San Antonio Spurs third-year guard Cory Joseph has joined exclusive and elite Canadian Basketball company by becoming only the fifth Canadian to ever win a NBA Championship.
The 22-year old Pickering, Ontario joined Canadian greats Mike Smrek, Bill Wennington, Rick Fox and Joel Anthony.
native made it back-to-back final appearances with the San Antonio Spurs taking down of the OKC Thunder 111-107 in overtime to win game six and the best-of-seven series 4-2 to setup a rematch on the 2013 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat.
Joseph played appeared in 14 of the Spurs 17 postseason games thus far including earning 17 minutes in game five of the OKC Thunder series to finish with a NBA playoff career-high 11 points. Despite his minutes being cut down from last postseason (9.6) Joseph has been just as efficient for the San Antonio putting up 3.3 points in just 5.7 minutes of playing time.
Other Canadians to appear in back-back NBA Finals
Mike Smrek – Los Angeles Lakers (1986-87, 1987-88)
Bill Wennington – Chicago Bulls (1995-96, 1996-97)
Rick Fox – Los Angeles Lakers (1999-00, 2000-01, 2001-02)
Joel Anthony – Miami Heat (2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13)
Cory Joseph – San Antonio Spurs (2012-13, 2013-14)
