Blake Murphy Sports Writing

There’s a little bit of Bret Hart to the Canadian men’s national basketball team.

While Dillon Brooks is unquestionably the villain no matter where he goes, the rest of this team — young, likable, flavourful stylistically — are a group most unaffiliated fans would get behind. But if Canada is going to earn just its second Olympic medal ever in basketball, the players have to do it as travelling heels. That starts with a quarterfinal matchup with the host country, France, a possible semifinal meeting with Germany, whose fans have travelled well, and a gold-medal matchup with the star-studded American team.

That’s getting ahead of things a bit. One step at a time, and that first step will need to be a long step, a high step, or a very wide Euro-step to get around France’s Victor Wembanyama. How did a 3-0 Canada team end up with a de facto road game against the best young player in the world in the quarters?