ANDEarlier this summer, Canada Basketball, the national governing body for hoops north of the 49th parallel, invited alumni from its last five Olympic teams — 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988 and 2000 — to spend time with the current crop of Canadian Olympic athletes, who were at a training camp in the Toronto area preparing for the Paris Games. That’s right, Canada, which is currently home to some of the best basketball players in the world, hasn’t qualified for the Olympics in about a quarter of a century.
One of those alumni, three-time NBA champion Bill Wennington — a key player on Michael Jordan’s title-winning Chicago team in the 1990s — was impressed by the team’s depth of talent and camaraderie. When Wennington played for Canada in the 1984 Los Angeles Games, he was the only player on the roster who would play in the NBA (at that time, only college players could compete in the Olympics).
Today, all but one member of Team Canada suits up in the NBA, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who finished second in MVP voting this season, and Jamal Murray, the second-best player in the NBA 2023. champion Denver Nuggets.
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Since 1976, Canada’s best finish has been fourth place, twice: at home during the 1976 Montreal Games, and in Los Angeles eight years later when Iron Curtain countries boycotted (Canada, along with the United States and many other nations boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games). Wennington and his teammates shared meals with the team and watched practices. “They are enthusiastic and excited about this opportunity,” says Wennington, an affable brown beard backup center during his early years in the NBA; today he is an announcer for the Bulls and sports a thick, white horseshoe mustache.
This time, a fourth place will hurt. “I don’t want to pressure them,” says Wennington. “But they know they’re being held to a higher standard right now.”
Canada, which defeated the United States in the bronze medal match at last year’s FIBA World Cup, is one of the few teams in the Olympic tournament with a legitimate shot at giving the Americans – who have won four consecutive Olympic gold medals and mounted a cast loaded with likely Hall of Famers and all-time greats (LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Joel Embiid, Jason Tatum, Anthony Davis, and so on) – fits the bill. The country is now a reliable exporter of top-tier NBA talent, having come a long way since Wennington’s youth growing up in Montreal, when hockey was the undisputed king and basketball was something you occasionally saw on television.
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The NBA’s expansion into Canada, which began in 1995 when the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies made their debut, helped increase interest in basketball. While the Grizzlies soon established themselves in Memphis, the Raptors thrived in Toronto, thanks in large part to the remarkable acrobatics of Vincent Carterwho starred for the team in the early 2000s. British Columbia native Steve Nash won back-to-back MVP honors in 2005 and 2006, further increasing the game’s popularity in the north.
If Bob and Doug McKenzie, the fictional beer-drinking, hockey-loving, beanie-wearing brothers, called each other Hoses and hosted a show called “The Great White North” The sketch comedy show SCTV shaped perceptions of Canada for an earlier generation, so perhaps Gilgeous-Alexander and Murray, one of the best basketball backcourts you’ll ever see on the world stage, are more appropriate avatars for Canada of today. “A lot of people forget that Canada is a multi-ethnic melting pot,” says Leo Rautins, a former Canadian national team player who now serves as a TV analyst for Raptors games. “The makeup of our country leads to a lot of good things.”
It all starts with Gilgeous-Alexander, known as SGA, who grew up in Hamilton, Ontario; his mother, Charmaine, was also an Olympian, having run the 400m for Antigua and Barbuda at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Gilgeous-Alexander, who averaged 30.1 points per game this season, is the kind of player who can carry a team on your back to gold. He plays cerebrally, sizing up his opponents while keeping his dribbling alive in a given possession before attacking. “He takes advantage of what he’s given,” says Wennington. “He’s reading the spacing on the floor. He will reach the edge. If he can’t get to the rim, he’s going to stop six feet away, he’s going to stop eight feet away, he’s going to stop 10 feet away, he’s going to stop 12 feet away, and he’ll make those shots.”
Murray, another Ontario native who joins three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic on the Nuggets, is used to playing a strong second fiddle. But he can also take control of the game when necessary. “This kid is a beast,” says Rautins. “In the fourth quarter, this guy is incredible.”
Recently, SGA was asked how the pair would co-exist. “I drive,” he said. “He shoots.”
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In addition to the backcourt, Canada’s players can irritate opponents. Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder teammate, Luguentz Dort, the son of Haitian immigrants who grew up in Montreal, is a relentless defender who can hit long-range shots. Dort earned a nickname – “Chamber of Dortura” – for his defensive skills. Dillon Brooks, who is from Mississauga, Ontario, near Toronto, is the type of player you hate playing against. But when he’s on your team, you love him. The Houston Rockets forward is an annoying defender who also dropped 39 points against the United States at the World Cup a year ago.
Canada’s potential weakness in France is its size. Zach Edey, the 7-foot-4-inch Purdue star. that took the Boilermakers to national championship game in April, withdrew from Olympic consideration in late June: The Memphis Grizzlies drafted him with the ninth overall pick, and he’s focusing on proving his worth in the NBA’s summer league. I can’t blame Edey for trying to impress his new employer. An ankle injury troubled 6-foot-7-inch Golden State Warriors defender and perimeter destroyer Andrew Wiggins last season. He is resting this summer.
The Canadian team drew a difficult group for the first phase of the game. They debut on July 27th against Giannis Antetokounmpo and Greece and also face Australia and Spain at the start of the Olympic tournament. If Canada can survive these opponents and face the United States in a knockout match, SGA and company will have to neutralize the U.S. size advantage by increasing the offensive tempo. “If you let the U.S. go back on defense, they can pile up the paint and make things difficult,” says Wennington. “If you go out and run and get some easy transitions, that’s how you can win.”
In a recent interview with TIME, rapper Snoop Dogg – who will work for NBC in Paris as a special Olympics correspondent – gave support to the Canadian team, but was unable to predict a title. “They have a chance to make it to the gold medal round, but they’re not going to win,” Snoop said. “The US is the dog. We won’t lose to any cub.”
While Wennington isn’t about to pick a fight with Snoop — we could just be lucky — he sees things differently. “I definitely disagree with that,” says Wennington, politely, as Canadians tend to do. “They’ve been through enough important situations in their careers and lives to understand what this is and prepare for the moment.”
Throughout the NBA season, Wennington would register in his mind the Canadian players who passed through Chicago or those he saw in visiting arenas – Kelly Olynyk and RJ Barrett of the Toronto Raptors, SGA, Murray and others. This exercise created anticipation for the summer. “I’m extremely excited,” he says. “And I don’t like getting excited like that, because I don’t like being disappointed.”
Don’t let Bill down, guys. Or British Columbia, Newfoundland and every city in between.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
