From the moment Canadians began making it to the NBA in numbers, there was an awareness that the day might come where the men’s national team wouldn’t have room for them all, and a player good enough to have a meaningful career in the best basketball league in the world and who was ready and able to play for his country would be sidelined when Canada’s best took on the world.
As the men’s national team roster takes shape, with the list of training-camp invitees in advance of the 2024 Olympic tournament expected to be announced later this week — the moment has arrived with a thud.
When training camp opens on June 28th in Toronto Cory, Cory Joseph — a 13-year veteran who was at the forefront of Canada’s NBA wave and a stalwart of the men’s program since making his senior-team debut in 2011 — has been told he won’t be among those invited to compete for one of the 12 spots on the Olympic roster.
It was a blow.
“I took the honour of playing for your country very seriously and did it many times over the years,” Joseph, who got the news on Friday, said in an interview with Sportsnet. “This is not me complaining, I’m not a complainer. But there were times when I put FIBA basketball and playing for my country over my NBA situation at the time, whether I was in a contract year and I had no contract at the time and I went to go play for my country, whether I had little bumps and tweaks, I was there. Whether guys came or not, I always thought we still had a chance. For me it’s a little disheartening to be like, ‘Wow I wasn’t even given an opportunity to compete for whatever position?’ “
Joseph was one of the 14 players who signed on as part of the men’s team ‘Summer Core’ in 2022. The expectation was that the players who agreed to be available to train and compete in the World Cup qualifying process with an aim towards qualifying for the 2024 Olympics would be assured an opportunity to compete for a spot on the final roster this summer.
Joseph had to pull himself out of consideration for the World Cup last summer due a back problem and missed out on Canada’s bronze-medal finish as they earned their way into the 12-team Olympic field for the first time since 2000, and just the second time since 1988.
But he had every intention of competing for a spot this summer, understanding that, with the core of the bronze-medal team expected to return, it would be as a veteran voice at the bottom of the rotation, if he made the team at all.
Coming to camp and getting cut was a possibility, but Joseph was fine with that.
“That’s how basketball is,” he says. “I’ve never backed away from competition.”