From the frying pan on Blanshard into the Dream Team fire in Tokyo.
So will go the champion of the Olympic basketball qualifying tournament at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre from June 29 to July 4.
The winner of the qualifier has been drawn into Group A for the Tokyo Olympics, which includes the powerhouse United States. The men’s and women’s draw ceremonies for the Tokyo Games hoops tournaments were held Tuesday in Mies, Switzerland.
The other men’s qualifying tournaments are taking place in Split, Croatia, Kaunas, Lithuania, and Belgrade, Serbia. The winner of each tournament will take the final four berths into the Tokyo Olympics.
Canada, Greece, China, Uruguay, Czech Republic and Turkey will battle on Blanshard for the Olympic berth out of the Victoria qualifier. NBA players whose teams are not among the four conference finalists should be available for their national teams for the qualifiers. That makes host Canada, with the deepest pool of NBA talent in the Victoria qualifier, the favourite to advance off the Island into Group A of the Tokyo Olympic tournament.
The spanner in the works could be two-time defending NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo if his Milwaukee Bucks are eliminated and he is available to Greece for the qualifier.
Already qualified into Group A are the U.S., France and Iran. Past Canadian teams, with heavy Island involvement, have forged an Olympic history with two of the nations in Tokyo’s Group A. Silver-medallist Victoria players Doug Peden and Art and Chuck Chapman were on the Canadian squad that lost to the U.S. in the gold-medal final of the 1936 Berlin Olympics and University of Victoria Vikes players Eli Pasquale, Gerald Kazanowski and Greg Wiltjer on the team that lost to the Michael Jordan-led U.S. at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash of Victoria captained the Canadian team that was beaten by eventual silver-medallist France in the quarter-finals of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
From LeBron James on down, the U.S. can have its full complement of NBA superstars in Tokyo because the NBA final will be over by the time the Olympics begin.
“It’s a tough group that our champion — I hope it’s Canada — will go into,” said Victoria tournament organizing committee chair Clint Hamilton, a former national champion player with the UVic Vikes.
“But two teams will advance out of each group in the Olympics, plus two others, and Canada would be assured of not having to meet the U.S. in the cross-over quarter-finals because they would have come out of the same group.”
The IOC, Japanese government and organizing committee, are adamant the Tokyo Games will proceed July 23 to Aug. 8, no matter what they look like. That will have local non-sports implications. The agreement to rent the Memorial Centre as a homeless shelter runs March to May. There is an option to renew but that renewal can’t happen if the Tokyo Olympics go ahead and the basketball qualifier is required.
“We’ll be in a different place in July,” said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, in discussing the pandemic this week.
By different she meant better. But nothing is guaranteed. Hamilton said the Victoria organizing committee is prepared to be “responsive and resilient.”
“Planning is evolving daily,” he said.
“Public health and safety are the priority and all our plans reflect that. We know our safety plan has to be rock solid in order to be approved by the provincial health officer [Henry].”
Whether fans are allowed into Memorial Centre, and to which percentage of arena capacity, will depend on health guidelines in effect at that time.
Nearly 3,000 full tournament passes had already been sold when sales were cut off last March for the originally-scheduled qualifying tournament last June after the postponement of the Tokyo Games in 2020 was announced. Individual game tickets were expected to sell out quickly. The qualifier was rescheduled for this year. Only a few tournament pass holders have asked for refunds with the majority deciding to hold on, said Hamilton.
The qualifying tournament will be broadcast nationally and internationally.
“We hope we can also share this event with fans live in the arena. But we need more certainty before we release more tickets,” said Hamilton.”
“We have no option but to plan along multiple scenarios.”
One of those is having to prepare for a bubble if required.
“We are looking at a number of different scenarios with the IOC, COC, Canada Basketball, FIBA and provincial health authorities,” said Hamilton.”
