An intra-provincial rivalry will kick off the 2025 Canadian Elite Basketball League season.
The Edmonton Stingers will host the Calgary Surge in the first CEBL game of the year on Sunday. Stingers guard Nick Hornsby said "it's definitely a heated rivalry" and the games are always pretty intense.
"There's usually a couple of Calgary fans that come up and there's always the Edmonton fans that go when we go play in Calgary." said Hornsby in a phone interview on Friday. "It's always good, it's always fun. Rivalry games have always been fun for as long as I've played basketball.
"It's always just an enjoyable time, it's a little bit of a different atmosphere. There's a little something different in the air."
The Stingers finished a game back of the Vancouver Bandits and two up on Calgary in the 2024 regular season. The Surge beat Edmonton 78-69 in the quarterfinals on Aug. 4.
That early exit is something that Stingers head coach and general manager Jordan Baker hasn't forgotten.
"It was a very, very, very, very, very long off-season," said Baker. "It feels like we've got a lot of unfinished business from last August that needs to be rectified.
"We're really excited to get going."
Calgary was then eliminated by Vancouver in the semifinals 89-87 on Aug. 9, before the Bandits lost to the Niagara River Lions 97-95 in the championship game on Aug. 11.
"My hopes and expectations never change. I'm always excited to get going and get some wins," he said. "I always love to win and just be part of a good organization.
"Coming here and this team having won two championships already, I always have high hopes for winning more."
Although it's just the first game of the season, Baker said the stakes are high. Because the Winnipeg Sea Bears will host this year's championship weekend Aug. 22-25 at Canada Life Centre, they automatically claim one of the Western conference's two playoff berths.
"It certainly poses a challenge and we've got some other great teams in our conference, that are vying for that one spot," said Baker. "It's not like we're going to be surprised come August that Winnipeg has an automatic bid.
"This game against Calgary, the opener, is gonna be important. We only play them three times. So for us to get an edge and not a tiebreak situation potentially could mean the difference between a home playoff game and a road playoff game."
Vancouver visits the Saskatchewan Rattlers on Thursday and then there are four games next weekend.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2025.
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press
