The summer sun slants through the trees at Parc Le Carignan in Montreal North as children shriek with delight on the freshly painted basketball courts. Mothers chat on nearby benches while teenagers practice their crossovers, all under the watchful gaze of a colorful mural depicting two hometown heroes – Luguentz Dort and Bennedict Mathurin.
“When I was growing up here, we played on cracked concrete with rusty hoops,” says Melissa Destine, watching her 9-year-old son practice layups. “Now my boy plays where NBA players come back to visit. It changes how they see themselves.”
This transformation didn’t happen by accident. Over the past three years, Montreal North has witnessed a remarkable investment in community infrastructure, educational programs, and mentorship opportunities – all driven by professional basketball players who once called these streets home.
The Dort-Mathurin Foundation, established in 2022, has channeled over $1.2 million into Montreal North, focusing specifically on youth development through sport. Their signature program, “From North to Beyond,” provides academic tutoring, basketball training, and life skills development for over 300 young people annually.
“This neighborhood gave us everything – our toughness, our work ethic, our dreams,” Luguentz Dort told me during a community event last month. The Oklahoma City Thunder defensive specialist returns to Montreal North at least three times each year. “Success means nothing if you can’t bring it back home and show these kids they can do it too.”
The foundation’s impact extends beyond basketball courts. They’ve partnered with Centraide of Greater Montreal to address food insecurity, funding weekend meal programs at four local schools. According to provincial data, Montreal North has experienced a 17% decrease in school dropout rates among participating students since the program’s inception.
“When I visited the community center in early spring, I watched Bennedict Mathurin sit with a group of teenagers for nearly two hours,” says Pierre Langlois, director of Youth Fusion, an organization focusing on educational persistence. “He wasn’t just talking basketball. He was asking about their grades, their families, their plans. That connection is powerful.”
Mathurin, the Indiana Pacers rising star and former University of Arizona standout, grew up in Montreal North’s Habitations Pelletier, a public housing complex that has produced a surprising number of elite athletes despite significant socioeconomic challenges. The neighborhood has long struggled with higher unemployment rates than the Montreal average, according to Statistics Canada.
“My mother raised us alone after my brother died,” Mathurin shared during a basketball clinic last summer. “Every day was a struggle, but the community looked out for us. The coaches, the teachers – they saw something in me before I saw it in myself.”
The story of Montreal North’s basketball revolution isn’t just about two NBA players. It’s a broader narrative about community resilience and the power of visible role models. Chris Boucher of the Toronto Raptors, who spent part of his childhood in Montreal North, has joined forces with Dort and Mathurin on several initiatives. Together, they’ve created what local youth worker Jamil Baptiste calls “a pathway of possibility.”
“These kids now have someone who looks like them, who walked the same streets, who faced the same challenges – and made it,” Baptiste explains as we watch a skills clinic at Centre Sportif de Montreal-Nord. “That changes the conversation from ‘why try?’ to ‘why not me?'”
The impact of these investments reaches beyond sports. The Mathurin Academic Center, opened in 2023 with support from the NBA Players Association, provides after-school programming focused on STEM education, financial literacy, and English-French bilingualism – skills the players themselves identify as crucial to their success.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante has praised the initiative as a model for community-athlete partnerships. “What makes this program special is that it’s not parachuted in from outside,” she noted at a recent funding announcement. “It’s organic, led by people who understand the specific needs of this community.”
Not everyone sees the basketball focus as an unqualified positive. Claudine Paré, a longtime community organizer in Montreal North, worries about overemphasis on athletic achievement.
“We need to be careful about the narrative that sport is the only way out,” she cautions. “Most of these kids won’t make the NBA, but they all need education, opportunities, and support.”
The foundation has responded to such concerns by expanding their programming. This fall, they’ll launch a creative arts initiative and entrepreneurship workshops designed to showcase diverse paths to success.
For the families of Montreal North, the material improvements are tangible. Six basketball courts have been renovated. Three computer labs have opened. Dozens of college scholarships have been awarded.
But perhaps the most profound change is psychological – the subtle shift in how young people see their future possibilities.
“My daughter used to say she wanted to leave Montreal North as soon as possible,” says Marie-Josée Cenat, whose 15-year-old participates in the foundation’s mentorship program. “Now she talks about coming back after university to build something here. That’s the real gift these players have given us – pride in where we’re from.”
As evening approaches at Parc Le Carignan, the basketball courts remain full. Under lights installed through foundation funding, a new generation of Montreal North residents shoots hoops and dreams big, their horizons expanded by the knowledge that those who came before them didn’t forget the path home.
