PARIS — The sports world is littered with tarnished Golden Generations such as Belgium’s national soccer team. The NBA-dominated Canadian men’s basketball team could be teetering on the verge of that territory.
Host France — lifted by a passionate home crowd and with NBA talent of its own including rookie-of-the-year Victor Wembanyama — defeated Canada 82-73on Tuesday in the quarter-finals of the 2024 Olympic Games.
It was a gut-wrenching result for a 2024 Canadian team with such high aspirations. But it came out flat in the quarter-final at Bercy Arena, after winning its group undefeated at 3-0 in the qualifying round held in Lille. But right from the deafening opening rendition of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, the Canadians looked beaten and were tentative and hesitant in falling behind 23-10 in the opening quarter and it didn’t get any better as they fell to trail by a whopping 19 points. They fought to make respectable but it was simply too great a deficit to overcome.
“We didn’t help ourselves with our start. We’ll learn from it. It’s obviously the best basketball tournament in the world,” said Canadian star and NBA MVP-finalist Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The loss comes three years after Canada’s shock loss in Victoria to the Czech Republic in the pandemic delayed Tokyo Olympics qualifying tournament held in 2021 at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. Canada’s first trip to the Olympics in 24 years ended just like that last one when the national side, captained by two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash of Victoria, lost to Tony Parker and France in the quarter-finals at Sydney in 2000.
“It’s definitely disappointing. But nobody can say we didn’t fight. These guys worked. They are committed to representing their country and worked really hard for their country and I think everybody should appreciate that,” said Canadian head coach Jordi Fernández.
“Obviously, you want a better outcome and a better result. It didn’t happen. It’s part of sports. We have very good players who will be in the next Olympics and that’s how we have to look at it,” said Fernández, the new head coach of the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA.
The silver from Berlin in 1936, with Victoria players Art and Chuck Chapman and Doug Peden, remains the only Olympic medal won by Canada in basketball.
This highly-touted 2024 squad could not make it to the semifinals, as did the Canadian team featuring former University of Victoria Vikes greats Eli Pasquale, Gerald Kazanowski and Greg Wiljer in 1984 at Los Angeles and the team led by shooting-guard Billy Robinson of Chemainus in 1976 at Montreal.
“I hope people were proud of us and the way we played throughout the tournament. We wanted to give them more because that’s what Canadian basketball deserves. There’s great tradition and a lot of kids playing basketball,” said Fernández.
“I wish we could have done better and given them more. But that’s not how the Olympics work. You win or go home.”
The quarter-final draw against the hosts was a tough break for a Canadian team that won its pool undefeated but that’s how the brackets roll sometimes.
“We were playing against the best players in the world. It only happens once every four years and it was an amazing opportunity to be here and represent the country. But, obviously, it didn’t go our way today,” said Canadian player Jamal Murray, who won an NBA championship with the Denver Nuggets.
“The French played a hell of a game. They are at home they brought that energy right from the start. They are playing at home and for the Olympics. That’s an amazing feeling that I can’t imagine.”
Fernández did not want his players to forget this moment: “You come back to the Olympics and you remember this feeling and that’s how you eventually break through. We’ve won a lot of games in the last two years. But these tough times [Tuesday] … we cannot forget how this feels. And that’s how we move on.”
France, Germany, Serbia and the U.S. moved on to the Olympic semifinals.
