After an 88-year drought without medals, Canada finally returned to the world’s podium in basketball after beating the United States to the FIBA World Cup’s third place last year. Now they share the challenge of extending their momentum and achieve success at this summer’s Olympic Games in France this summer.
According to their coach Jordi Fernandez, everyone is excited about playing together again during the offseason, and even mentioned that there are many other Canadian players around the NBA who still might get their chance.
“Every single player … that played (last year) is excited to play again,” the tactician assured this week. “And the players that didn’t have the opportunity to play, they expressed their excitement to play and willingness to play. It’s been great.”
Jordi Fernandez says Andrew Nembhard and Bennedict Mathurin have expressed interest in playing for Canada basketball.
“I don’t think I’ve met one Canadian player that said he doesn’t want to play.” pic.twitter.com/4Kra7AF0GT
— Libaan Osman (@libaanstar1) March 20, 2024
Even though there is no such thing as an easy draw in the Olympics, Fernandez remains optimistic about what’s to come. “I think the group of players that (general manager) Rowan (Barrett) put together was amazing. At the end of the day, that’s what you need. You need the horses, and we do have that,” he expressed. “Moving forward, we’re going to have the opportunity to improve the team.”
Leading up to the team’s training camp in Toronto after the NBA Finals come to and end, Canada boasts an impressive roster with Dillon Brooks, RJ Barrett, Luguentz Dort, Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, Nickel Alexander-Walker and of course, MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
If Jamal Murray is healthy this time around, then his coach will have to come up with a plan to include him as a starter and bring out the best in him. The player said recently that he hopes to participate in Paris this summer and has improved a lot since last season.
“Honestly, it’s just being more aggressive to score,” the Nuggets guard admitted. “It’s not looking for the pass first. When I put pressure on the rim or on the three or with pace I think it makes the defence react to me first. And I got (MVP candidate Nikola Jokic) on my team, so my job is a little easier.”
Dillon Brooks also welcomes more NBA players to compete with Canada during the summer
After Canada’s historic third place over the United States in last year’s FIBA World Cup, they’ve qualified directly for the 2024 Paris Olympics. According to player Dillon Brooks, he believes the more NBA athletes want to contribute to the Canadian cause, the merrier.
The Houston guard believes their country’s honor is at stake. “When you come and play for your country it’s all about the pride, it’s not about the money it’s not about anything else except pride and representing your country,” he said last week. “They’ve played with Team Canada before and we need to get better.”
The Rockets defender would be happy to add those three players and change history together, as their country hasn’t won an Olympic basketball medal since earning silver at the 1936 Berlin Games. “I said this after we won the bronze that it doesn’t matter, we gotta re-up. We gotta get better,” Brooks expressed. “So add Jamal, add in Nembhard, add in Wiggins. That’s going to make our team better. Those guys are selfless players.”
Dillon’s impressive 39 points set the single-contest scoring record for a Canadian athlete at the World Cup, but he hopes his mark doesn’t stand. “I hope someone does break it in a gold-medal game,” he assured. “Feels good. I just played hard, we played for each other. I had it going and we just kept finding each other.”
