Almost always, playing basketball for Canada has meant leaving home.
Typically, summertime for our country’s best women and men players has been a time to gather, train, talk about the honour of representing their country and then leave to do the job.
Friends and family can only follow along via shaky Internet connections or – in the years before live streaming – wait for updates by phone if at all.
That changes over the next 10 days in Toronto, where – assuming the men and women can advance to their respective gold medal finals at the Pan Am Games basketball tournament – a Canadian team will be playing every night.
It gets started with the women taking on Venezuela at Ryerson University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre July 17 night at 6 p.m. ET. The men see the floor for the first time on July 21.
It’s a rare treat for players and fans alike who have been waiting to see the best wave of talent the country has known in years finally hit stride.
After the Pan Ams, Canada’s biggest basketball moments will take place far afield. The men will travel to Mexico City later this summer to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. In 2020 – the year Andrew Wiggins, Tristan Thompson, Cory Joseph and the rest of the country’s up-and-coming NBAers will likely reach their primes – the Olympics are in Tokyo. The two countries bidding for the 2019 FIBA World Cup are China and the Philippines.
On the women’s side they have the rare luxury of playing their Olympic qualifying event in Edmonton in August, but then it will be back on the road to Rio, Tokyo and beyond, with a stop in Spain for the 2018 FIBA Women’s World Cup.
Two weeks in Toronto feels special.
Kim Gaucher, 31, has represented Canada in some shape or form since she was 16 years old. The team’s leading scoring at the World Championships last year is relishing her first chance to play a major competition at home for the first time in her national team career.
“Winning a Pan Ams doesn’t earn us an Olympic berth like winning FIBA Americas does,” she said. “But we get no chances to play on Canadian soil. We’ve been given two this summer, so we’re not going to waste a chance to show Canadians what we can do. We’re coming out here in Toronto to win gold, for sure.”
While the men have received the majority of the attention as their so-called ‘Golden Generation’ takes shape, the women are further along the curve than the men and hope to set the standard for both programs.
While the men are waiting for 20-year-old Andrew Wiggins to make his senior national team debut, the women have Kia Nurse – “The Andrew Wiggins of women’s basketball,” says women’s national team head coach Lisa Thomaidis — to lead their program to the future as a three-year national team veteran at age 19.
“This team can be really good,” says Gaucher. “We finished fifth in the Worlds last year, we lost a close quarter-final match to Australia [that would have advanced them to the medal round] and I feel we’re really on the cusp of doing something unbelievable and special for Canadian women’s basketball and we’re building for that in Rio.”
Canada’s toughest test will likely come on Saturday night when they play Cuba in their final game of pool play. Cuba beat Canada for the gold medal at the 2013 Tournament of the Americas. They catch a break in that the US – overwhelmingly dominant in international competition – have sent a student team to the Pan Ams, putting gold in sight for Canada.
No doubt paying close attention will be the men’s team, whose road to gold will similarly mean getting through a decaffeinated American entry that is mostly made up of recent NCAA players and European professionals.
The men’s and women’s teams got together for a dinner and night of ping-pong, pool and foosball at The Ballroom in downtown Toronto on Monday night. The last time the teams were in the same city for any length of time was in Sydney for the Olympic Games in 2000. Canada hasn’t had both teams at the Olympics since.
While the women have their full squad on hand as they prepare for the Olympic Qualifying tournament next month, the men are in a different situation. NBA commitments mean many of their prospective players’ schedules conflict with Pan Ams, as some are required to play in the Las Vegas Summer League and others are only released by their teams for the Olympic Qualifying tournament in September.
Not playing at the Pan Ams are Wiggins, Thompson, Joseph, Kelly Olynyk, Nik Stauskas and Rob Sacre.
The men caught a break on Tuesday as Brady Heslip elected to leave the Minnesota Timberwolves’ entry in the Las Vegas Summer League and joined the national team for his first practice. The sharp-shooter from Burlington has proven himself a prolific scorer since turning professional a year ago and will give the the team some much-needed punch.
National team head coach Jay Triano says the Pan Am tournament will serve as a live tryout for five or six players trying to crack the highly-competitive roster that he hopes to take to Mexico for Olympic Qualifying beginning August 31. The team in Toronto will be led offensively by Orlando Magic forward Andrew Nicholson, who has proven to be a difficult matchup internationally.
Other questions Triano is hoping to have answered include:
Can Anthony Bennett — the struggling 2013 first overall pick in the NBA draft — regain his form and confidence playing for Canada and be relied upon at the FIBA Americas?
Who will emerge from the likes of Kentucky-bound youngster Jamal Murray — making his senior men’s national team debut just a month after leaving high school — and veterans Jermaine Anderson and Junior Cadougan as a viable backup for Cory Joseph in September?
And finally, what role can Triano find for Sim Bhullar, the seven-foot-five centre who made his NBA debut for the Sacramento Kings last year and who could provide a unique option at centre?
Chances are most eyes will be on Bennett, who has proven to have all the physical tools to excel professionally but has had two years spoiled by injuries and confidence problems in the NBA.
Bennett’s recent basketball history is typical for the generation of players coming up, who have had to take their talents all over the world since leaving home. The Brampton native first gained attention as a prospect playing for the Cadet team that won a bronze medal in Germany in 2009. He played his high school and college basketball in Las Vegas and has been struggling to find his footing in the NBA since.
For the next week he’ll be in the warm embrace of home. Like the rest of the Canadian men and women, he can’t wait for the opportunity.
“It’s definitely going to be crazy,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of people telling me they’re going to be at the games, family friends and all the fans too. It’s definitely going to be a crazy atmosphere. I hear the arena is going to be sold out. I can’t wait to get going.”
