The ceiling for this version of the Canadian men’s basketball team keeps being raised.
With a berth in the Paris Olympics wrapped up when they won a do-or-die game against Spain on Sunday at the FIBA Basketball World Cup, the focus shifted to the event itself and the very real possibility that Canada can win it all.
Or at the very least, secure a spot on the podium at a global event for the men’s program for the first time since winning silver at the Olympics in 1936 on a rain-soaked outdoor court in Berlin.
But whether it’s qualifying for the Olympics for the first time in 23 years and just the second time since 1988, or guiding Canada to its first-ever semifinal appearance at the World Cup which they secured with a rarely in doubt 100-89 quarterfinal win over Slovenia, the sun around which Canada’s fortunes have orbited has been Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — Canada’s best player, and the best in the tournament too.
As of now he’s the tournament MVP, and it’s not close.
The lanky point guard from the Oklahoma City Thunder by way of Hamilton represents both the current iteration of the men’s team’s floor and its ceiling, too. With the Canadians now through to the semifinals where they’ll meet No. 6 Serbia on Friday morning, it’s clear that now any ambition short of gold is too modest.
Though early stages of the tournament Gilgeous-Alexander made sure Canada wouldn’t fail, his signature moments being his third-quarter takeovers against first France and then Latvia, in each case putting his stamp on games that Canada needed to win.
He refused to allow Canada to lose.
No that the stakes have gotten higher, Gilgeous-Alexander has shown that with him on the floor, anything is possible.
He’s allowing Canada to dream outrageous new dreams.
Game recognizes game, so it was no surprise that when Sportsnet’s Sherman Hamilton asked his old Olympic teammate Steve Nash about Gilgeous-Alexander — the best player to wear a Canadian jersey since the two-time MVP himself was doing his floppy-haired thing for Canada at the turn of the millennium — Nash’s eyes lit up.
“I mean, he’s got it, right?” Nash said on an early morning Zoom call from his home in California before Canada took on Slovenia in the quarterfinals. “He [Gilgeous-Alexander] has the game, the feel, the understanding of his responsibility in the moment. It’s just a beautiful thing when you have a player like that in your arsenal.”
Nash was the men’s program’s general manager when Gilgeous-Alexander was a bench-warming observer at the 2016 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Manila where Canada lost to France in the finals, missing out on a chance to go to Rio later that summer.
But even then Nash – who was in the final stages of his own Hall-of-Fame NBA career – could see something special happening. His assessment of a then relatively unheralded Gilgeous-Alexander from those summer workouts? “I was sure he was a pro, and NBA player,” Nash told me. “But I’d be lying if I thought he’d be this.”
What he is, is the best player at the World Cup both by the eye test – no one else has so routinely taken over games and dominated crucial moments – and statistically, as no one can match his 25 points, 7.2 rebounds and five assists a game on 54.7 per cent shooting. The combination has him leading the tournament in FIBA’s player efficiency measures.
It’s happened organically, step-by-step.
Against No.1 Spain in the final group stage game, Canada’s task was simple: win and advance at the World Cup, securing a spot in the Olympic tournament in the process.
Gilgeous-Alexander responded not only with his tournament-best 31 points, but finished with a flourish of plays that will go down in Canadian basketball lore. He scored or assisted on all 14 of Canada’s points in the final 3:38 of a game it had trailed by 12 to start the fourth quarter. His and-1 lay-up with 1:51 to pull Canada within three was an act of slithery sorcery that needs to be broken down on a frame-by-frame basis to be fully appreciated.
His step-back jumper from the top of the key that gave Canada the lead with 44 seconds left is worthy of a statue.
It was the kind of sequence that the best players can somehow make routine, or predictable, but they are the opposite of that. Take players like Gilgeous-Alexander out of the equation and even a team as deep and talented as Canada is begins to sputter, the cracks show.
Gilgeous-Alexander made every effort to downplay Wednesday’s morning matchup with Slovenia’s Luka Doncic, the pre-tournament MVP favourite.
But when the lights went on Gilgeous-Alexander rose to the challenge again and easily won the duel against the Dallas Mavericks star, finishing with 31 points on 8-of-12 shooting (going 14-of-16 from the line will help that cause) to go along with 10 rebounds and four assists. It was the first 30-10 line in a knockout game at the World Cup since 1994.
Doncic? He had 26 points on 8-of-20 shooting and was ejected for badgering the officials midway through the fourth quarter, the game still in reach.
But the Slovenian star knew what he was up against.
“Congratulations to Canada,” Doncic said, post-game. “They have one of the best players in the world and it was really tough to guard him.”
It won’t be any easier for anyone else, Team USA included.
“Watching him do it gave me goosebumps,” said Nash of Gilgeous-Alexander’s showing against Spain and before he dominated against Doncic and Slovenia. “It takes a team, and I think the whole team played their part and had their moments, but he took them over the line. He’s one of my favourite players and keeps getting better. It’s going to be fun to watch him play the rest of his career and continue to play in a Canada jersey as long as possible.”
The next episode of the SGA show is scheduled for Friday against Serbia in Canada’s first-ever World Cup semifinal. It’s an exciting moment for the sport in the country.
But more exciting is that as long as Gilgeous-Alexander is on the floor, the show will go on and the possibility – even likelihood – of the credits rolling over a medal ceremony is real.
