Canada again failed to qualify for the Olympic men’s basketball tournament. Its last appearance was at the 2000 Sydney Games with a team led by Steve Nash.
A Canadian team with eight NBA players lost 103-101 to a Czech Republic team with one NBA player in the semifinals of a last-chance Olympic qualifier in Victoria, British Columbia, on Saturday.
The Czechs’ one NBA player, Tomas Satoransky, banked in a jump shot in the final seconds of overtime.
The Czechs advance to a winner-to-Tokyo final. Canada, coached by Nick Nurse of the Toronto Raptors, is eliminated from Olympic qualifying.
Canada boasts the most NBA players of any nation other than the U.S., but suffered a second consecutive stunning elimination from Olympic qualifying to a much less-heralded basketball nation.
In 2015, a Canadian team with nine NBA players lost 79-78 to Venezuela, with zero NBA players on its roster, in a winner-to-Rio Olympics game.
Both Canadian teams had Andrew Wiggins, the 2014 NBA No. 1 overall draft pick.
This year’s team also had New York Knicks standout guard RJ Barrett, but lacked its top two scorers from the NBA, the injured Jamal Murray and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and its top NBA big man, Kelly Olynyk.
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Canada stunned in Olympic men’s basketball qualifying, extending Games drought originally appeared on NBCSports.com