The Canadian men’s senior basketball team is on their way to the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
After going 10-0 in qualifying, Canada became the first team from the Americas to book their ticket to next summer’s big event. But with two more qualification games to go against Argentina Thursday and Venezuela on Sunday, Canada still has an opportunity to rise up the World Rankings and improve on their current No. 15 slot in order to be placed in a more favourable group at the World Cup. It’s a tall task for the 27 Canadian players and counting who have suited up for the red and white during this qualification cycle, but one that would show just how much the roster continuity and depth have improved for Team Canada.
We talked to Canada Basketball CEO Michael Bartlett about the importance of the final two qualification games, the process of getting ready for the 2023 FIBA World Cup, how the 12-man roster will be decided upon and who will be eligible, and the program’s goals for this summer and beyond.
The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Sportsnet: The Canadian senior men’s team has already qualified for the World Cup, but with two more games this weekend against Argentina and Venezuela, you can still improve your world ranking in order to avoid a Group of Death situation at the World Cup. Is that something the program is focused on?
Michael Bartlett: Certainly. We’re ranked 15th in the world right now. We have talked often as a leadership team during these qualification windows about going 12 up, 12 down, and taking care of business by going undefeated. We don’t necessarily get into the FIBA math with the players, but we all know that every win against Argentina and Venezuela helps us improve our ranking, and that’ll help us come time for the group draws.
Still, since world rankings are based on the last four to eight years of play, we know that we are going to be placed in a tough pool with some elite teams. But we are going to be tough to beat ourselves. And that’s what we’re focused on: being great and being tough and putting together a system and a roster that regardless of our ranking can take care of business.
SN: The men are 0-6 all-time in official games played in Argentina, which is historically a very tough environment to win in. Plus, Argentina just won the FIBA AmeriCup as the best team in the Americas, and they are ranked fourth in the world. How meaningful would it be for Canada to get their first win in Argentina tonight?
MB: Yeah, it would mean a lot. There’s no hiding that. I think it would say a lot about our system and style of play that we’ve been building with roster continuity the last little while. Obviously, we took care of business against them in the summer (beating them 99-87 in qualification), but we had some NBA core guys on that team. But the other half of the roster that was part of that win will be on the court tonight in Argentina, so this group knows how to beat them. They’ve done it recently. And again, we’ve installed a system that’s going to put the system to a test as well as let our players show that we’re pretty deep.
SN: You mentioned the system a couple of times already and the chemistry that’s growing among the core players. Obviously, a year ago, Canada Basketball made the decision to build a core group of NBA players that would commit to a three-year term. There are always pros and cons to a decision like that. One year in, how do you feel about it?
MB: No regrets. In fact, our guys landed in Argentina on Sunday for Thursday’s game, and they were immediately in advanced training camp mode because there’s no system orientation required. Every time our winter or summer core has gathered for a training camp, we’ve been able to add and evolve the system instead of starting from scratch with, for example, six new guys that have to learn it and six experienced guys that are standing around waiting to move onto the more complex stuff. Every time we get together, we add more complex sets, and that will help us in what tonight will be a more complex game against the team that also benefits from a lot of familiarity and a lot of style of play consistency in Argentina.
Ultimately, we had to learn from the world. The rest of the world has been playing with core consistency for a long time. And that’s why the rest of the world has jumped to the top of the podium so often. So we’re learning from that world strategy and it’s paying off for us. I think these next few games will tell us a lot about the strength of the system evolution along with the strength of having the same guys playing together and becoming familiar with each other. In fact, the last time we qualified for the World Cup in 2019, 35 different guys played for us over the first 10 games. This time, it’s been 27. So I know it’s only eight fewer players, but that’s a lot. We’ve been rolling with the same guys across these windows. And that should help.
SN: That program and system continuity really showed up this past summer in the AmeriCup and EuroBasket, which Argentina and Spain each won. Those two programs might not have been the most talented in their respective competitions but have had the same players for so long that it has created almost a mind-meld on the court in their style of basketball. Is that the blueprint you want to follow?
MB: Yeah it is. And I think that type of team mentality is what Canada as a fan base falls in love with. Canada loves being the underdog and winning. When you actually think of the “Where were you when” moments in Canadian sports, most of them are around moments where we shocked the world: Mike Weir shocked the world, Bianca Andreescu shocked the world, the Raptors shocked the world, the Blue Jays shocked the world. So when we rally around our national sporting heroes, it often tends to be the gritty Canadian blue-collar underdog. And we’ve got that same mentality with our roster. Like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: he’s a blue-collar NBA All-Star who was only a four-star high school recruit but worked for everything he has. And that’s a team identity for us.
SN: In terms of this summer’s World Cup, you can only take 12 players with you to Jakarta, Indonesia and then Manilla, Philippines. Who ultimately makes those roster decisions and what will go into them?
MB: In terms of what will go into those decisions, certainly talent and fit, both from a culture and style of play perspective. And looking at who we’re going to run our system through, those are considerations for sure.
In terms of who makes those decisions, general manager Rowan Barrett is very heavily involved, as is head coach Nick Nurse. Ultimately, it’s Nurse’s system. And these players have to fit within his system and the way that he’s drawn up our Canada basketball system to compete in FIBA competition. And there’s nuances to that because it’s different from the NBA. So while we could take a team made up of entirely NBA players there, we could also bring guys that are specialists in the FIBA game, which might make more sense from a strength of roster and competitive advantage standpoint. But we’re finally at a point where we can select our best roster for the style we want to play.
