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Originally Posted by isaidso
^^ Injury is a concern but it's bit much to feel no loyalty whatsoever to Canada Basketball, the system that got them to where they are. Almost all of our NBA players came up through Canada Basketball and have been supported by that organization throughout their development. The mentality of Canadian basketball players is slowly changing (Cory Joseph, Kelly Olynyk always say yes) but they still don't have the same mindset of other Canadian athletes. Can you imagine if Sidney Crosby and 75% of our best hockey players bowed out every time? The shit would hit the fan.
Arguing that the national team is average so therefore not worth the bother is a cop out and ass backwards. Our national team is average because they don't show up, not the other way around. I might add that our hockey players show up for Canada at the Olympics and World Championships.
The root problem is that so many basketball players in this country think about the NBA and nothing else. If they played for the Raptors, how many of them view a gold medal for Canada as more important than a Toronto Raptors NBA title? All of them would say the NBA title... and by a long shot. In most sports its representing your country at the Olympics and World Championships that matters most. We'll one day get to a point where the NBA Championship is secondary but it will take another generation or 2.
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I don't pay too much attention to how the players are coming up and how much Basketball Canada has to do with that but the higher end guys play at prep schools in the US or that academy in Orangeville. Maybe that has more to do with their development than Basketball Canada? Though I don't know if that org. funds some of the Orangeville academy for instance.
So I see the support from them as secondary at most. And it's a trade off. They support the player to help them become better players and put Canadian basketball on the map and hopefully represent them down the road. The fact that they got drafted high in the NBA and some guys are all stars or borderline all stars accomplishes that mission of putting us on the map. I don't see any obligation for them to actually represent Canada internationally at senior level when they are getting paid big bucks by their club teams.
They have historically been average or bad. Fielding a team of 12 NBA players right now is definitely no guarantee they even make the QF considering it wasn't long ago US was losing to Spain, Lithuania, Argentina, etc. in tournaments when they were stacked and the other teams had like two NBA players.
Now if this were even just five years ago with the culture back then, I'm sure way more guys would turn up and wouldn't have NBA GMs whispering in agents' ears asking their players not to play in tournaments. Then Canada could have got the ball rolling and we could potentially be perennial medal contenders by now, but it's unlucky that we only now have this wealth of NBA caliber talent.
And as has been pointed out, the Canadians that play at the World Championships are mostly non-all star type players with the occasional all star that suits up a couple times in his career after getting knocked out of the playoffs. I don't think you'll see Connor suit up every time EDM misses out. Ryan Smyth was quite the exception though.
It's always been that way in NA vs Europe and the ROW. NBA first. Wasn't that long ago there were almost zero Euros in the NBA and therefore not banking those big bucks. NT meant more to them than their club teams. It could take decades for that to change here and may never happen. And in fact, we could see the same thing in Europe. Don't be surprised if Porzingis declines playing for Lithuania ever again, maybe play more time or something in the future, especially since he's coming off a major injury now.