Canada exorcises Venezuela demons to book FIBA World Cup spot

You had to be there.

I was among the few that were lucky enough — or unlucky enough — to watch first-hand one of the most excruciating losses in the history of the Canadian senior men’s basketball team.

Sept. 11, 2015, Mexico City, if you need specifics.

Anyone who cared about Canadian basketball was about to raise a celebratory beer — the cold frothy head just inches from hitting the hatch when they stumbled on some loose laundry and fell face first into the coffee table — beer and broken glass everywhere.

Just like that, the party was over. Canada was up seven with three minutes to play against Venezuela, Olympic berth on the line. Then came a cavalcade of turnovers, missed shots, miracle opponent threes and a phantom foul at the buzzer that was the difference in the game.

Everything that has happened since has been about recovering the momentum Canada was building. The first wave of Canada’s golden generation looked poised to make the 2016 Olympics after missing them in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

Flash forward seven years and the Canadian men’s Olympic drought is now at five Olympic cycles and counting.

So yeah, having a chance to advance to the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup by beating Venezuela on home soil, in Edmonton?

The prospect was sweet for Canada Basketball chief executive officer Michael Bartlett over the phone from Alberta.

“Doing it in Canada was nice, it’s been a long time since we’ve been able to do that on home soil. Doing it with this winter core, the group that started this [qualifying] journey last November just shows how our roster consistency strategy is working and doing it against Venezuela would be nice because we’ve had some tough beats against them,” said Bartlett, who has been charged with creating the business infrastructure to both support Canada’s podium quest and leverage the knock-on effects if and when it happens.

“And there are a lot of people in the program who remember that and were a part of it. We wanted this one. It’s been circled on the calendar.”

And now they can put an ‘x’ through it: Nov. 10, 2022, marks the spot.

Canada gained some measure of revenge with a thorough 94-56 win over Venezuela on Thursday that clinched its year-long quest to qualify for the 2023 World Cup — which will be played in Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines in August and September — in front of a sold-out crowd at the Flair Airlines Hangar at the Edmonton Expo Centre.

Canada improved to 9-0 with three games left to play to remain the only undefeated team in qualifying while Venezuela fell to 7-2.

Canada had six players in double figures in scoring, led by Kassius Robertson who had 16 on perfect 6-of-6 shooting, while two more players chipped in with eight points in a perfectly balanced attack. Canada held the visitors to 34.4 per cent shooting and owned a 20-10 edge on the offensive boards. Canada led 46-31 at halftime and blew the game open with a 24-11 third quarter.

The game very nearly didn’t happen. Venezuela was late getting its visa applications submitted and was only cleared to travel to Canada on Wednesday. The team flew from Mexico to Vancouver on Thursday and then connected to Edmonton landing three hours before the tip.

When they arrived they were greeted by -15C weather — or about 35C colder than it had been in Caracas on Thursday.

Serves them right. For years it’s been Canada travelling to far-flung places to play in hostile environments. Having the Sorels on the other foot feels good for a change.

It was fitting too that a Canadian team featuring stalwarts from the ‘winter core’ — the group of more than 20 athletes that have made themselves available for the qualifying windows that NBA players aren’t able to play — were the ones that got it done.

Canada wouldn’t have made it this far without them. Sure, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Kelly Olynyk led Canada to blowout wins in the summer qualifying windows, and Canada will be looking to Jamal Murray, RJ Barrett and other members of the summer core to join them next summer, but it’s been the likes of Robertson, Phil and Thomas Scrubb, Trae Bell-Haynes and others that have been in the lineup game after game.

Advancing to the 32-nation World Cup is just one step, of course.

Being the first team in the Americas allows Canada to get a head start on planning the logistics for next summer: training camp accommodations and details, exhibition games and the like. Every bit of certainty helps.

The ultimate goal is a place in the 12-team Olympic field in Paris in 2024. The surest way for Canada to manage that is to be among the top two teams from the Americas at the World Cup.

Failing that there is the opportunity to play in and win one of the last-chance Olympic Qualifying tournaments in the summer of 2024 that will determine the final four spots in the field.

But Canada doesn’t want to come in through the back door. There’s been too much time, too much effort, too much money and too much hope invested in building a program that can compete with the world’s best on the brightest stages, any time, any place. It’s been proven on the women’s side and it’s been proven in age-group basketball. It’s just the talent-rich senior men’s category that hasn’t been able to put it all together.

The loss in 2015 was the first in a string of heartbreaks: A close miss in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in 2016; a disappointing 21st- place finish at the 2019 World Cup, the loss to the Czech Republic in overtime at the last-chance Olympic qualifier in Victoria that kept Canada out of the most recent Summer Games in Tokyo.

It’s time for Canada to make its mark.

“I get it. For people who have been following this program for a long time, they’re going to say ‘prove it’,” says Bartlett. “Well, the World Cup gives us a chance to say prove it before we go to the Olympics and prove it again.”

“… Nothing would be better than giving the county a reason to cheer,” says Bartlett. “It’s the coolest thing ever.”

The Canadian men’s team got another big step closer on Thursday and put to bed an old demon in the process.