Canada’s men’s basketball team qualified for the Olympics for the first time since the Sydney Games in 2000.
A Canadian team led by All-NBA guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander defeated world No. 1 Spain 88-85 to reach the quarterfinals of the FIBA World Championship for the first time since the FIBA World Championship was hosted in 1994 .
Canada had to beat Spain to progress and qualify for Paris, otherwise they would have been forced into a final Olympic qualifier next year, likely in June. Spain is now forced into one of these last chance tournaments.
Canada joins USA, who also qualified on Sunday, as well as hosts France, Australia, South Sudan and Japan in the 12-team Olympic field. The top two European nations from the World Cup also qualify, plus four more nations via the Last Chance Qualifiers.
FIBA WORLD CUP: Schedule, results
Canada has more NBA players than any other country except the US and narrowly missed out on qualifying for the recent Olympics.
Canada qualified for the Paris Games despite the absences of Jamal Murray (NBA Champion Point Guard for the Denver Nuggets) and Andrew Wiggins (2022 All-Star Forward for the Golden State Warriors). NBA stars often skip the World Championships to take a summer off between NBA seasons, especially when planning to compete in the following year’s Olympics.
In 2021, a Canadian team of eight NBA players lost 103-101 in overtime to a Czech team of one NBA player in a last-chance Olympic qualifying tournament in British Columbia.
In 2016, Canada lost to France and an Olympic berth in Rio was at stake.
In 2015, a Canadian team with nine NBA players lost 79-78 to a Venezuelan team with zero NBA players in a Rio Olympics qualifier at a North and South American tournament.
At Canada’s last Olympic appearance in 2000, Steve Nash led a strong team that almost reached the medal round. Nash and center Todd MacCulloch were their only NBA players. Such was Nash’s devotion that he was reportedly sobbing and had to be dragged off the floor after Canada lost to eventual silver medalists France in the quarterfinals.
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