No need for the Golden Generation to be back on Blanshard. It has finally rubbed off the tarnish.
Yet with Canada trailing Spain by 12 points entering the fourth quarter Sunday morning, Friends of Victoria Basketball COO Nick Blasko’s mind began racing ahead to the potential process involved of again hosting a last-chance Olympic qualifying tournament next summer at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
No requirement for that again, however, as Canada will go through the front door to Paris 2024 with a stirring 88-85 comeback victory over defending-champion Spain at the 2023 FIBA World Cup to make the quarter-finals Wednesday against Luka Doncic and Slovenia and qualify for the Olympics for the first time since two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash of Victoria captained the national team to Sydney 2000.
The reverberations from the stunning, last-shot overtime loss to the Czech Republic at the Memorial Centre in the back-door qualifier in 2021 for the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics hung over this World Cup for Canada like an ominous harbinger.
“It was wild and all of us were thinking back to what happened here two years ago as we did our small part to help the team, and [whether the Victoria group might have to consider preparing again to host another last-chance qualifier], but what a thrilling comeback,” said Blasko.
A loss to Spain would have eliminated Canada from the World Cup and required another last-chance route to the Olympics.
The several Canadian basketball Olympic alumni on the Island were ecstatic that the drought will finally end after 24 years.
“We always knew this group had the talent. It was a matter of bringing that chemistry together,” said Gerald Kazanowski, the Nanaimo and University of Victoria Vikes product who played in the 1984 Los Angeles and 1988 Seoul Olympics for Canada.
“You can see they have heart and want to play for Canada.”
Canada has the third most NBA players in the World Cup with seven following the U.S. with 12 and Australia with nine. France and Germany have four each.
Dillon Brooks played solid defence for Canada and had 22 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, and RJ Barrett added 16.
“But there is no selfishness apparent on this Canadian team and I don’t see a team we can’t beat in the World Cup,” said former national-team star Howard Kelsey, co-founder and co-chair of the Canadian National Basketball Teams Alumni Association.
“And it’s not just one or two guys. It’s many players. For the first time in a long time we have true lock-down defensive standouts with Dillon Brooks and Luguentz Dort.”
Kazanowski concurred: “This team has depth with a wide-range of skill sets.”
Kazanowski and Kelsey were part of the B.C.-centric Canadian team that placed fourth in the 1984 Los Angeles and sixth in the 1988 Seoul Olympics with a roster that also included former UVic stars Greg Wiltjer and the late Eli Pasquale and Jay Triano out of SFU and Karl Tilleman from the University of Calgary.
“They showed Canadian grit. It’s a special team,” said former UVic Vikes star Eric Hinrichsen of Campbell River, who played in the 2000 Sydney Olympics with Nash.
“It’s been scary to think it’s been 24 years since we went. After those qualifying losses to Venezuela for Rio 2016 and the Czech Republic here in Victoria for Tokyo, it’s great to finally get over the hump.”
The B.C. connection goes back further to the mercurial late shooting-guard Billy Robinson of Chemainus and centre Lars Hansen of Coquitlam leading Canada to fourth place at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and Victoria players Art and Chuck Chapman and Doug Peden leading Canada to the silver medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
The Canadian team is now heavily oriented to Greater Toronto and Montreal as the powerbase of national basketball shifted east over the decades. But Sunday’s game is the topic of sporting discussion from Port Hardy to Brandon to St. John’s.
“The consequences of this are going to be massive across the country. It bodes well for the future of our game,” said Kelsey.
That isn’t lost on the current Canadian players.
“We’re a part of history,” NBA and Canada star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said in a statement after pouring in a team-high 30 points Sunday.
“It’s something that’s almost indescribable … so many people along the way have put in so much work for this.”
Among them are the Friends of Victoria Basketball. The group is also producing a documentary and has a film crew at the FIBA World Cup chronicling Canada’s journey to and, eventually, at Paris. The broadcast platform on which the documentary will run after the Paris Olympics will be negotiated.
With the group’s history of hosting Canada men’s and women’s national team basketball games in Victoria, including the Tokyo Olympic qualifying tournament and 2023 World Cup qualifiers, is there a possibility of pre-Paris Olympics exhibition games at the Memorial Centre next summer?
Nash and Canada played at McKinnon Gym prior to departing for Sydney in 2000.
“Our doors are always open to hosting Canada,” said Blasko.
