Michael Linklater's basketball success has provided a stage for his work with Indigenous youth

Michael Linklater remembers the day he fell in love with the game. His elementary school in Saskatoon had just laid a new asphalt basketball court, and a group of older boys playing pick-up had drawn a crowd during recess.
Linklater, who was 12, jostled to get a good view. The atmosphere was electric.
“Everyone in the schoolyard surrounded the court, it created almost like a stadium in a sense,” Linklater said. “And to see what some of these older players were doing on the cour