Canadian basketball teams hope summer trips end with ticket to Paris
Olympic qualification on the line across various upcoming tournaments
Basketball has rarely, if ever, been more global than it is at this moment.
The NBA Finals MVP, Nikola Jokic, was born in Serbia, and his sidekick Jamal Murray hails from Kitchener, Ont. The regular-season MVP, Joel Embiid, was born in Cameroon but also holds American and French citizenship. He's reportedly weighing representing the latter two internationally.
On Thursday, France's Victor Wembanyama is the overwhelming favourite to be picked first overall by the San Antonio Spurs.
Fittingly, a busy international summer basketball schedule will touch many corners of the world. For Canada's teams, the ultimate destination is Paris, for next year's Olympics.
Here's what lies ahead:
FIBA Men's Basketball World Cup
The rest of the summer is a mere teaser for this main event, which takes place across Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines beginning Aug. 25. The top two teams from the Americas regions will earn direct berths to the Olympics, with others relegated to last-chance qualifying tournaments.
In a best-case scenario, Canada enters the tournament with the second-most talented team on paper. In the past, though, chemistry has been its undoing, which is why the team has scheduled a pair of two-game exhibition stints in Germany and Spain in mid-August.
And even if the talent and chemistry are there, Canada must still get past either No. 1 Spain or No. 5 France to reach the quarterfinals. Anything less would make automatic Olympic qualification extremely unlikely.
In the women's 3x3 squad and the men's and women's senior teams, Canada owns three legitimate Olympic podiums contenders in Paris. They just have to get there.
WATCH | GM Rowan Barrett discusses path to Paris:
FIBA Women's AmeriCup
Canada's senior women's national team is currently training in Toronto ahead of the AmeriCup, which begins July 1 in Mexico. Both finalists at the regional tournament will advance straight to February's Olympic qualifying tournament, while others must first make it through pre-qualifying events in the fall.
Canada, ranked fifth worldwide, will be bringing a team that skews younger with key players Kia Nurse, Bridget Carleton and Laeticia Amihere in the midst of the WNBA season.
Alongside veterans such as Kayla Alexander and Shay Colley, the opportunity will be there at the AmeriCup for players like Prosper and 16-year-old Syla Swords, who led the team in points during a recent friendly loss to Japan in Victoria, to earn the trust of head coach Victor Lapeña. UConn's Aaliyah Edwards, who could be in the WNBA next season, should also be handed a much bigger role within the team structure.
Canada reached the AmeriCup final four straight times — winning twice and losing twice — before a fourth-place finish at the 2021 edition in Puerto Rico.
3x3 Women's Series
Denied even an attempt to qualify for the sport's Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 due to a quirky rule limiting most countries to one gender, Canada's women's 3x3 team does not want to leave their Paris hopes in doubt.
While the top three FIBA-ranked countries at the end of the season will automatically qualify for Paris, a complicated system makes it more likely Canada will have to advance through one of three qualifying tournaments.
Canada's regular season begins Friday in Orleans, France, with games against Azerbaijan (8 a.m. ET) and Italy (9:45 a.m. ET). Live coverage of the entire tournament through Sunday is available on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem. Later stops will take the team to Edmonton, Montreal and Quebec City ahead of the September Finals in Mongolia.
WATCH | Canada falls to France at 3x3 World Cup:
NBA draft
Wembanyama, the 19-year-old listed in some places at seven-foot-five, is a generational talent who's provoked hyperbole calling him the best prospect in the history of team sports.
WATCH | Canada's Miller might be the most intriguing 2023 NBA Draft prospect:
Montreal's Olivier-Maxence Prosper was one of the biggest risers on draft boards — a defensively solid wing player with an improving jumper, and he has garnered comparisons to the Toronto Raptors' OG Anunoby. Perhaps a strong rookie season prompts consideration for Canada's theoretical 2024 Olympic team, where he could join his sister Cassandre Prosper, a candidate for the women's team, in Paris.
Meanwhile, the Raptors hold the No. 13 pick after losing in the play-in round last season and could look different next season with Fred VanVleet and Jakob Poeltl headed to free agency. After replacing championship coach Nick Nurse with first-timer Darko Rajakovic, vice-chairmain Masai Ujiri could opt for a full rebuild around 2021 rookie of the year Scottie Barnes. But he may also choose to stay the course and bank on internal improvement with work around the edges.
