been super helpful to me, honestly. I feel like if I didn’t go to Team Alberta, I really don’t know where I’d be right now,” Ejim said back in 2022. “I’m so thankful for [Canada Basketball] for taking me under their wing and seeing the potential in me. Along with developing my skill set and stuff like that, just getting me on the national level and competing against other high-level athletes around the country that I probably wouldn’t get to compete against otherwise.

“It was just a whole different environment. They just created an atmosphere that required high performance. And they wanted us to get there and they were going to help us get there. And that's really what they wanted their team to be about: they wanted their team to be the best. So, they were going to create an environment where we can practise, we can play, we could train, we can fuel ourselves to be the best we can be.”

Ejim also has a living example of how far basketball can take you in her own family. Her older brother, Melvin, has enjoyed a successful career playing primarily overseas, including his current gig with Baloncesto Málaga in the Spanish League. Melvin grew up playing for Team Ontario and has represented Canada at the senior level on the men’s side since 2015, helping the team win bronze at the 2023 FIBA World Cup to qualify for its first Olympics since 2000. “Every time I had the opportunity to play, I felt like it was kind of my responsibility,” Melvin says. “And it was something that was really important for me to do in order to set good examples for my family and to represent my country.” 

If all goes according to plan in February with the Canadian women qualifying for the Olympics, there is a real possibility the Ejim siblings will be standing side-by-side at the opening ceremonies in Paris, with the men’s and women’s teams representing Canada together for the first time since 2000. Given the fact that Melvin is 11 years older than his sister, it’s not something either of them thought about growing up. Now that it could become a reality, with Lapena admitting that Yvonne “will have a lot of options to make the last roster in the Olympic Games,” it’s something the siblings are beginning to get excited about. 

“Man, that would be crazy,” Melvin says. “The fact that it could potentially happen I think is unbelievable. It kind of speaks to her drive and our drive and the things we've been able to do.

“I think it would be amazing to have two very talented national programs representing the country at the same time. I think it would be amazing. And for our family, it would be, I think, just as huge.”