Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dillon Brooks said Canada’s FIBA World Cup breakthrough has been on their minds as they prepare for Canada Basketball summer training camp and two World Cup qualification in the Americas games in Hamilton, Ont. The comments came Monday morning, after the Canadian senior men’s soccer team recorded its first-ever knockout win at the FIFA World Cup.
“I’ve been watching their games. Their success has been inspiring,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. He added: “To see the growth of their program, where it has come in a short amount of time, the growth of the players, it’s been inspiring. It’s been fun. It makes me proud to be Canadian.”
Canada’s soccer run
Canada beat South Africa 1-0 in the round of 32 on Sunday and moved into the round of 16. Before this World Cup, Canada had lost all six of its matches in two previous trips and had never recorded a point. The team went 1-1-1 in group play before Sunday’s win, and now will play the winner of Morocco and the Netherlands.
That rise gave the basketball players a reference point at a useful time. Gilgeous-Alexander and Brooks are finishing the first round of the qualification process with two games in Hamilton, starting with Puerto Rico on Friday and Jamaica on July 6.
Brooks on Gilgeous-Alexander
Brooks said he went to the game in Toronto against Bosnia-Herzegovina and also saw the support in Vancouver. “I know they’re probably ecstatic for the success that they’ve had. The support is fully here throughout the whole country no matter what. I can’t wait to see (how) they play in the next round,” he said.
That praise sits beside recent friction between the two basketball players. After Game 2 in the Thunder sweep of the Suns in the first round of the playoffs, Brooks called Gilgeous-Alexander “a little frail.” Gilgeous-Alexander later posted several photos on Instagram, including one of Brooks wearing a jersey that said “Cancun on 3.”
Hamilton qualification games
Brooks also said of Gilgeous-Alexander: “I think he’s very (hard to rattle). That’s why he’s the captain of our team, super composed, knows the game. I will never forget after we lost to France (in the quarterfinals of the Olympics, Rowan (Barrett, the general manager of the Canadian team) told him he’s got to be our leader and lead us to where we need to be. That’s why we’re all here.”
Canada Basketball now turns to the Hamilton window with the first round still unfinished. Puerto Rico comes first, then Jamaica, and the results will close out the opening phase of the road to the 2027 World Cup.
Jarrod Uthoff’s July 3 FIBA World Cup qualifier call offers another look at how national-team rosters are being set for the same qualification stretch.
