France's Isaia Cordinier, Canada's Rj Barrett, and France's Rudy Gobert in action during the men's basketball quarterfinals on Aug. 6 at the Paris Olympics.MICHAEL CONROY/Reuters
After the men’s basketball team bombed in its Paris debut on Tuesday night, Canada coach Jordi Fernández listed off some of the things that had gone wrong.
“They had good juice going on. Made threes to start. We were playing catch-up from there. We didn’t match their physicality … We didn’t share the ball offensively … questionable fair officiating.”
So, everything.
Some teams come out flat. Against the hosts, Canada came out two-dimensional. All the flow and understanding it had shown during the first round in Lille had disappeared.
The Canadians’ opening frame wasn’t just the worst quarter they have played here. It may be the worst quarter some of them have played in their lives. Canada’s bevy of NBA stars were making guys who play for Virtus Bologna look like Pete Maravich.
All poor Fernández could do was plead with officials to start making calls that don’t get made in international basketball.
A positive? They did look extremely Canadian. Sort of like the Halifax Windjammers, circa 1993. Down 23-10 after the first quarter, the rest of the game was a failed rearguard action. Canada lost 82-73.
The final blows were delivered by France’s Evan Fournier, a guy who last played for the worst team in the NBA. Fournier’s unlikely three from a couple of arrondissements over with less than two minutes remaining sealed it.
Afterward, Canadian players were hustling through the mixed zone like they had a train to catch. Some had to pass Fournier – shirtless, leg popped up on a barricade in the Captain Morgan pose, holding court for the better part of half an hour. It’s nice to win at home.
One of the Canadians who stopped was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He was the team’s only standout on the evening, scoring 27 points.
“If you don’t earn it, that’s what happens,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
You felt you didn’t earn it?
“Clearly not. Not with that start.”
Some tournaments live in the collective mind of a program for years. That first quarter will haunt Canada until the next Olympics.
Until 6 p.m. Tuesday, things could not have been going any better. Canada had swept its opening-round group, including wins against teams such as Australia – smart, starless, roughhousing teams who understand the etiquette of the international game.
The Canadians landed on the opposite side of the elimination bracket from the United States, meaning they could only play them in the final. First up – France, a team that had just barely beaten Japan, who in turn didn’t beat anyone. Then Germany. Then glory.
It was beginning to seem not just possible, but maybe peeking across the other side of likely. The U.S. team is old and satisfied. Canada was young and hungry. No chickens were being counted, but they might have been roughly approximated. Just as they were about to get a national mania going back home, this happens. The technical term for it is bummer.
In its final week, you can feel an Olympics losing steam. Fewer people in the streets. Less energy around venues. No matter how hard it rages, no party can maintain its high for 17 whole days. People get tired of even the most fun things.
If Canada was going to keep its momentum on maximum, the basketball team had to do something amazing. Now that it’s over for them, you can sense the curtain on Paris 2024 starting to twitch. It’ll be coming down soon.
The usual line – and Fernández delivered it – is that they will come back from this stronger. Maybe.
There are two ways it can go.
The disaster scenario first. Getting all of Canada’s best players to commit to this adventure in the midst of their professional off-season was a feat. Gilgeous-Alexander was the Pied Piper in that regard.
Coming off an NBA campaign in which he was second on the MVP ballot, Gilgeous-Alexander was all in the whole way. That made it difficult for anyone who was his performance inferior to try the usual excuses about trick knees and as-yet-unsigned contract extensions.
Four years is a long time to keep a band together. The Beatles only lasted 10, and they never lost a game.
The U.S. doesn’t have to bother with that sort of thing. LeBron James and Steph Curry are not expected to give up yacht season to go to Qatar to play Lithuania for a – sniff – world championship. They only show up when Nike asks them nicely.
Canada doesn’t have the luxury of an endless supply of top, top pros. Qualifying was an issue for it this time, and probably will be next time as well. You can’t qualify if you never play together, or have your best on hand regularly.
Will Canada’s core members be willing to go through the inescapable drudgery before the big reunion show at Los Angeles 2028? Until it happens, it’s an open question.
The other way is treating this like a second-act problem. Few great outfits were always that way. There is generally a period of stuttering progress, sometimes punctuated by enormous, but defining, failures.
Tuesday is either that sort of failure, or the other kind. The one that signals dissipation and decline. Which it is won’t be known for years.
So for now, Canada’s great men’s basketball naissance is on hold. Canada had one very bad day at the worst time. But it has the players, the wherewithal and regular access to the best league in the world to use as a practice space and proving ground.
Years from now, Canada vs. France in Paris can be to Canada what France vs. Canada in the Philippines at last year’s world championships was to France.
“They kicked our ass last year,” Fournier said, giving off the sort of energy a guy who thinks he isn’t taken seriously enough does after he gets the last word. “It feels good to beat a good team.”
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