Kaza Kajami-Keane is back on the court with the Canadian Senior Men’s National Team and he couldn’t be happier about it. After missing the previous FIBA window because of a knee injury, the Ajax native is thrilled to be back with his teammates for training camp as the team prepares for a pair of games this weekend against the Dominican Republic and U.S. Virgin Islands.

“I’m feeling good,” Kajami-Keane said. “I’m excited. I’ve been playing with the senior team for five years now, so it’s like, you get accustomed to seeing these faces. When you miss out, for even a little bit, it kind of gets on you and I missed that last one. I’m just glad to be around the guys and preparing for these games.”

In his second consecutive season playing for Le Mans Sarthe in France, Kajami-Keane flew in for this weekend’s games from Monaco. After the aforementioned knee injury had him sidelined for the first half of the season, he’s thrilled to be back competing, but as he returned to the court with the national team this week, there was something the 28-year-old couldn’t help but notice. After years of being the young guy at Team Canada practices, Kajami-Keane has suddenly become one of the vets. It’s still something he’s adjusting to.

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“It's crazy,” he said. “I never really thought of it, you know, five years I've been playing on the senior team. The group of guys from top to bottom, it's just like really good people and the time flies by when you're around really good people. From teammates to coaches to trainers, everything. It's always really fun to be around them.”

When Kajami-Keane first made it to the Senior Men’s team, he was the young guy trying to soak up as much knowledge as he could from his older, more experienced teammates. Because they were so willing to pass along all that they had learned, Kajami-Keane wants to do the same today.

“I remember when I first came here, you had guys like Brady Heslip that kind of directed me, and Cory Joseph, Joel Anthony, they directed me how to go about things. Now being one of those guys, there’s younger guys like Danilo [Djuricic] who is here this time, or the last phase guys like Jadon Cohee, who are asking me questions. It’s interesting to see the dynamics change.”

During meals and travel downtime the conversations between teammates can bounce around from offensive and defensive schemes, overseas representation, family and friends and how everyone’s personal seasons are going. There’s always plenty to catch up on.

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“The National Team has become like a family,” Kajami-Keane said. “It's a brotherhood and a lot of us come to each other for advice. It's interesting for me now because I'm becoming one of the older guys that has been around for a little while. It’s useful because it all helps us prepare the next generation to not have to go through the trial and error that we had to go through. It started off with guys we had before, like Brady and Cory, Joel, Tristan Thompson, Melvin Ejim, understanding it was their duty to lead us and now it’s our duty to continuously pass that information on.”

Kajami-Keane’s own love for the game started by watching his older sister, Kalisha, who starred in college for the Michigan Spartans before playing six seasons professionally overseas. Kalisha also played for the Senior Women’s National Team, earning silver and bronze medals at the FIBA Americas Championship.

“Growing up in the same household as somebody like that, you want to follow in their footsteps,” he said. “That was my first role model, the first person I really wanted to be like.”

While it was eldest sister Kalisha who introduced Kajami-Keane to the game, middle sister Takima played as well. Each of his sisters are currently on the coaching staff for NCAA Division I basketball programs.

“I really grew up watching women’s basketball,” he continued. “That was my thing. I would go to my sisters games, I would go to the national team practices and games when [Kalisha] played. The majority of my youth was watching women’s basketball.”

Women’s basketball is also one of the topics often discussed among Kajami-Keane and his teammates.

“If you look at our team right now, it's interesting,” Kajami-Keane said. “My sister played on the national team. Kyle [Alexander’s] sister, Kayla, plays on the team now, Tommy's wife, [Catherine], plays on the 3x3 team. There's a bunch of us that are associated with that side and we communicate about it here, talking about the women’s team and what’s going on. it’s really good to see them being so successful.”

With the countdown on until this weekend’s games, Kajami-Keane cannot wait to pull his Team Canada jersey over his head and hit the court. The years have flown by, but it only means more to him with time.

“It's the greatest honor as a basketball player to represent your country,” he said. “For me, this has always been important. Any time I’ve been asked to play, I've always said yes, I've always wanted to play.”

The relationship Kajami-Keane and his family have with Canada Basketball is also about more than basketball.

“For me personally, I know the sacrifices my family had to make for us to get into Canada,” Kajami-Keane  said. “My grandmother is an immigrant from Jamaica, and she came over with nothing in her pocket and Canada allowed her to provide to now where she has over 60 grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in this country. It just shows you how much this country has done for my family.”

Kajami-Keane appreciates each opportunity to represent his country.

“If I get the opportunity to pay that back in some little way of representing it to the best of my abilities, I would do it every time because I know how grateful I am to be a Canadian and [a Canadian that] can play for the country as well,” he said.