Polite, soft-spoken and perhaps even librarian-like, Joel Anthony would be an odd vessel to take Heat culture to Canada if not for the seven years he spent sponging up all he could from team president Pat Riley, coach Erik Spoelstra and the rest of the Miami Heat’s superintendence. Turns out he is the ideal ambassador to bring a bit of Miami to Montreal. Anthony, 40, recently completed his first year as general manager of the CEBL’s Montreal Alliance, one of the Canadian professional basketball league’s newest expansion franchises. Part of Anthony’s job is to help build everything — including the roster, practice schedules and relationship with fans — from the ground up. The lessons Anthony learned during his playing days with the Heat have informed how he’s gone about doing just that. “It’s helped tremendously,” Anthony said of his time in the NBA. “I was very fortunate and blessed to be in some really good organizations. I started out just about seven years in Miami, which is one of the blueprints and standards in terms of how to operate our organization.” A 6-foot-9 center who grew up in Montreal and went undrafted in 2007 after three years at UNLV, Anthony carved out a career with the Heat from 2007 to 2014, starting 110 games and winning two championships. When in 2010 LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade to kick-start the Big 3 era, Anthony managed to stick around because his screen-setting, rebounding and astute defense made life easier for the team’s high-wattage stars.