Joseph keen on playing for Canada in Pan Am Games

• Cory Joseph believes Canada’s star-studded young basketball team could learn something from his San Antonio Spurs.

The 23-year-old from Pickering, Ont., is excited about playing for what could be a stacked Canadian squad in this summer’s Pan American Games in Toronto and the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament, but he said star power alone won’t be enough.

“In order for us to succeed we’ve got to realize we haven’t done anything yet,” Joseph said Sunday night. “We’re a young talented group but we don’t have much experience, so we’ve got to be focused and try to soak up as much time together as we can to build chemistry.

“That’s what this [Spurs] team has a great deal of, we have a lot of chemistry, and that’s why we look so good out there on the court sometimes.”

Joseph could play alongside the likes of NBA rookies Andrew Wiggins and Nik Stauskas, his former University of Texas teammate Tristan Thompson, and Anthony Bennett on the Canadian squad this summer.

Joseph is keeping tabs on how the Canadians are doing on their respective pro teams, especially Wiggins, who has collected the season’s first three rookie of the month honours.

“Always check up on my guys,” Joseph said. “[Wiggins] is doing a lot, obviously you can see it out there, he’s definitely a lot more confident in his abilities, he’s definitely figuring it out and he’s coming along quick. Quicker than maybe people expected.”