Kelvin Troy was one of the first Americans to not only play basketball in Ireland but to actually represent Ireland which meant a lot to him he explained when speaking to Bench Talk.
“It meant a lot of me. Enda Byrt (former national coach) was a great coach and one thing he made clear to me was that American’s just play for the money but we play because we love the game and I never understood that you know and when he explained to me that Americans were getting paid to play and we pay to play and I said ‘ah yeah, that’s true.”
It didn’t take his daughter Mimi long to realise that her dad, Basketball Ireland Hall of Famer Kelvin Troy was a bit of a celebrity in Irish basketball.
“From a very young age. Probably when I first started playing basketball people would come up to us and they would say ‘Oh Kelvin its an honour to meet you, good to see you again and shaking hands , asking for pictures and for autographs and you know, we would say to our mam, ‘is he like a celebrity or what’s the story’ and she would be like ‘oh no, don’t worry it’s nothing big’. We always downplay my dad in this house. You have to have a thick skin in this house. We always tell him ‘oh we never saw you, so maybe you’re not all that you’re cracked up to be’.”
“Once I got the opportunity to come here and I met my wife, there was no looking back. You know, I enjoyed being able to speak when I like and everybody was so cordial and it was a great situation for me. It was old-fashioned you know. I’m kind of an old-fashioned kind of guy. I drive old cars, I like the classics so when I got here, man, it was just a great situation for me in every way.
Kelvin is Mimi and the rest of his children’s number one fan and has supported them during their whole basketball careers. They discussed the importance of being individuals and focused on their game instead of living in their dad’s limelight Mimi told Bench Talk host, Conor Meany.
“My dad actually didn’t care whether we played basketball or not to be honest. It was kind of my mom that pushed us but then once we obviously got the bug for it then he would be out there with us every day, shooting around. He definitely was our biggest supporter, biggest fan but he always said to us ‘don’t feel like you need to live up to anything, you don’t have to be me or on my level, just be yourself and play your own game’. I think it was probably people outside our family that held us to higher standards. I remember playing basketball games and you would be on the free-throw line and you might miss and you know, the ref might be like ‘oh Kelvin wouldn’t have missed that’.”
Mimi represented her country at U16 level and she spoke about her experience with very few black people playing around her.
“Being on the Irish team, I was the only Black kid and you know you go away to the Europeans and you’re playing against England and the Netherlands and like half their team is Black. I definitely did feel like the ‘token black girl’ you could say, on the team you know but no one was ever racist towards me. Maybe it would be different if I played another sport but with basketball, I never saw any racism. I think because people idolise the Kobe Bryant’s, Magic Johnson’s, the Michael Jordan’s and they are all black figures I don’t think people are that racist in basketball.”
While Mimi isn’t playing basketball at the moment, she is an ambassador for the new 20x20 campaign ‘No Proving. Just Moving’. The campaign is targeted to all women who are involved in physical activity, including those of us who are just starting our active journey and who are new to sport and exercise, as well as those who have been thinking about starting up their own physical exercise routines over the past few months. Mimi hopes that by her telling her story about losing her mam may help others out there.
“With my friends and family, I would have openly talked about that. It was nice to share my story with other people who may have been in similar situations or who have had similar experiences. It is kind of a support mechanism to say ‘listen, we’re all in this together, we’ve all had hard times but its important to put ourselves out of it.”
Keep an eye on Basketball Ireland’s social media channels for details on their upcoming Bench Talk guests.
