Can the team-first culture within Canada Basketball convince its WNBA stars to keep coming back?
Rise of women's league opens new avenues for Canadian players
It is cliché for athletes to say the logo on the front of their jerseys is more meaningful than the name on the back.
But you'll never hear that from a woman on the Canadian national basketball team. They don't require clichés to explain the importance of playing for their country.
Former team member Lizanne Murphy was there to lay the foundation of this culture in her 2005 debut season as Canada began rebuilding itself to its current status as a legitimate Olympic threat.
"I felt a role as I got older to really pass that on the importance of the selflessness that comes in playing for Canada and that everybody can be great individually but Canada has found such improvement, such an amazing jump in the world rankings," Murphy said.
"And a lot of that came through our commitment to the team and that importance of team first."
Murphy retired in 2017, having helped lift the national program from 24th to fifth worldwide. It now boasts its highest-ever ranking at No. 4.
On the court, that team-first attitude is evident. In the NBA and WNBA, one superstar can lift a team to a title. In international basketball, where the physicality ramps up, coaching scheme and passing are more likely keys to success than one ball-dominant force.
"Canada's not the biggest country — we never were. We're not the richest country in terms of budget and ability to train and we're starting to get unbelievable superstars internationally, but we didn't always have those and so we knew the only way to get to be among the best in the world is to be the best team in the world," Murphy said.
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For that to happen, players must be committed to wearing the maple leaf. Right now, that means heading to Belgium to compete in this weekend's Olympic qualifier.
Canada is grouped with host Belgium (No. 9), Japan (No. 10) and Sweden (No. 22). With the Olympics in Tokyo, the Japanese side has an automatic bid.
In Belgium, each team will play the other once, and the top two squads outside of Japan will book berths for the Tokyo Games.
CBC Sports will carry live coverage for all of Canada's games, beginning on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. ET against Belgium.
Money small factor for women
Over the summer, the men's team watched as its NBA players chose not to compete at the World Cup in China, with various players dealing with off-season trades or free-agency decisions or simply resting lingering injuries.
There is no direct financial benefit of playing for Canada. There's lots of money on the line in the NBA, and with one more Olympic qualifier remaining, many Canadian men did not view the World Cup as all that important.
CBC Sports will also carry live coverage of that men's tournament in Victoria, beginning June 23.
Of course, the WNBA is not a money-making machine like its men's counterpart.
Most players also ply their trade overseas in the off-season. Kia Nurse, selected as a WNBA all-star starter in just her second season, also plays in Australia alongside fellow Canuck Bridget Carleton. Three of the five starters on Russia's WBC Dynamo Novosibirsk pro team are Canadians. There are other players dotted throughout Europe and Asia.
In November, nearly all of them flew back to Edmonton for the Olympic pre-qualifying tournament in Edmonton — including Nurse and Carleton from Australia.
Kayla Alexander, a Canadian forward for the WNBA's Chicago Sky, has also played in Russia, Korea, France and Australia.
The 29-year-old Milton, Ont., native was also in Edmonton, but required just the relatively short flight from Toronto. Alexander did not play in that tournament because of a knee injury suffered in the FIBA Americup over the summer, and has spent the WNBA off-season rehabbing near home.
Alexander made her national team debut in 2018 after three failed tryouts — two where she was cut and one where she was injured. Still, she already recognizes the binds that tie together players from around the professional world.
"One thing about our team is we're all competitive so in practice we will be going at each other no mercy, but at the same time we can still crack jokes with each other and you're laughing and having a good time," Alexander said.
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In January, the WNBA and its players union agreed to a historic collective bargaining agreement that allows players to earn nearly $500,000 US, while also raising the salary floor for rookies and veterans. Fully paid maternity leave was another key aspect of the agreement, along with childcare benefits and enhanced travel standards, along with other health and wellness benefits.
Murphy said she was just one of two national team members, along with Tamara Tatham, who played overseas as recently as 2007, though neither played in the WNBA. She credits that experience, and the increasing popularity of that choice, as a big reason for Canada's ascent.
Still, an off-season overseas is not the most ideal situation, and the rising popularity of women's basketball means many players can stay home and make money in other ways or alternately affect some difference in their communities.
The new CBA, then, introduces the concept of choice.
"This is at least gonna give them something to say 'OK, maybe I don't have to do that, maybe I don't have to play basketball 12 months out of the year, travel all over the world, live out of a suitcase, never see my family,'" Murphy said.
That may only wind up true for the league's top players — many will still not command salaries which allow that decision. But it will be interesting to see how commitment to country evolves as the WNBA continues its rise.
Professional women's hockey is in flux. The NHL refused to attend the last Winter Olympics. NBA players, for the most part, choose to participate in the Olympics, but the top players sit out all the preliminary action — as evidenced by the Americans' seventh-place finish at August's World Cup.
The WNBA maintains an Olympic break built into the schedule. Attendance has never been an issue. Players like Murphy have instilled that team-first culture within her country's national program.
Alexander, entering her eighth WNBA season, seems a lock to play for Canada should it qualify for Tokyo, barring any more health issues. She led the Americup in rebounding and led Canada in points per game.
"You're always a cut or injury away from not being able to play so I say soak it up and take advantage of every opportunity you get to represent your country."