after so many years of waiting, did canada blow its best shot at winning an olympic men’s basketball medal?
will another chance like this come around or was that it?
those questions and more need to be asked in the wake of canada’s latest hoops heartbreak, a demoralizing quarterfinal defeat at the hands of france on tuesday in paris.
canada never has had a more talented roster — 10 nba players made the trip, including the mvp runner-up shai gilgeous-alexander — and found a way to avoid meeting the powerful united states or nikola jokic-led serbia until a potential gold-medal matchup. yet, they laid an egg in epic fashion.
even for a basketball program and nation used to brutal defeats, this was next level.
whether it was the lively crowd, the terrible officiating, the deft coaching maneuvers by france to make some shocking lineup swaps, overconfidence, not being ready for the spotlight, coaching errors, or all of the above, canada started as poorly as a team can and could never really make a game of it.
canada’s achilles heel became apparent again: the glaring lack of size compared to other basketball powers.
jamal murray playing like a shell of the star that has dominated multiple nba playoff years hurt the team, as did career nights from french role players. a lack of bench production and an addiction to jump shooting instead of attacking the paint didn’t help, either.