SN: What about guys like Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard, who weren’t even in the NBA When the 14-man summer core was established, but have proven to be good NBA players at a young age? Will they have a chance to make the team?
MB: Maybe. There’s been lots of conversations about it. The good news is those guys are all familiar with our program because they’ve been in environments at age group levels and Andrew even played for the senior team. But I’m gonna leave those decisions to Rowan and Nick. And there’s been talk of letting the core athletes decide. We’ve got such a strong leadership group now that, quite frankly, they’re the team. So sometimes you gotta let the team decide what to do with these exceptional circumstances. Either way, it’s a great problem to have and shows that we are deeper than ever, which could matter if injuries play a factor.
SN: What about Andrew Wiggins? He told me back in December that he “would love to play” in the Olympics in 2024 but couldn’t commit to the three-year term. Obviously, he is one of the “exceptions” that you mentioned, being that he is one of the best Canadians alive. Will he have a chance to compete for a roster spot if he chooses to?
MB: At the time we announced the core roster it was said, and the rule still applies, that if there’s a spot available to compete for — which either means players on the core list are not healthy enough or have missed some obligations along the way and they’re also competing — then he’ll have a chance to compete if he so chooses. I don’t get the sense that it’s an opportunity to pick only Paris though. I think it’s important that it’s a two-summer exercise because this summer sets up next summer.
SN: Okay. Thanks for clarifying that. These are obviously going to be tough decisions, given the depth of talent and that you can only take 12 players with you to the World Cup. Have you thought of ways that you can honour the primarily “winter core” players who have helped the team qualify but are not going to make the rosters for the World Cup or Olympics?
MB: Yeah. For sure. And that is actually where I do spend most of my time on the basketball side of things. We have a number of ideas. Certainly, we’re going to be doing training camp in Toronto next summer and there’s ways for us to make sure everyone feels part of the mix. There’s ways during the World Cup where those players and their family can feel connected to what we’re doing and we’re contemplating some of those ideas. And in the next few days you will see, Tommy and Phil Scrubb are going to be the first window players ever in the new FIBA qualifying system to play all 12 games. So we presented them with a prize gift yesterday. Our partner Flair Airlines gave them each 12 flight passes anywhere in North America that Flare flies so that they can take some time off with their family after going 12 for 12 with us. So these are the kinds of things that we’re trying to do on the men’s and women’s sides: Taking care of the whole athlete and respecting everybody that helped us get to where we want to go because in order to establish program loyalty, we have to first show them loyalty.
SN: So I know training camp for the World Cup will begin in early August in Toronto. Then you will fly to Europe in mid-August for two exhibition games versus Spain and Argentina in Grenada, Spain. Why did you decide to play friendlies against such tough competition?
MB: In my first conversation with Nick Nurse shortly after joining the organization, I said to him, ‘my job is to give you everything you want. So what do you want?’ And the first thing on his list was more competition before a tournament. And higher-level competition before a tournament.
Coaches know that practice is practice. But Nick knows as much as anyone that practice can be overused in an NBA environment and probably in this run-up to a FIBA competition, too. So scrimmage runs are really what players and coaches want. And the plan was always before the World Cup we were gonna take off to Europe and line up some high-quality exhibition games. And with the star power our program now has, we are the ones getting calls and invitations to play. Spain invited us. And it’s starting to speak to the type of program we’re becoming globally because we’re also a ticket draw and they want us to come and sell tickets against us.
SN: This NBA season has been revelatory for the Canadians, with Shai becoming just the fourth Canadian NBA All-Star, Jamal Murray getting back to pre-injury form, and several other Canadians having career years. How excited does that make you for this summer and beyond?
MB: Very excited. I have to pull back at times to not get too far ahead of myself. But we talk about winning all the time in the office. That’s a lesson I learned from working with the Raptors at MLSE: Don’t be shy to talk about winning. And the talent that we have on paper will give us a shot to win big games and hit big shots.
One of the things that we’ve said as a program is on the business side, if we can invest in the program and the competitive advantages so that we remove excuses — it’s not like our training camp was too short. It’s not like we didn’t have enough guys there. It’s not like we didn’t have great scrimmages beforehand. So now it just comes down to the talent, letting the talent play the game, and the coaches coach the game. If we do that, on paper, we have a shot to win every game, we really do. We got that much talent. Now we have to prove it to the world. So it’s fun to dream about, but it’s actually not that crazy of a dream to think that we could be competing for real important games down the stretch both in the Philippines and in Paris.
SN: On paper the talent is there. But like we have talked about, some of these programs have years and years of experience playing together, while this Canadian team is relatively new and has to catch up. Is the goal for this summer’s World Cup “podium or bust” or are you more focused on the process than the results at this stage?
MB: The No. 1 goal is to qualify for the Olympics, for sure. Absolutely, no question. No more last-chance Olympic Qualifying Tournaments. We need to give the country confidence, we need to give our athletes confidence, and we need to book our ticket to Paris. I’m not shy about saying that. It’s been the primary goal all along. That means we have to be at least the second-best team from the Americas at the World Cup, which means we have to outperform Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, which are all great teams with experience.
And finishing top-two means we don’t have to beat the USA, but we want to put ourselves in a position to beat them. I’d love nothing more than to kind of just start the narrative of people trusting our capability. And I’d love to podium at the World Cup and kind of put Canada and the world on notice.