By Antonis Stroggylakis / astroggylakis@eurohoops.net
Jakarta, Indonesia – The picture of the Canadian national team in global competitions this last couple of decades hasn’t been a pretty sight.
Canada has participated only in the Olympic Games of 2000, finishing seventh. They haven’t made it past the Group stage over three World Cup appearances (2002, 2013, 2019), registering just one win in the first phase.
Despite producing notable players and even an NBA MVP and Hall of Famer in Steve Nash, the Canadian national team has been continuously underwhelming this century.
Now, Canada marches to the 2023 FIBA World Cup with arguably the most powerful group of players in history and guard Lu Dort believes that it’s about time he and his teammates initiate a massive comeback for his country’s basketball.
“That’s definitely one of the goals. Just to kind of put Canada back on the map,” Dort told reporters after the team’s practice ahead of their World Cup opener against France Friday (25/8). “We have so many great players you know and we are here to showcase that to the world.”
Dort likes that the beginning of this journey for the Canadian side will be against a gold medal contender. France is one of the strongest teams in the World Championship, a squad that combines know-how and talent in abundance.
“It’s a big challenge that we play a French team that has a lot of experience and many veteran guys,” Dort said. “It’s going to be a really big challenge for us.”
“It’s going to be fun,” Dort also mentioned. “We’ve been preparing for this game a long time. It’s good that the day is finally here and we get to come out here and play basketball.”
In 2021 and after his sophomore year in the NBA with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dort debutd with the Canadian national team in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament hosted in Victoria.
It was a heartbreak for Canada since they were eliminated by the Czech Republic in the semifinal of the tournament in front of their home crowd. Dort was actually guarding Tomas Satoransky who hit the game-winning jumper for the Czech team in the last second.
“The way we lost is on the back of our mind,” Dort commented. “We kind of have some anger from that game and we still remember it.”
Many things have happened since then of course. On an individual level, Dort established himself as an important contributor for the Thunder and one of the top defensive players in the NBA. In 2022, he signed a five-year extension with the team, after averging a career-high 17.2 points.
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Being more mature than before, perhaps he’s also readier to tackle the differences between NBA and FIBA rules.
“It’s a little bit more physical,” Dort said when asked about what’s the most challenging difference in the rules he has to adapt. “The refs… It’s kind of different from the NBA. I feel that after all the games we played think that we’re kind of adjusting to it’s a little different but not much. At the end of the day it’s just basketball. It’s a bit more physical but it’s just basketball.”
It’s pivotal for Dort and other guys with small, or zero international experience to have beside them some teammates who’ve been professsionals in Europe and can give many helpful tips to make the adjustment smoother. Some of these players include Unicaja Malaga’s Melvin Ejim, Zaragoza’s Trae Bell-Haynes or Phill Scrubb, a EuroBall veteran.
“We have some guys on our team who play in Europe and have a lot of experience in the FIBA rules and stuff like that. They definitely help. They taught us a lot of stuff.”
Dort isn’t the only Thunder player to represent the team in the World Cup. There’s also his Canada teammate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Australia’s Josh Giddey and Jack White, along with Latvia’s Davis Bertans.
“We have a lot of international players on the team,” Dort commented. “It’s good that we take pride on representing our country. At the end of the day it’s not about just basketball for us. We are doing this for a full season and it’s good to come out here just compete and play basketball and that’s what we’re doing.”
Photo Credit: FIBA.BASKETBALL