Earlier today Canada Basketball released their preliminary training camp roster for the upcoming FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament. While more names are expected to be added, there were a few glaring omissions— none more so than former first overall pick and budding Minnesota Timberwolves star Andrew Wiggins.
Well, don’t hold your breath waiting to see Wiggins in a Canada jersey this summer. After the preliminary roster went public, Wiggins released a statement of his own via his agent, Bill Duffy, stating that he has chosen to sit out the FIBA tournament, as well as the Olympics (in the event that Canada qualifies) in order to focus on his upcoming third NBA season:
The summer of 2016 was always going to be critical for Canada, who failed to secure an Olympic birth after finishing third at last summer’s FIBA Americas tournament in Mexico. Wiggins played all 10 games for Canada in that tournament, leading the team in scoring with 15.1 points per game.
Now, the men’s team will need to outright win the six-team qualifying tournament being held July 5 in the Philippines. In a field including emerging international power France, as well as potent team like Turkey, Canada was going to need all the help they can get in order to secure its first Olympic birth in sixteen years. Needless to say, without arguably its best player, the task just got that much tougher.
In other news, Canada’s women’s team, who went 5-0 at the ’15 Pan-Am Games to win their first-ever gold and are favourites to medal at the Olympics in Rio, beat China in exhibition 74-58 on Thursday.