Victoria shone even if the Golden Generation didn鈥檛.
The thing about Golden Generations is that they can tarnish. Just ask the so-labeled but massively underachieving Belgian and Chilean soccer teams. Now the Canadian basketball team is being lumped in that company after again failing to qualify for the Olympics.
It wasn鈥檛 Victoria鈥檚 fault. It set the table tidily as a good host does. When the invited guests sent their regrets last year and said they would have to postpone, the preparations stretched out and became unprecedentedly complex amid the pandemic. Then it wasn鈥檛 the Canuck guests of honour, but instead the Czech Republic and Greece, which dined at the Olympic buffet in the final Sunday at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre with the Czechs taking the biggest bite and advancing to Tokyo for their first-ever Olympic appearance with a 97-72 victory.
Czech captain Tomas Satoransky of the NBA鈥檚 Chicago Bulls was named MVP and called it the greatest moment of his career.
鈥淚t was a great tournament and well organized,鈥� he said.
鈥淚 love Canadian people. They are so nice. They welcomed us with open arms and we appreciated that. I am never going to forget this tournament, especially since we qualified for the Olympics. It鈥檚 too bad we couldn鈥檛 see anything of the city and explore [teams were confined to their hotel and arena bubbles] and not have a full stadium because I knew they had sold out for last year. The Olympics got moved and obviously the pandemic made everything difficult for this tournament. But even under these circumstances they did a great job.鈥�
sa国际传媒, meanwhile, with the second-most NBA players in the world at 17 is left again to wonder what it will take to get back to the Olympics. It hasn鈥檛 been since two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash of Victoria captained sa国际传媒 to the 2000 Sydney Games.
But there was a Canadian triumph over the week as Satoransky alluded to 鈥� the host committee, which probably endured as much as any host committee has in hosting an international sporting event.
鈥淲e delivered a world-class event under incredibly challenging times and it was good for our region, our province and our country,鈥� said Victoria tournament chair Clint Hamilton.
鈥淲e delivered this at the world-class level, which under the circumstances and what鈥檚 gone on the last 15 months, is remarkable. It displayed our region can host Olympic, world-class events.鈥�
Wondering what could have been is pointless.
鈥淲e could dwell on what we hoped we could have had,鈥� said Hamilton.
鈥淭here was every indication prior to COVID of a sold-out venue [instead of a pandemic-restricted 800 fans allowed into the 7,400-seat Memorial Centre]. There would have been festivals across the city, impacting tourism.鈥�
The loss of the home team in the semifinals will long haunt Canadian basketball but some good can come of it, said Hamilton: 鈥淓verybody is incredibly disappointed by the result Team sa国际传媒 had but I told the players how appreciative we are of them and what those NBA players went through to be here and to commit the way they did.鈥�
But there are no guarantees is sport. None of the host teams of the four last-chance qualifiers 鈥� sa国际传媒, Croatia, Lithuania or 2016 Rio silver-medallist Serbia 鈥� advanced to Tokyo.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a one-game winner take all, high-stakes event . It was an example of how powerful basketball is at the international level,鈥� said Hamilton.
The focus for the Golden Generation now shifts to Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028.
鈥淔or the future of the game, these Canadian NBA players showed it鈥檚 really important to represent your country,鈥� said Hamilton.
鈥淭hey cared about this and it will inspire future generations of basketball players in sa国际传媒. That will be the legacy from this Victoria tournament.鈥�
