Canada headed to Philippines for Olympic qualifying tournament
The road to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics for the Canadian men’s basketball team will go through the Philippines.
FIBA held its draw Tuesday for the Olympic Qualifying tournament and Canada was drawn alongside powerhouse France, Turkey, Senegal, New Zealand, and host Philippines in the tournament taking place in Manila from July 4-10. Turin, Italy and Belgrade, Serbia host the two other six-team showdowns and the winner of each tournament moves on to take one of the last three places remaining in the 12-team tournament at the Olympics.
"We're happy to be going anywhere," said head coach Jay Triano during a conference call following the draw. "Every side of the draw was going to be tough.Every them there has the same goal as we do, so it's going to be difficult."
Canada failed to earn one of two Olympic spots up for grabs at the 2015 FIBA Americas championship, losing a heartbreaker to Venezuela 79-78 in the semifinals. Tristan Thompson was not available for last summer’s tournament as he was not under contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Canada’s squad this summer should include Thompson as well as fellow NBA stars Andrew Wiggins, Kelly Olynyk, and Cory Joseph.
"I would think that a 10-day training camp would be the minimum that we would do and maybe a week where we could play three or four games," said Triano. "Every [player] that we've talked to has expressed an interest ... Every country that has NBA players is going to have some challenges with the players that are free agents this summer."
The Canadian women’s team has already qualified for the Rio Games after winning the FIBA Americas for Women championship in Edmonton last August.
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Israel Fehr is a writer for Yahoo Canada Sports. Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr
