Amid the Golden Generation of Canadian NBA players, Conor Morgan of Victoria continues proving his worth as a valued depth player in the national team program.
The Mount Douglas Secondary Rams graduate was named Friday to the 16-player Canadian camp that will gather in Toronto under head coach Nick Nurse for the third qualifying window of 2023 FIBA World Cup qualifying. sa国际传媒, 4-0 through the first two windows in World Cup qualifying, will play the Dominican Republic on July 1 in Hamilton, Ont., in the first national team game on Canadian soil since the shock semifinal loss to the Czech Republic in the Tokyo Olympic qualifying tournament last summer at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria. The Canadians will travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands for the second game of the third window on July 4.
The six-foot-nine Morgan, a marvellously fluid stretch forward whose touch is as deadly from outside as inside, led sa国际传媒 to the silver medal at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and averaged 6.3 points and 2.3 rebounds per game for sa国际传媒 in the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China.
The NBA players named to the Canadian camp are Nickeil Alexander-Walker of the Utah Jazz, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Kelly Olynyk of the Detriot Pistons and Dwight Powell of the Dallas Mavericks. The rest of the load will be carried by veteran European pros such as Morgan, who plays for Andorra in Spain, and Phil and Thomas Scrubb of Richmond.
It’s much like in soccer when countries such as England and Germany will field their secondary national team players against minnows in the early rounds of World Cup or Euro qualifying. sa国际传媒 will use up to 35 players in the six qualifying windows for the 2023 World Cup, which will double as the first and main qualifier for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. Morgan played in the first qualifying games last year in San Juan, Puerto Rico, saying: “It’s always an honour to put on the national team jersey.”
In addition to Alexander-Walker, Powell, Olynyk and Gilgeous-Alexander, other NBA players who have committed through to the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Paris Olympics cycle are Jamal Murray, R.J. Barrett, Khem Birch, Luguentz Dort, Oshae Brissett and Kevin Pangos. The latter six will attend training camp but will not participate in the third window of the World Cup qualifiers. Cory Joseph of the Pistons is also committed but has received an exemption for family reasons and will not attend training camp. Missing from the roster is Andrew Wiggins, who played in the Olympic qualifier last summer in Victoria, and won the NBA championship last week with the Golden State Warriors.
Eighty national teams are playing in their regional tournaments, across six qualifying windows, to earn the 30 berths to join co-hosts Japan and the Philippines in the 32-team 2023 FIBA World Cup from Aug. 25 to Sept. 10 next year. The top-seven teams in the World Cup will join host France as the first eight qualifiers for the 12-team 2024 Paris Olympic tournament and sa国际传媒, with the largest number of NBA players other than the U.S., is aiming to be in that group. The final four teams for the Olympics will be decided in last-chance qualifiers.
The 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.
