In the weeks following Canada’s loss to France at the Paris Olympics men’s basketball tournament, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander gathered teammates in a gym at Humber College near Toronto.
Players included Olympians, those who missed the cut and a few Oklahoma City Thunder players, too.
A couple months later, Canada’s women’s team — fresh off an 0-3 Olympic performance — silently gathered in Toronto with players, coaches, support staff and the national federation to chart a plan toward Los Angeles 2028.
In December, a 3×3 group that ran roughshod over its opponents for three years in the lead-up to Paris, but heartbreakingly missed the podium while there, returned to the winner’s circle at the FIBA AmeriCup. Then they did it again at the inaugural Champions Cup earlier in March.
Paris was supposed to be a renaissance for Canadian basketball, featuring three teams all with legitimate medal hopes.
Instead, it was the embodiment of an old saying: the higher the climb, the harder the fall.
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Despite being stacked with NBA players and getting off to a strong start, the Canadian men’s basketball team had a disappointing loss to France in the Olympic quarterfinals.
“It still stings, I won’t lie,” Canada Basketball CEO Mike Bartlett said in a recent interview with CBC Sports. “Our athletes, our coaches, our staff, we all wanted more and wanted better and great. That’s why we’re in sports.”
In the aftermath of the Olympics, Canada Basketball has undergone significant change.
Women’s general manager Denise Dignard and head coach Victor LaPena moved on, as did men’s head coach Jordi Fernandez. None were fired, but in all cases one or both parties seemed to realize something was holding them back from the necessary level of commitment.
Bartlett said Canada Basketball is aiming to have coaching replacements in place by late spring or early summer.
He noted that does not mean, however, that the head coach in either case will necessarily be from Canada.
“There will be more Canadian content on our bench than ever before on every age-group team all the way up to senior team. That I can promise Canada for sure,” he said.
Bartlett added that there is plenty of interest in both jobs.
“It’s taking time and we got to get through it, but it’s certainly better than the alternative. We don’t have to convince anyone to want to coach Canada right now,” he said.
It’s a case that’s aided by Gilgeous-Alexander, who at 26 appears headed toward becoming the second Canadian to ever win MVP after Steve Nash did it twice.
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Bartlett compared Gilgeous-Alexander’s leadership effect on the national team to Sidney Crosby.
“We’ve got a hard-working group of athletes, all of whom are having incredible seasons this year after suffering incredible heartbreak last year. And do I think that it’s direct cause and effect? No. But do I think there was a fire lit? Yeah, I do,” he said.
The optimism around the men’s team is mirrored for the women, for whom Los Angeles has always been the true medal target.
That’s when a current WNBAer like Aaliyah Edwards might be in her prime and surrounded by vets like Kia Nurse and Bridget Carleton as well as current NCAA stars like Duke’s Toby Fournier and Michigan’s Syla Swords.
The women’s team’s “off-grid” meeting, as Bartlett referred to it, produced a pair of “all-in” two-year plans — one to get to the World Cup in 2026, and the other en route to the Olympics.
Canada Basketball keeps 100 player-deep depth charts that roll out to 2036, and in some cases include those as young as 14.
“It’s not just the 20 that are in the NBA. It’s not just the four that are in the W. If basketball is being played at a high level right now, there’s a Canadian playing a role in it. And that’s pretty exciting,” Bartlett said.
Los Angeles also presents a unique opportunity for Canada as nationalism feels heightened in the wake of U.S. president Donald Trump’s 51st-state threats.
“I firmly believe there is one sport — one sport — in the L.A. Olympics where we could go down to the U.S. and literally steal their pride from them by winning, and that would be basketball. So we need to lean into that reality. We need to own that reality. That has to be our ambition across our programs,” Bartlett said.
Now, whatever unique path each team takes will be all about preparing to be its best possible self in Los Angeles.
“That’s an exciting thing to get out of bed thinking about every day,” Bartlett said. “So where are we on our path to the Olympics? We’re already there in our mind, and we’re already working backwards from that moment.”
Toronto Tempo primed for arrival
Professional basketball does not fall under the Canada Basketball mandate, even while it benefits both sides to closely work together.
Next May, a new team will arrive as the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo tip off their inaugural season.
Bartlett said the organization has begun working on collaborations with the Tempo and hopes the team prioritizes Canadian talent.
In the longer term, Bartlett said he believes the Tempo can help pave the path for a domestic women’s pro league, like soccer’s Northern Super League that will kick off next month.
On that front, he described Canada Basketball as an “interested stakeholder,” though there is nothing immediately in the works.
“I still think it’s a bit of time away. I think the success of the Tempo will actually be a tipping point towards it. The business case and the basketball case for women’s basketball in this country will get stronger because of the Tempo being in the league now, and I think that will be a domino that’s important towards eventually a women’s domestic pro league,” he said.
