Antoine Mason: Veteran of Canadian Basketball Always Gets The Job Done
London Lightning
6'3
Guard
From Queens, New York
2024 BSL Champion
2016 NBLC Sixth Man
2x All-NBLC
The all-new Basketball Super League season saw the return of one of the biggest names to grace Canada's courts in recent years.
With Anthony, his father, winning the 1995 NBA Sixth Man of the Year award and named to the 97 All-NBA Third team, Antoine Mason had some pretty big footsteps to follow in his own basketball career - and he has more than been living up to that on a different stage.
As a member of the Montreal Toundra, Mason had sixteen points in his first game, 28 in his second and 30 in the third. On either side of the All-Star break he scored 32 twice for Montreal - with a 44 points performance in between. He finished only three games in single digits and ten where he finished with twenty points or more.
During the post-season he joined the London Lightning and scored 23 points in game four of the Finals, which contributed to him securing his first championship after four seasons in Canada. He finished 2023-24 as one of the best scorers in the BSL, finishing with a 21.5 point scoring average, and one of the first to break the league's 500-point mark.
Mason made his Canadian debut in the 2016-17 NBLC season with the Halifax Hurricanes, appearing in every game in the season and starting in 39. Averaging 17.5 points per game, he helped Halifax top the Atlantic Division and to the Finals, where they ultimately lost to London. Despite the loss, Mason ended the season on a high, winning the Sixth Man of the Year award.
The following season he started in every game for the Hurricanes and improved on the court with 20.2 points per game and a career-best 4.7 rebounding average. In a repeat of the previous year Halifax again went on to the finals post-season, but again came up short.
Being named to the All-NBLC Second team at the season's end, Mason had done in Canada what his father had achieved in the NBA. Mason He moved on to Vaqueros de Bayamon in Puerto Rico and the Fujian Lightning in the Chinese NBL, and after an eventful season he decided to make the return to Halifax, rejoining the Hurricanes.
In the 2019-2020 season he scored in double digits in all but two games, five times breaking the thirty-point mark and twice scoring over forty points. The standout player on the sason for the Hurriacnes, Mason earned a place on the All-NBLC First Team.
After that he made 25 appearances for Real Valladoid in Spain, averaging 11.8 points per game, then played for Al Wehdat in Jordan before coming back to Canada. Here, Mason came full circle on a journey which began back in New Rochelle High School in New York. He was named the school's athlete of the year as a senior, earning him a place on the Niagara Purple Eagles in Lewingston.
After spending his first season side lined with an injury, Mason went on to win the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year award at the end of the 2011-12 season, and his return with a vengeance did not stop there. He scored his 1000th NCAA point in his sophomore season, and was second in the conference in scoring with 18.7 points per game.
He built on that in his junior year with a 25.6 scoring average. After three seasons with Niagara, starting in every game, he moved to the Auburn Tigers for his senior year, where he averaged 14.4 points per game. He then joined the professional ranks, playing twelve games with Apollon Limassol in Cyprus before debuting in Canada.
Fans of the Lightning, and Canadian basketball fans in general, are happy to see him back in the place where he has established himself as a perpetual talent, dynamic and exciting to watch and always reliable on the court.
Updated from the original article on July 25th 2024.
