Canada’s challenge at FIBA World Cup is to play as a team

The talent on the Canadian men’s team headed to the FIBA World Cup is undeniable and it should represent the greatest group of individually skilled basketball players ever assembled in this country.

It will stand them in good stead at the global championships that begin late next month in Jakarata, Indonesia and it has fans anticipating and expecting unprecedented success.

But it will take more than brilliant athletes to compete with the very best in the world and no one knows that better than Jordi Fernández, the Spain-born 40-year-old now in charge of the on-court product.

“My job is to make everybody understand that talent is talent — and we do have talent here, it should be exciting — now the mentality should be ‘let’s build the best team possible,’ ” Fernández said in a weekend interview.

“This comes with being unselfish, with sacrifice, competiveness; all that together will show a group of people that are connected.

“And if they are connected, they care about each other, and each one of them is very good, we can do very good things in the long run.”

Fernández, the associate head coach of the Sacramento Kings, has first-hand knowledge of what building a true “team” can do for a country. He has long been involved with the incomparable Spanish national program, as an age-group head coach and as the lead assistant to Sergio Scariolo on the team that won the 2019 World Cup.

The Spanish program — men’s and women’s, age groups and senior teams — is the global gold standard and has been for about two decades.

It was built not only on talent but on cohesion.

“I love the guys, I love the talent we have but that’s not what really lights up my mind. The bright side to me is to come together, care about each other, commit with the program, do it for the long run just like … Ricky Rubio, Juan Carlos Navarro, Marc (and) Pau Gasol, Jorge Garbajosa, José Calderon, all these generations,” he said, rattling off a litany of great Spanish players.

“They built the No. 1 program in the world because they cared about it, they care about each other. They came together.

“Were they talented? Yes. But the No. 1 thing was how they created a team that lasted 20 years.”

Fernández is taking over a team late in the process but he’s getting a plethora of talent to work with after succeeding Nick Nurse, who bowed out to concentrate on his new coaching job in Philadelphia. There are NBA all-stars in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, NBA champions in Jamal Murray, young talents like Lu Dort, RJ Barrett and Dillon Brooks along with veterans Dwight Powell, Kelly Olynyk and Cory Joseph who bring vast FIBA experience and a passion for representing Canada.

For years, fans have wondered what the “best” Canadian team assembled might look like. Fernández seems to have it.

Now he has to mold it and he has to have players committed to the greater cause, willing to fill roles rather than be stars. It takes special athletes to do that but the feeling of representing the country has to be the reason.

“When you’re a national team, it’s just a little bit above and beyond everything,” Fernández said. “Playing in a World Cup and playing in the Olympics, it’s a feeling that’s hard to describe and until you’re out there, you’re not going to know.

“Playing a game where you hear your national anthem and then you play another country, it’s so special.”

Before agreeing to take the job, Fernández sought counsel from a variety of people with direct knowledge of the Canadian program and the sport in this country. Jay Triano, his Sacramento co-worker and a former Canadian team player and coach chimed in.

Spanish national team veterans and ex-Raptors Marc Gasol and Calderon were consulted. One of Fernández’s very best friends is ex-Raptor Anthony Parker.

All advised him to embrace the opportunity. And the country.

“Was I born here? No,” Fernández said. “But I’m going to embrace everything about this country. (If) somebody can watch us play and be proud of us, then to me that’s the only thing that matters.”

SHARE: