Maple Dreams
Canada came so close — one spot away — from earning a ticket to next summer’s final Olympic qualifier. They finished sixth, when a fifth-place spot was needed to move on.
Via “Thanks a lot, Nash!” by Steve Buffery
The FIBA Americas tournament has been ongoing for about a week-and-a-half and has been somewhat painful to watch, to be honest.* Brazil, Argentina and the Dominican Republic entertain no matter the competition, but all the other teams are a situational watch. Except for Team Canada. As a Canadian at heart, I thrillingly got to see the Canadian national team play some hard-fought games, but in the end it was not enough to emerge from the Americas and proceed to the Olympic qualifiers next year.
Now unlike the Toronto Sun’s Buffery, I won’t burst into a diatribe over why Steve Nash should be to blame for this failure. Instead, I will hearten my Canuck affinities by focusing on the out-of-nowhere great play of Kelly Olynyk. Now, when I say “out of nowhere” I mean just for myself. I don’t follow college hoops too much, so Olynyk’s play at Gonzaga was a complete mystery to me. My introduction came when I caught the Argentina-Canada match earlier in the week.
Canada went down, unsurprisingly, to the more talented Argentine squad, but Kelly was there mixing it up as Canada’s big man of the future. For now though, he remains unrefined. But that raw skill still managed 19 points and 12 rebounds against Argentina’s stable of big men including Fabricio Oberto and Luis Scola. Ok, so the awe has to be tempered when considering that Scola and Oberto aren’t exactly all-world defenders and that someone from Canada had to score and rebound, but it was Olynyk and not Joel Anthony who stepped up to the plate.
Olynyk’s play aside, there wasn’t a whole lot to hang Canada’s toque on during the Argentina game. The rebounding was poor, the defense worse and the shooting off-target. Heartbreaking losses to Puerto Rico and, especially, Panama sunk Canada’s chances after an upset victory over the D.R. earlier in the tournament. There is little for Canadians everywhere to do except lick the wounds, pull up the snow boots and move on from Steve Nash (in the case of Buffery). Steve is old and with the chance of him ever participating again in international play effectively obliterated Team Canada can set its sights firmly on developing new talent and wait for Matt Bonner to get his citizenship.
Personally, I await for another day like August 14, 1936 when Canada and the United States squared off for Olympic basketball gold. Unlike the 1936 game though, I hope it isn’t played on an outdoor court in the rain that eventually turns the surface into mud. Hence the 19-8 final. On that future date, I shall root against my citizenship (America) and for my heart (Canada). But there’s a lot of work to be done for that to happen. Let’s get to it, Canada!
