Canada’s win over U.S. is no small victory
Pan Ams mark players’ belief in national team
The ball found its way to Jamal Murray, because of course it did. Murray was everywhere in the fourth quarter and overtime of Canada’s 111-108 win over the United States on Friday evening, both good and bad. He was hitting preposterous shots over American forwards with elm tree branches for arms, and throwing irresponsible cross-court passes that would get a player kicked off of his rec-league team, assuming that team was obnoxiously competitive.
It was finally over, though, and Murray had the ball, and he was strutting. He was leaping down the sideline, grinning widely, demanding noise from the comfy-but-packed gym at Ryerson University. Canada was going to play for gold, Saturday against Brazil.
“To be here with all of these fans, incredible staff behind us, representing our country — it’s an amazing feeling,” said Murray, who scored all of his 22 points in the game’s final 15 minutes. “You’ve got to go through it to believe it.”
He was not alone in his demonstrativeness. Anthony Bennett, the first-overall pick-turned-punch line, and probably the team’s most consistent player through four games at the Pan American Games, screamed after one dunk, and hopped down the floor, mouth agape in excitement, after another. Even Andrew Nicholson, whom you have to coax to express any sort of emotion (except when he is quarrelling with referees), had two subdued fist pumps after buckets.
Those are, arguably, the three most important players to the future of the program that are in Toronto. And they were having fun. It was a long way from the Samuel Dalembert pouting when he did not like his role, or the program having to beg its best players to participate for their country.
“If you can’t get up for that, you can’t get up for anything. And I think we’ve seen a shift in our culture,” said Rowan Barrett, the assistant general manager of the men’s team. “Even in our non-competition year last year we had five NBA players come out on a tour of Europe and we’re going to have more and more players come out. And now they’re going to recruit one another. There’s an expectation, they’re looking at each other (asking), ‘Are you going to be here this summer?’ It’s their program.”
Now, it should be pointed out that this win, from a strictly team-beats-other-team perspective, can only be construed as so meaningful. If the women’s victory in the gold-medal game on Monday was Canada’s best squad beating the United States’ college all-stars, the men’s victory in Friday’s semifinal was Canada’s b-team taking down the American q-squad. Put it this way: The United States looked lost when Anthony Randolph, the former NBA tease and fantasy team assassin, hit the bench.
The importance of the positive emotions associated with wearing the Canadian jersey should not be underestimated — for those in uniform, and for the players watching at home, too. Murray’s performance has been a revelation, and it will not soon be forgotten. He made some truly silly plays in the fourth quarter, ones that made general manager Steve Nash wonder whether head coach Jay Triano should pull him from the game. But he also buried a three-pointer to tie the game in regulation’s final minute, plus two more in overtime, including one in which Randolph was in his face. Veteran swingman Carl English used the Spanish world for male anatomy to describe Murray’s fearlessness, while Nash opted for English slang.
“After how much space he was giving me, it was kind of disrespectful,” said Murray, unspeakable swagger for an 18-year-old. “So I just tried to put it (in the basket).”
“He’s a special, special kid,” Nash added. “That’s all I can say.”
Later on, Nash, the general manager of the program, was asked what it was like to watch a huge game instead of playing in one.
“When you’re playing , you’re kind of caught up in it and enjoying it and don’t realize the stress or the anxiety,” Nash said. “But watching is different. It wore me out. I need a beer.”
The goal is not silver and a beer though; it is gold and some Champagne — in bigger tournaments than this. Having Canada’s best players present is a requirement for that, and the Pan Am Games have been a big step toward assuring near-unanimous participation from the country’s best players.