XPost: alt.gossip.celebrities, alt.politics.obama, dc.politics
XPost: atl.general

Canada again failed to qualify for the Olympic men’s basketball
tournament. Its last appearance was at the 2000 Sydney Games
with a team led by Steve Nash.

A Canadian team with eight NBA players lost 103-101 to a Czech
Republic team with one NBA player in the semifinals of a last-
chance Olympic qualifier in Victoria, British Columbia, on
Saturday.

The Czechs’ one NBA player, Tomas Satoransky, banked in a jump
shot in the final seconds of overtime.

The Czechs advance to a winner-to-Tokyo final against Turkey or
Greece on Sunday. Canada, coached by Nick Nurse of the Toronto
Raptors, is eliminated from Olympic qualifying.

Canada boasts the most NBA players of any nation other than the
U.S., but suffered another stunning elimination from Olympic
qualifying to a less-heralded basketball nation.

In 2015, a Canadian team with nine NBA players lost 79-78 to
Venezuela, with zero NBA players, in a winner-to-Rio Olympics
game at an Americas qualifying tournament. Canada lost another
winner-to-Rio game to France at a last-chance tournament.

This year’s team had 2014 NBA No. 1 overall draft pick Andrew
Wiggins and standout New York Knicks standout RJ Barrett, but
lacked its top two scorers from the NBA, the injured Jamal
Murray and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and its top NBA big man,
Kelly Olynyk.

At Canada’s last Olympic appearance in 2000, Nash led a scrappy
team that nearly reached the medal round. Nash and center Todd
MacCulloch were their only NBA players. Nash’s devotion was such
that he was reportedly sobbing and had to be dragged off the
floor after Canada lost in the quarterfinals to eventual silver
medalist France.

https://news.yahoo.com/canada-stunned-olympic-men-basketball-
225754109.html
 

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