Nick Nurse was about to launch into his presentation to Canadian NBA players last summer in Las Vegas when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander cut him off.
« [Gilgeous-Alexander] said “I have to say something,” said the nurse. “He got up and said ‘I’m playing’. I hadn’t even gotten to ask the question yet and it just shows you he’s ready to go. »
Nurse had asked Canada’s top players, who had been notoriously hard to pin down in previous years, to commit to playing three summers with the national team leading up to the Paris Olympics.
Gilgeous-Alexander hasn’t played for Canada since he was 17 due to NBA commitments. But with Canada’s World Cup qualifier on Friday three days away in his hometown of Hamilton, the 23-year-old was all smiles.
“He’s been super conscientious, super communicative about everything and his enthusiasm to play,” Nurse said after practice Tuesday. “I heard several times from him how excited he was to be here. I walked in this morning and he said ‘Hello coach, I’m excited. ”
The Canadians, who are 8-0 after two qualifying windows, host the Dominican Republic on Friday at the FirstOntario Centre.
This week marks the first gathering of Nurse’s “core” of summer players, and has seen arguably the most talented collection of Canadian players training at the OVO Athletic Centre, normally home to the Toronto Raptors.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Utah guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dallas forward Dwight Powell and Detroit center Kelly Olynyk are on the roster. RJ Barrett (New York), Oshae Brissett (Indiana), Khem Birch (Toronto), Luguentz Dort (Oklahoma City), Jamal Murray (Denver) and Kevin Pangos (CSKA Moscow) are in camp, but will not play in this window.
” I am engaged. Everything worked out and I will be with the team in the future,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
Career high season
Oklahoma City’s star guard is coming off an ankle injury that kept him out of the Thunder’s final 10 games of the season. He was limited to 56 games in 2021-22 due to injuries. He’s been impressive in the games he’s played, setting career highs of 24.5 points, 1.3 steals and 0.8 blocks per game, and matching his career-best mark with an average of 5.9 assists decisive.
Gilgeous-Alexander hasn’t played on the same team as his cousin (Alexander-Walker), nor played in Hamilton since high school.
“Playing with him this time will be fun,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We both improved a lot. Our tandem should be better. Myself more of a pilot, himself more of an obstacle shooter, they complement each other perfectly. I’m just excited to show the world. »
Gilgeous-Alexander’s last national team action came at the FIBA Americas Under-18 Tournament in Chile and the 2016 Senior Men’s Last Chance Olympic Qualifier in Manila. He was initially hesitant to enroll.
” Funny story. I remember being angry because I had to stay because I wanted to go to an elite [high school] basketball camp,” he said. “I remember talking to Rowan [Barrett, Canada Basketball’s GM of the men’s program], talking to some of the coaches and they said, “This experience is going to be better for you. “Playing with Tyler Ennis and Cory Joseph, who were pros, obviously I trusted them for that, I stayed. . . and see how it went. »
Gilgeous-Alexander said his college scholarship offers “blew up” after playing for Canada.
“It definitely worked. I have improved so much. It was a faster pace of play, and I finally knew I wanted to go to the NBA, there’s no better way to prepare than to play NBA guys every day,” Gilgeous said. -Alexander, who played one season at Kentucky before entering the NBA draft.
Compared to other great basketball nations, Canada did not feel the same sense of pride playing for the national team. Joseph and Birch were the only NBA players to participate in the 2019 World Cup, from which Canada could have qualified for the 2020 Olympics.
Powell said he saw how passionate Mavs teammates Zaza Pachulia (Georgia), JJ Barrea (Puerto Rico) and especially Dirk Nowitzki were about their national teams. Nowitzki was Germany’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
« [Nowitzki] talks about the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and not really being able to compare that to almost anything else in his life,” Powell said. “So it remained for me, my rookie year, to talk to him about it.
“So it’s been a dream of mine from the start, even before I really started playing competitively, but it kind of taught me: how important it really is. So the fire has definitely been burning for a while. »
Learn from the past
Canada’s shocking semi-final loss to the Czech Republic in last summer’s last-chance Olympic qualifiers fanned those flames.
“We’ve got a lot of guys who’ve been through this, they really want to get to that big stage and it was definitely a painful situation and definitely fueled us…so now that the pieces are coming together, it’s exciting,” said Powell.
Despite being second only to the United States in number of players in the NBA, Canada’s men’s team hasn’t competed in the Olympics since 2000.
The Canadians will travel to the US Virgin Islands for a second game of this window on July 4.
There are six qualifying windows for the FIBA Basketball World Cup. The last three will take place from August 22-30, November 7-15 and February 20-28. Seven FIBA Americas teams will play in the 32-team World Cup, which is a direct qualifier for the Paris Olympics.
