The quest continues on Blanshard Street as sa国际传媒 will bring to the floor six National Basketball Association players for its FIBA 2023 World Cup qualifying game against Argentina on Thursday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Named by the Canadian coaching staff, headed by Nick Nurse of the Toronto Raptors, are Nickeil Alexander-Walker of the Utah Jazz, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kelly Olynyk and Cory Joseph of the Detroit Pistons, Oshae Brissett of the Indiana Pacers and Dwight Powell of the Dallas Mavericks. Also named was seven-foot-four Purdue Boilermakers NCAA star forward Zach Edey, the tallest player in Big Ten history.
They are among the 15 players coming to training camp beginning Monday at CARSA Gym on the University of Victoria campus. The rest of the load through the first qualifying round has been carried by veteran European pros Phil and Thomas Scrubb of Richmond, Kyle Wiltjer, son of Victoria Olympian Greg Wiljer, Kevin Pangos, Trae Bell-Haynes, Melvin Ejim, Kassius Robertson and Kalif Young.
NBA players Alexander-Walker, cousin Gilgeous-Walker, Olynyk and Powell were instrumental in the last two games of the first round as this mix has sa国际传媒 as the only undefeated team in the Americas (6-0) in World Cup qualifying. sa国际传媒 is in Group E for the second round with Venezuela (5-1), Argentina (5-1), Dominican Republic (4-2), Panama (2-4), and Bahamas (2-4).
The Group F is also made up of six Americas teams. The top three in each group, and the top fourth-place finisher, will advance to the 2023 FIBA World Cup from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10, 2023, in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.
The World Cup is important because the top-seven teams from that tournament next year will qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics, which along with host France, will make up the bulk of the 12-team Olympic tournament. The four final Olympic spots will be decided in last-chance qualifiers, something sa国际传媒 wants to avoid after falling stunningly short in such a tournament last year in Victoria at the Memorial Centre.
In addition to the 15 athletes named for the Victoria qualifying game Thursday, NBA players R.J. Barrett, Khem Birch, Dillon Brooks, Luguentz Dort and Jamal Murray have committed through to the 2024 Paris Olympics quadrennial and will attend the training camp but will not participate in this window of 2023 World Cup qualifiers through injury or other reasons and will join the mix in later games. That is an indication of sa国际传媒’s depth.
But this so-called Golden Generation has so far been underachieving and sa国际传媒 has not been to the Olympics in men’s basketball since captained at Sydney 2000 by two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash of Victoria. This is the cycle in which Nurse’s team hopes to reverse that plotline.
Tickets for sa国际传媒’s World Cup qualifying game against Argentina, the 2004 Athens Olympic champion, are through Select Your Tickets.
