TORONTO – Tristan Thompson was non-committal about his status with the Canadian men’s national team when asked about it Monday — perhaps because he has to be.
Speaking after his Cleveland Cavaliers shot around at Scotiabank Arena ahead of their Monday night encounter with the Toronto Raptors, the Brampton, Ont., native fielded a few questions about Canada Basketball and the forthcoming Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Victoria in late June.
“It’s good that guys are finding times in their schedules to play for the national team,” Thompson said of the wave of commitment seen on social media and beyond from Canadian NBA players. “We’ve got a lot of pros and we’ve got more coming every year, so the fact that guys are stepping up and making themselves available to play is huge, and it’s great for Canada Basketball.”
Thompson is in a trickier situation than most of the players who have said they’ll be there in Victoria — such as Jamal Murray and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
This is because he’s slated to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer, meaning when the qualifying tournament is happening he will be stuck in a limbo of sorts as a player without a contract and no way to sign one until free agency officially opens, unless he gets an extension done with the Cavaliers — or is traded and signs an extension with whatever that new team might be — before the end of the season.
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When asked about his contract status and how it might affect his status with the national team this summer, Thompson shifted the focus away, presumably because even he doesn’t know the answer.
“I’m not thinking about that right now,” he said. “I’m just thinking about tonight, playing against the Raptors at home at 7:30 at Scotiabank Arena. So that’s where my mindset is at.”
Fellow Canadian national team veteran Kelly Olynyk is in a similar situation as Thompson, but when his Miami Heat came to town recently he said he’d be there if he can get his contract matters sorted out.
Both Thompson and Olynyk will likely be in a scenario that if they’re going to suit up for Team Canada in the summer, it’ll have to be in the Tokyo Games themselves, meaning they’ll have to rely on others to qualify them for the Olympics.
So while Thompson wasn’t as emphatic as Olynyk, that doesn’t mean he’s shutting the door on the national team, either because, using his own words, he’s “happy Nick Nurse is the coach.”
“We’ve got a good relationship and he’s a great guy,” Thompson said of Nurse, the Raptors coach and the head coach of Canada’s men’s national team. “He’s real close with one of our old coaches, Phil Handy, so we’ve always had a relationship. And for him to take time out of his summer, especially after winning a championship, to coach the national team says a lot about his character and how much he cares about Canada Basketball.”
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Therefore, despite the tepid-sounding response about his commitment, it would appear Thompson still has love for the national team and Canadian Basketball, as a whole. He was even happy to see the Raptors win it all in the summer – especially Kyle Lowry, in a backhanded compliment sort of way.
“It was huge for the city, huge for the country, in general,” said Thompson. “Toronto basketball’s on the rise. It was great with Kawhi and it especially was huge for Kyle, just because I know how many times we’d beat up on him in the playoffs. So it was good. I’m happy for them, they deserved it.”
Interpret that as you will, just as you can interpret his somewhat evasive response to potentially playing for Canada this summer in whatever way you want to as well.
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