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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO – Nick Nurse was getting ready to address a room filled with many of Canada’s best basketball players.

The meeting, which was planned around NBA Summer League and took place in Las Vegas at this time a year ago, has widely been credited as the first and most crucial step towards securing the commitments that Nurse and the senior men’s program felt were necessary to finally get over the hump.

They were only a couple of weeks removed from a tough semi-finals loss to the Czech Republic on home soil, which ensured that their Olympic drought – now spanning more than two decades – would last another three years. It wasn’t for a lack of talent – that Canadian team had more NBA players than the other five clubs in that tournament combined.

The takeaway from yet another disappointing setback was that they needed more continuity to keep up with some of these other countries, many of which feature the same core of players at every major FIBA event. It wasn’t enough for their guys, even their best guys, to merely show up. They had to be fully on board.

So, the plan – spearheaded by Nurse and Rowan Barrett, the head coach and general manager of the senior men’s team – was to ask the country’s top players for a three-year commitment. That’s not an insignificant request when you consider all the things that can stand in the way of a professional athlete dedicating weeks of their off-season, from injuries to contractual issues, personal obligations, and more. Even those who can’t play in any given window, for whatever reason, would be required to attend training camp and take part in meetings.

But before Nurse could even give his sales pitch, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took the floor.

“I was just about ready to start a big speech about why we were here and what we were doing,” Nurse remembers. “And he interrupted me and said ‘I’ve gotta say something.’ He stood up and said ‘I’m playing.’ I hadn’t even got to ask the question yet.”

“I just feel like I had a chance to play last summer and qualify for the Olympics, which is obviously what everyone in the country wants to do, but it just didn’t work out,” said Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City’s 23-year-old guard. “I didn’t want the media and the outside noise to interfere with my teammates’ [decisions]. I just wanted to get in front of it and let them know that I’m here. I’m committed. Everything’s worked out and I’ll be with the team going forward.”

For a program that’s had difficulty recruiting its premier talent over the years, this was a big statement coming from one of the brightest young stars in the sport. And soon, others followed too.

Last month, Canada Basketball unveiled its “summer core”, an impressive list of 14 players who have committed to the program through the 2024 Olympic cycle, headlined by Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver Nuggets guard Jamal Murray.

Before they can punch their ticket to Paris for the 2024 Olympic games, they’ll have to qualify for next summer’s FIBA World Cup. They’re off to a promising start. With a roster made up primarily of guys playing overseas, the Canadians won all four of their games during the November and February qualification windows.

They’ve already made it to the second round, which begins in August, but will play two more preliminary-round games before advancing. They’ll host the Dominican Republic in Hamilton on Friday and then visit Virgin Islands Monday. Their record and point differential both carry over into the next round, so there’s still something to play for. Mostly though, it’ll be our first chance to see this summer core – or some of it, anyway – on the court together.

Gilgeous-Alexander, who last suited up for Canada as a 17-year-old with the silver medal-winning under-18 team in 2016, is looking forward to making his senior club debut.

“He’s been super conscientious, super communicative about everything and his excitement to play,” Nurse said a couple days into the team’s training camp at OVO Centre in Toronto this week. “I’ve heard it quite a few times from him about how pumped he is to be here. I walked in this morning and he said ‘Good morning coach, I’m pumped.’ So he’s been great, super professional and super excited to be here.”

Not only will Gilgeous-Alexander get the chance to play with his cousin, Utah Jazz guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, for the first time since they were teammates in high school, but they’ll do so in front of family and friends this weekend.

A Hamilton native, Gilgeous-Alexander hasn’t played a game in his hometown since he was 16. Alexander-Walker, who says he’s expecting 30-40 guests in attendance, hasn’t played there since he was in the fifth grade.

“I’m excited,” Alexander-Walker said. “I think about it everyday. What the moment means, representing my country, doing it with family and having family there, being home at the same time – what more could you ask for?”

For the cousins, the decision to commit was easy. Alexander-Walker made his senior team debut in Victoria last summer. He played well and impressed Nurse and the coaches, but the experience left him wanting more.

“It was a lot of fun and it taught me a lot,” said Alexander-Walker, who played sparingly with the Jazz last season, his third in the NBA, after being dealt to Utah from New Orleans at the trade deadline. “I think it really helped me in a lot more ways than I thought. Just the meaning and the passion and the fun and the joy that you get from representing Canada and having Canada on your chest, it’s a blessing to be on that level.”

Gilgeous-Alexander is at a different stage of his career, coming off a season in which he averaged 24.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.9 assists with the rebuilding Thunder. He was two years old when Steve Nash led Canada at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Now, he’s hoping to lead them back.

It’s hard not to feel optimistic being in the gym this week and seeing all that talent come together. Just six of the 14 summer core players have been full participants in camp and are expected to play in this weekend’s games, and only four of them are NBA guys: the cousins, Gilgeous-Alexander and Alexander-Walker, as well as a couple vets of the program, Kelly Olynyk and Dwight Powell.

Still, you turn to the left and there’s Murray – unable to play as he continues working his way back from knee surgery, but chatting with his teammates and picking the brains of Nurse or Barrett. You look right and there’s Thunder guard Luguentz Dort and Raptors big man Khem Birch – who are also recovering from injuries – taking jumpers. Knicks star RJ Barrett has been around. So have Pacers forward Oshae Brissett and veteran point guard Kevin Pangos, who spent last season with the Cavaliers. With his first child on the way, Cory Joseph was granted a team exemption but remains an important part of the club.

“It’s a brotherhood,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Those guys are here supporting us, giving their insight, and obviously those guys are going to play down the line. For them to be up to speed and kinda learn as much as they can before they get on the court will only help us in the future when we get together.”

“If you’re on the team and you’re committed you need to be here,” said Rowan Barrett. “I’ve dealt with NBA players for many, many years and they do not do anything they do not want to do. So if they’re here it’s because they want to be here. We don’t pay them. They’re here because they love their country, they want to be a part of this and they believe in what we can be when we’re all together. The change that we’ve made this year is working so far.”

The question will be whether everybody fulfills that commitment and suits up where and when they can. Dillon Brooks was the lone player from that initial list of commits that was an unexcused absence from camp this week. According to sources close to Brooks, the forward is still recovering from an ankle sprain he sustained last season and the Grizzlies have asked that he remain in Memphis and then travel with the team to Vegas for Summer League in order to continue receiving treatment and working with the trainers.

Nurse hopes to touch base with Brooks later this week but, for now, the implication is that he will no longer be guaranteed a roster spot on future teams. Like recently crowned NBA champion Andrew Wiggins, who expressed interest in playing but couldn’t commit to three summers, he would have to try out and earn a spot in the event that one becomes available. The program is committed to the players who have expressed and continue to show their commitment to the cause.

Canada Basketball still has a long way to go, but if guys like Gilgeous-Alexander and Murray are willing and able to be the faces of this next generation, that optimism just might turn into something bigger.

“I still think we’re building,” Nurse said. “But at some point we’ve got to have an air of some confidence and certain swagger to understand what it’s going to take to beat those [other] teams, eventually.”