Basketball: Canadian men’s road to Tokyo Olympics will go through Greece
Among the obstacles in Canada’s way as it tries to break a nearly two-decade-long streak of Olympic men’s basketball qualification futility is the current NBA most valuable player.
Canada has been drawn into a seemingly difficult final group to play in Victoria next June with one berth at the Tokyo Olympics at stake, a group that includes Greece and current NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, FIBA announced Tuesday.
The Canadian women, however, go into their four-team final qualification tournament Feb. 6-9 in Ostend, Belgium, as the top seed and fourth ranked in the world.
For the men, it is more than half a year until the June 23-28 qualification tournament and final rosters are not anywhere near close to being determined, but the story of tournament may ultimately come down to who plays for their country and who either can’t or won’t.
Canada did get public commitments to play from Denver’s Jamal Murray and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder this week, the first signal some of the top Canadian players will take part in the most important international men’s tournament in Canada since the 1994 world championships in Toronto and Hamilton.
New York’s RJ Barrett, whose father, Rowan, played for the last Canadian men’s Olympic team, said he plans to play.
“Definitely plan on playing for my country this summer, I’m very proud to say that,” Barrett said before the Knicks faced the
Raptors at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday. “I try to play every summer. I’m 100 per cent planning on playing.”
Greece is ranked seventh in the world and is joined in Group A by No. 21 Canada and No. 27 China for the Victoria tournament. The Czech Republic (No. 10), Turkey (15) and Uruguay (43) are in Group B.
The top two teams in each group advance to crossover semifinals, with the winners of those games meeting June 28 for the lone Olympic berth.
It is conceivable Canada and Greece could meet twice, once in the preliminary round with seeding at stake and once in the game to determine who goes to
Tokyo next summer.
Canada is trying to earn its first Olympic berth since 2000 in Sydney.
The Canadian women, who posted top-eight finishes at both the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics, are the top seed in their tournament.
They were able to avoid such global giants as the United States, Australia, France and Spain in the final qualifier, from which three teams will earn Olympic berths.
Japan, ranked No. 9 in the world, is an up-and-coming team and beat Australia in the latest FIBA Asia qualifying tournament. Belgium is ranked No. 10 and Sweden in No. 22.