Some things change...

Rick Kamla was doing the play by play for the NBA TV broadcast of the Canada vs. Brazil game, and he put it best at one point

"Give credit to Canada for only being down 6 when playing this badly"

Badly indeed. It was embarrassing at times, maybe because I was switching between this game and the U.S. game so I could see how real basketball players play. To no suprise, Canada was on the losing end of game one in the FIBA America's championships. Brazil won the game 75-67. Barbosa leading the way for Brazil with 30 points. And that was pretty much the story, any time Canada got anything going in the first half was when Barbosa was not on the court. In the second half they had about 5 good minutes of basketball, but really, and if there was a reason why the game even got close at the end was, well, Brazil was pretty bad also. Take away Barbosa and Brazil looked like high school basketball. FIBA world rankings has Canada at 16 and Brazil at 17.

I mean really there is not much more for me to say about this that I have not talked about already. I already posted a blog about Canada basketball that after watching tonight I think pretty much nails it. Canada Basketball will never be a serious threat on a global scale until major commitments are made from this country towards it's program. Every christmas everyone puts hours and hours of time and energy watching and analyzing Hockey Junior championships. Is anyone watching these basketball games? Obviously no one decided to make the trip to watch in Vegas, more people were in the arena for summer league games then this game, but does anyone even know this thing exists in this country? This needs to change. But it won't and nether will Canada's basketball rankings unless it goes down even further.

Canada plays tomorrow against Venezuela, Venezuela tonight of course getting the honor of being the scrimmage squad for the U.S. team for the night. I think the U.S. Select team could have beaten Venezuela tonight with the way that game looked. SO Canada has a chance!! That is if they can gain the ability to control the offensive tempo for more then 5 minutes in a 40 minute game. Canada needs a star player fast. Denham needs to step up this tournament. Carl English is the main guy for god only knows, I guess someone needs to shoot the ball more then everyone esle, and Dalembert is a good shot blocker and has NBA experience but if he is our saviour then we really never did have a chance to escape this hockey cloud that hangs over us. I would love to see Canada basketball on a top level, but at this stage they would have trouble beating a WNBA team.