“Are we just happy to be in the party, or are we winning this thing?”
Rowan Barrett has delivered a stern challenge to the Canadian men’s basketball team ahead of its first Olympics in 24 years.
“Are we just happy to be in the party, or are we winning this thing?” Barrett told Postmedia before heading to Paris.
Barrett, the team’s general manager and chief roster builder, was the captain of the previous Canadian men’s basketball squad to reach the Games, so he’s uniquely qualified to hold court with his charges and to ask the tough questions.
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Though Canada had competed at the previous four Olympics, including a fourth-place finish in 1984, expectations were nearly non-existent back in Sydney in 2000. Steve Nash had not even established himself as a full-time NBA starter, let alone a future MVP winner, and centre Todd MacCulloch was the only other NBA player on the roster.
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That’s a stark difference compared to the 2024 group, which has 10 NBAers, including 2023-24 MVP runner-up Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and star guard Jamal Murray, amongst others.
The presence of so much Canadian talent and last summer’s bronze-medal performance at the FIBA World Cup with a weaker roster is why Canada has the second-best odds, after perennial podium toppers America, to claim gold in France.
With expectations comes pressure, but Canada is attempting to dismiss all of that.
When the men’s soccer team finally got back to the World Cup two years ago for the first time since 1986, it had been in good form heading in, like this hoops group. But after a strong performance in Game 1 against Belgium that ended in a disappointing 1-0 loss, the pressure seemed to get to that team. A blowout loss followed, then a dispiriting defeat to Morocco and that was it.
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The basketball team has showed it can rise to the occasion, including beating the U.S., Spain, Slovenia and others last year at the World Cup, but the lights will be even brighter in France.
The good thing is they have Barrett to lean on and recently gathered with a huge group of former Canadian basketball Olympians in Toronto during training camp. They know what they will be getting into, starting Saturday against Greece and its male flag-bearer Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“You’re excited that you’re going to go up against the world’s best and the whole world will be watching,” Barrett told Postmedia. “And so you’re hopeful, but you’re believing also in what you can do.”
Canada should believe. The World Cup team had the best offence in that tournament and now gets powered up even more by Murray — who has averaged 24.2 points points in NBA playoff games and been the second-best player on a championship team — and by fellow guard Andrew Nembhard, who came into his own in this year’s post-season with the Indiana Pacers.
The team is big in the backcourt, but lacks size up front. Veteran Khem Birch should help with screen-setting, rebounding and rim protection, but many opponents will be bigger.
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There have also been some defensive issues, but few teams can match the athleticism, length and physicality of Canada’s wing defenders like Dillon Brooks and Lu Dort.
Barrett’s best advice on how to not let the Olympic hoopla get to the team is to “focus on the process.
“I think if you’re thinking constantly about what needs to be done today. What do I need to do tonight to be ready to do my job tomorrow,” he said. “It helps you not to get carried away with all these people. And the 100,000 people in this stadium watching us walk into the opening ceremonies and everything else.
“In every scenario in every single situation you are focusing about ‘how am I conserving energy and how am I hydrating,’
“‘How many hours (of sleep) do I need?’ If you’re focusing on those things, it really does help you not to kind of get carried away and swept away with all the euphoria around the Olympics.”
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It also helps that the roster is led by the effortlessly cool and relaxed Gilgeous-Alexander, by ice-in-their-veins competitors like Murray and Brooks (who scored 39 points in the bronze-medal win over the Americans). They aren’t exactly the types to wilt.
“The good news is we’ve got a lot of winners on this team that understand big moments,” Canada Basketball president and CEO Michael Bartlett told Postmedia, pointing to last year’s 12-point fourth-quarter comeback against Spain which clinched the Olympic berth, and the bronze medal triumph. “They’re certainly not intimidated by the moment.
“I think they’ll cherish it.”
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