BRISSETT EARNED HIS OPPORTUNITY BY STEPPING UP
Canadian Raptors hopeful was part of coach Nurse’s Team Canada squad
Oshae Brissett is about to get paid.
Not in NBA dollars immediately — that will eventually come, we expect.
No, for now the payment will come in something perhaps even more valuable than the almighty bucks, and that is in real opportunity.
Brissett, six foot eight and 210 pounds, earned that opportunity in part this summer by joining Nick Nurse and Canada Basketball. The payback is coming at training camp for the Toronto Raptors.
Brissett, a 21-year old native of Mississauga, Ont., had a choice this summer. The small forward could have remained in North America and done the traditional summer workout prep with personal trainers that has become the norm for most NBA hopefuls and certainly most veterans.
Both Canada Basketball and USA Basketball can tell you just how many chose that path and the impact it had on the respective programs’ summer success.
But Brissett chose his own path, joining Canada until the team got to the very end of an extended pre-tournament prep period that included training camp in Toronto, with two games against Nigeria on home soil. Then Canada headed over to Australia for five games in two weeks, taking on the Boomers, New Zealand and the U.S.
“There is no other way to get into game shape than playing games and that is something my family and my agent, we all talked about it and we knew it was the best decision for me to go down there,” Brissett said after Day 2 of Raptors training camp at Laval University. “Getting to know coach and getting to be in a different shape than everybody else by playing those games, so it has helped a lot.
Brissett, who played two years at Syracuse, shone in Canada’s run-up to the FIBA World Cup, but a bizarre injury that saw his knee swell up long after Canada’s game with New Zealand wound up cutting short his experience. When the team went on to China for the World Cup, Brissett headed home to rehab that knee.
The knee is healed and Brissett is in a better position than ever to potentially break camp with the defending NBA champion Raptors.
Wild exaggeration, you’re saying? Understandable.
Here, maybe this will convince you.
“I’m not even sure he was factored in by much of our organization at all, other than ‘Well, let’s see what this kid can do,’” Raptors head coach Nurse said at the conclusion of his FIBA World Cup experience in China.
“And now, I could see him with some progression, continuing his progression that he could hit the floor, man,” Nurse said. “He could hit the floor, he could make the team. There’s spots there, somebody’s got to make the team, and he seems to take well to our coaching. So that’s a good thing, a good start, right?”
The point is, Brissett is further along heading into camp with the Raptors than he would have been. It’s all because he said yes to Canada Basketball and Nurse.
Brissett said: “Just because we ran the same plays down there really, so I already knew a lot about coach’s terminology. We were able to make jokes a little bit about that. Just by the way he was able to teach me down there, it’s translating now in the three or four weeks I have been with the team. It has helped a lot.”
Then there’s the ability to focus on his game rather than worrying about fitting in. It has taken away apprehension Brissett might otherwise have felt in his first professional camp.
“Getting to know him (Nurse) on a personal level has helped me a lot,” Brissett said.
There are obstacles to Brissett landing a spot among the 15 players who will be on the Raptors’ roster.
First and foremost, he’s here on an Exhibit 10 contract, a oneyear deal worth the minimum salary. In short, the investment by the team is small in comparison to other players in camp. It doesn’t mean he can’t make the team. It just means he’ll have to do a little more to earn a spot on the roster because it could mean bumping someone else the team has more invested in.
There is no other way to get into game shape than playing games and ... we knew it was the best decision for me to go down there.