Cleveland Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson and San Antonio Spurs guard Cory Joseph headline the list of 18 players who will be at training camp with the Basketball Canada senior men’s national team beginning Friday in Toronto.
While there are a couple of notable names missing from the list in Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins and Kelly Olynyk, there will be a couple of other NBA players in camp as well.
Andrew Nicholson of the Orlando Magic and Joel Anthony of the Miami Heat are on board as is Kris Joseph who finished last season with the Brooklyn Nets.
Wiggins and Bennett weren’t expected to be in camp this summer as the former announced he was taking the summer off to prepare for his freshman season at Kansas while the latter continues to recover from offseason surgery. Olynyk is also sidelined by injury at the moment as well.
Basketball Canada general manager Steve Nash said he has been excited to see how Canadian players have progressed over the past year.
“It’s been exciting watching and monitoring the achievements of our many talented athletes this year,” Nash said. “It truly is the golden age of basketball in this country and we plan to build upon this momentum over the next three years as we look toward the 2016 Olympics and beyond. Our immediate goal is to prepare the team over the next month to be in the best possible position to secure a berth to next year’s FIBA World Cup.”
This will be the first summer of competition with Nash and head coach Jay Triano at the helm after the pair reunited in the summer of 2012 to guide the program which they once famously led as player and coach.
The team’s first competition will be upcoming the 2013 Jack Donohue International Classic – a two-game exhibition series where Team Canada will welcome the Jamaican National Team to the Mattamy Athletic Centre on August 8th and 10th. It will be a rare opportunity for Canadian basketball fans to see the team before they head off for international competition.
The Classic will serve as a preview for this fall’s FIBA Americas Championship where the Senior Men’s National Team will face Team Jamaica and eight additional countries from their FIBA zone for the right to represent their nations at the 2014 FIBA World Cup.
