Canadian men’s basketball team faces tough hurdles
The only way to get experience is to, well, get it.
Canadian national men’s basketball team general manager Steve Nash of Victoria knows the upset qualifying loss to Venezuela last year, which cost Canada an Americas’ regional Olympic berth, was emotionally devastating. But some good, in terms of experience, may have come out of it as Canada now looks to its last-chance qualifier in Manila announced Tuesday at the FIBA draw in Switzerland. Canada will have to beat two world top-10 ranked teams in Manila — Turkey and France — in order to qualify for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.
“Inexperience was a huge factor in last summer’s [Americas’] results,” said Nash.
“It was heartbreaking. But it allowed us to grow as a team.”
World No. 26 Canada will play in Group A against No. 8 Turkey and No. 31 Senegal in its FIBA last-chance qualifier, which runs July 4-10. The top-two teams move to the cross-over semifinals against the top-two teams from Group B, either world No. 5 France, No. 21 New Zealand or the No. 28 Philippines. Only the tournament champion will advance to the Rio Olympics.
The Manila event is part of three tournaments of six teams each — the top-18 teams in the world that did not advance to Rio through their regional qualifiers — that are taking place in July. The other tournaments are in Turin, Italy, and Belgrade, Serbia. The winners of the three tournaments will round out the 12-team field for Rio.
“The players, coaches and staff all have another year under our belts, and know we have a lot yet to accomplish,” said SMUS-grad and two-time NBA MVP Nash, of the task ahead.
Canada’s so-called Golden Generation of young NBA players will be under tremendous pressure in what will be muggy and raucous conditions in Manila.
“We didn’t get the job done last summer,” said Toronto Raptors pointguard Cory Joseph, in a statement.
“We’ve got work to do. This will be a tough tournament with a lot on the line, but we want to represent the red and white in Rio this summer.”
It is one of a trio of last-chance 2016 Olympic tournaments over three sports in which Canada will play this year, after failing to get to Rio through regional qualifiers. The Langford-based Canadian men’s rugby sevens team plays its on June 18-19 in Monaco. The Canadian men’s volleyball team, captained by Fred Winters of Victoria, plays its from May 28 to June 5 in Tokyo.
The Canadian women’s hoops team qualified for Rio out of its Americas’ qualifier, which was held last year in Edmonton. Canada hasn’t been to the Olympics in men’s basketball since Sydney 2000, when Nash was the captain.