Canada Basketball might have blown its best Olympic chance

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After so many years of waiting, did Canada blow its best shot at winning an Olympic men’s basketball medal?

Will another chance like this come around or was that it?

Those questions and more need to be asked in the wake of Canada’s latest hoops heartbreak, a demoralizing quarterfinal defeat at the hands of France on Tuesday in Paris.

Canada never has had a more talented roster — 10 NBA players made the trip, including the MVP runner-up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — and found a way to avoid meeting the powerful United States or Nikola Jokic-led Serbia until a potential gold-medal matchup. Yet, they laid an egg in epic fashion.

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Even for a basketball program and nation used to brutal defeats, this was next level.

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Whether it was the lively crowd, the terrible officiating, the deft coaching maneuvers by France to make some shocking lineup swaps, overconfidence, not being ready for the spotlight, coaching errors, or all of the above, Canada started as poorly as a team can and could never really make a game of it.

Canada’s Achilles heel became apparent again: The glaring lack of size compared to other basketball powers.

Jamal Murray playing like a shell of the star that has dominated multiple NBA playoff years hurt the team, as did career nights from French role players. A lack of bench production and an addiction to jump shooting instead of attacking the paint didn’t help, either.

All of the goodwill of sweeping the Group of Death evaporated in minutes and once again Canada has no choice but to look forward.

Winning bronze at last year’s World Cup and getting back to the Olympics after 24 years were huge achievements. There’s still a lot of talent to draw from with more on the way (several youngsters just showed out for Canada’s U-18 team and recent lottery picks like Zach Edey, Shaedon Sharpe and Bennedict Mathurin should be around for what’s next), but a lot of mainstays will have aged out by the time the next World Cup in Qatar comes around in 2027 or, if not, by the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

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That includes most of the front-court options at these Olympics. Captain Kelly Olynyk has a great FIBA resume, but barely played and wasn’t effective when he did see the floor. Olynyk will be 36. He was 19 when he first suited up for Canada.

Starter Dwight Powell is the same age. Khem Birch will be turning 34 by Qatar, Trey Lyles 32 by the next Olympics, veteran leader Melvin Ejim 37.

Even Memphis forward Brandon Clarke will be 32 by tipoff time in Los Angeles, as will starting power forward Dillon Brooks.

Even the team’s stars will have exited their primes. The great Gilgeous-Alexander will be 29 if he even makes the long trip to Qatar and 30 for L.A., Murray will be 31, RJ Barrett and Andrew Nembhard 28, Lu Dort 29, Nickeil Alexander-Walker will be turning 30.

Plus there are no guarantees Canada will avoid the U.S. next time, if there is one.

It’s unfortunate to paint this bleak a picture because it’s possible Canada will find a way to be a contender at the next two major basketball events and beyond, but it’s also reality that a chance as good as the one that just slipped through their hands isn’t likely to repeat itself.

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It’s really too bad that Edey shot up into the top 10 of the draft and wasn’t allowed to suit up by the Memphis Grizzlies, and that Andrew Wiggins — who will be 33 by L.A. — chose not to push the Golden State Warriors to play (the Warriors told Postmedia last month that they couldn’t unilaterally hold Wiggins out of an international competition, meaning he had to agree to skip the Olympics despite professing a desire to play earlier).

Both would have helped a lot. It’s hard to get bullied the way Canada was against France with a 7-foot-4, two-time NCAA player of the year on the court.

The scoring and defensive issues could have even alleviated a bit by Wiggins, who has been Canada’s best player in his two previous appearances in 2015 and 2021.

But what’s done is done. Canada had enough on hand to reach the podium. The start against France needs to be examined. The post-mortem needs to analyze every misstep, while also keying on what went right in this cycle.

Either way, this was a bitter pill, moreso when one considers how unlikely it is that a better chance is lurking around the corner.

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