Canada defeats U.S. to take first ever men’s medal at FIBA World Cup
We always wondered when it would start and how it would look.
We wondered when the right mix of talent and personalities and coaching and commitment and lifelong friendships would coalesce into something special and historic.
We’ve seen it now. We’ve seen Canada take its place among the best basketball nations on Earth, and the best part is that this memorable, historic run to the FIBA World Cup medal podium could very well really just be the beginning.
A dramatic 127-118 overtime bronze medal victory over the United States on Sunday, just the second time in 22 all-time meetings that Canada has beaten the basketball behemoths, did even more than earn the country its first men’s World Cup medal ever.
It is a seminal moment for these players, the organization, the sport.
We waited and waited and waited.
And finally, it arrived.
“This team was amazing, special,” coach Jordi Fernandez said at a post-game news conference. “It’s the beginning of something that’s going to last for a long time.”
That will be this team’s legacy, one that should grow far past this weekend and next year’s Paris Olympics.
All those other times, when Canada’s top players took a pass rather than wear a jersey with a Maple Leaf on it, are forgotten now. A group of committed, talented players accepted responsibility for their place in the sport and in Canadian history and came through.
“I’ve learned that they’re great people and I would take them on my team from now until the end of my career,” Fernandez said. “All of them.”
Canada will most certainly be medal contenders at the 2024 Paris Olympics, this World Cup performance will be a springboard to longer-term success, it will enhance the program’s reputation here and around the world and, most important, it should serve as a point of inflection for another generation of great Canadian players who should now want to be part of the process.
“It’s an honour to be part of this group,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander told Sportsnet in a xed zone interview in Manila, Philippines.
The game was not without drama and that made the victory even more special. Beating the United States — even a U.S. roster not chalk filled with NBA all-stars — is an accomplishment at any time.
Doing it the way Canada did, with Dillon Brooks having the single-best scoring game in Canadian World Cup history, Gilgeous-Alexander cementing his place among the very best players on the planet and recovering from a gut-wrenching last second of the fourth quarter where the Americans tied the game with a miraculous four-point play in the final second of regulation time, made it even more special.
“They built the identity that we just showed, the resiliency,” Fernandez said. “It wasn’t perfect because we don’t have a lot of experience in FIBA but I think we’re here showing that we can do great things.”
No one showed more great things Sunday than Brooks and Gilgeous-Alexander, both instrumental in the victory.
Brooks had 39 points — the most ever scored by a Canadian at a World Cup — and Gilgeous-Alexander keyed a 5-0 run to start overtime as part of his 31-point, 12-assist, one-turnover game.
“We tried everything,” American coach Steve Kerr said of Gilgeous-Alexander. “When we doubled him, Brooks was making threes; when we didn’t he was making his pull ups. Give those guys credit. They both played great.”
Sunday was the second time Gilgeous-Alexander had a double-double with at least 30 points, and the first time that’s happened in a World Cup game since rebounds and assists were tracked in the mid-1970s.
“He’s just, he’s nice,” American forward Mikal Bridges said of Gilgeous-Alexander. “He’s slithery, he knows how to get out, get away from you. He’s first-team (all-NBA) for a reason. He’s just tough. An unbelievable player. He’s just really good.”
Brooks was a revelation.
Known as one of the top perimeter defenders in the game, he made his first six three-point shots on Sunday and dominated at times offensively.
“Really proud of Dillon,” Fernandez said. “This is what it looks like when they let Dillon Brooks play.”
The magnitude of what this team accomplished in its short existence is hard to comprehend. Canada has qualified for the Olympics for the first time since 2000 and has won a medal at a truly global men’s tournament since a silver at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
It’s also wiped out years of heartbreaking losses; the 2015 loss to Venezuela in Mexico City, the 2021 loss to Czechia in Victoria and so many others.
It was a historic performance that begins a new chapter in Canadian basketball history.
“It’s good momentum for us to hold on to that throughout the (NBA) season,” Brooks said. “I’m going to see a lot of my teammates during season and guys that weren’t here.
“That’s just motivating to them as well to join us, to re-up, get better, to make a run in this Olympics.”
This article was reported by The Star
