The sports world is littered with tarnished Golden Generations, such as Belgium’s in soccer.
But if the Canadian men’s basketball Golden Generation knocks off the dust to finally glisten, the Friends of Victoria Basketball will be there to chronicle it every sneaker step of the way to and at the Paris Olympic Games.
The Island group is a producer of the project and has a documentary film crew currently in Indonesia chronicling Canada in the 2023 FIBA World Cup with hopes never higher that the nation’s drought is about to end. Canada has not been to the Olympics in men’s basketball since 2000 in Sydney when captained by two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash of Victoria with former University of Victoria Vikes star Eric Hinrichsen from Campbell River on the team that went 5-2 but lost a wrenching quarter-final game to eventual silver-medallist Tony Parker and France.
The quest is personal for Friends of Victoria Basketball after Canada failed to get to the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in the last-chance, at-large world qualifier hosted by the group at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in 2021.
Canada is not looking for the back door this time but to stomp down the front door and step through it to Paris. Canada was looking to go 2-0 in the wee hours this morning against Lebanon after crushing world-power France in its opening FIBA World Cup game Friday. Canada must place among the top-two teams from the Americas, including the U.S., to gain a 2024 Olympic berth out of the World Cup.
The Canadian basketball team documentary film project is open-ended through to Paris because nobody knows how the story will unfold. You can’t pre-script sports.
“Nobody knows what the narrative of the documentary will end up being,” said Nick Blasko, COO of Friends of Victoria Basketball.
The top-two teams from the Americas and Europe and the top teams from Asia, Africa and Oceania in the 2023 FIBA World Cup will qualify for the 2024 Olympics, along with host France, to fill eight of the 12 spots. The final four slots will be decided through four last-chance qualifying tournaments such as was held on Blanshard Street prior to the Tokyo Olympics.
Canada has the third most NBA players in the World Cup with seven following the U.S. with 12 and Australia with nine. France and Germany have four each.
“But there is no selfishness apparent on this Canadian team and I don’t see a team we can’t beat in the World Cup,” said former national-team star Howard Kelsey.
“And for the first time in a long time we have true lock-down defensive standouts with Dillon Brooks and Luguentz Dort.”
Kelsey was part of the B.C.-centric Canadian team that placed fourth in the 1984 Los Angeles and sixth in the 1988 Seoul Olympics with a roster that included former UVic Vikes stars Gerald Kazanowski, Greg Wiltjer and the late Eli Pasquale and Jay Triano out of SFU and Karl Tilleman from the University of Calgary.
The B.C. connection goes back further to the mercurial late shooting-guard Billy Robinson of Chemainus and centre Lars Hansen of Coquitlam leading Canada to fourth place at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and Victoria players Art and Chuck Chapman and Doug Peden leading Canada to the silver medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympic.
The Canadian team is now heavily stocked by players from Greater Toronto and Montreal as the powerbase of national basketball shifted east over the decades with NBA player Kelly Olynyk of Kamloops and Phil Scrubb of Richmond the only ones left carrying the B.C. flag at the World Cup. Not that it matters which province you are from when you don the red. Sidney Crosby was more than a Nova Scotian when he ignited a nation in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
However this journey ends – backdoor heartbreak again on Blanshard or the podium in Paris — the Friends of Victoria Basketball will have it documented for the world to see.
