Mussatto: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander set to take global stage as face of Team Canada
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been an MVP runner-up and a Met Gala attendee. He’s been GQ’s Most Stylish Man of the Year and one of the NBA’s savviest scorers. He’s walked the runway at Paris Fashion Week and is set to represent Canada in the Paris Olympics.
These summer games, in one of the cosmopolitan capitals of the world, seem tailormade for a Renaissance man like Gilgeous-Alexander.
Known from his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, to his NBA home in Oklahoma City, from the rolling hills of Kentucky, where he played his college ball, to the valleys of Los Angeles, where he was a one-year Clipper, the 26-year-old Thunder star is set to take the global stage.
And if he can lead Team Canada to the medal stand, to even sniff what would be the first Olympic gold medal in Canadian men’s basketball history? He’ll be a national icon to our neighbors up north. A hooper of international fame, if he’s not already.
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Canada coming up short would in no way dim the Thunder’s 2024-25 outlook as best in the West, but the longer Canada stays alive, the more a worldwide audience is going to hear the initials OKC tied with SGA.
Add in Thunder teammate Lu Dort, the brick wall from Montreal, and some Oklahomans might be saluting the maple leaf by summer’s end.
The Canadians are stacked on the perimeter with Gilgeous-Alexander, Dort, Jamal Murray, Dillon Brooks, Andrew Nembhard and SGA’s cousin Nickeil Alexander-Walker.
Canada is awfully light in the front court, though, which could be especially problematic against Team USA giants Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis — should the Americans and Canadians meet in the knockout stage or medal round.
With Team Canada, Gilgeous-Alexander talked of trying to “do something that’s never been done before.”
Canada has medaled once in Olympic men’s basketball, taking silver at the 1936 games in Berlin, where James Naismith helped hand out the medals.
No, really, that actually happened.
Team USA beat Team Canada 19-8 in a gold medal game that was played on a clay court. Outside. In the rain.
In the 88 years since, we’ve learned that basketball is best played in a climate-controlled arena.
The United States and Canada are two of the 12 nations competing in men’s basketball this summer. The 12 teams are divided into three groups of four.
Group A: Australia, Canada, Greece, Spain
Group B: Brazil, France, Germany, Japan
Group C: Puerto Rico, Serbia, South Sudan, United States
Group A has been dubbed the “Group of Death.” Greece is the worst-ranked team of the bunch, but how bad can a Giannis Antetokounmpo-led team be?
Canada is favored to win the group, and it has the second-best odds of winning gold behind the United States — the overwhelming favorite.
After pool play, in which every team plays the other three teams in its group, the first-and second-place teams from each group, as well as the two best third-place teams, advance to the knockout stage. The eight remaining teams will then play a single-elimination tournament, with the top-two ranked quarterfinalists placed on opposite sides of the bracket. The remaining six teams will be slotted randomly.
If Canada is to win a medal, it will be a herky-jerky ride on the back of SGA. He’s the best Canadian basketball player since Steve Nash. Nash, a two-time MVP, led the Canadians to the quarterfinals in the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Canada men’s basketball qualified for the Olympics for the first time since those 2000 Sydney games.
That SGA, Dort and Co. got here is an accomplishment in itself.
But the fashion-forward Gilgeous-Alexander probably wants a new accessory by the time he leaves Paris. A medal, no matter the hue, would do just fine.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander aims to lead Canadians to Olympics gold
