BasketballTalent, coaching not the problem with Canadian hoops

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Leo Rautins, now the ex-coach of the Canadian men's national team, received much of the blame for its ouster from Olympic qualifying. (Martin Mejia/Associated Press)

Despite a valiant 15-point fourth-quarter comeback on Sept. 6, the Canadian men's basketball team fell to Puerto Rico 79-74 at the FIBA Americas tourney in Argentina - effectively ending its 2012 Olympic dream.

That very same day, the greatest basketball player Canada has ever produced was practicing with the Major League Soccer team he co-owns in Vancouver. Meanwhile, somewhere in Texas one must presume, the new young stud of Canadian basketball was going to check out the flick Rise of the Planet of the Apes:

So sealed Canada's fate, with Thursday's stunning loss to a poor Panamanian team merely providing the official coffin nails. And despite the previous calls for his head, the immediate resignation of coach Leo Rautins seemed as much further deflating as it was unsurprising.

The point here isn't to slam Steve Nash and Tristan Thompson for bailing on the national team. They are not morally obligated to participate. They were however - especially Nash - difference makers, and Team Canada would likely at least be booking a trip to next year's last-chance Olympic qualifier had they suited up.

It's the reasons behind their decisions that have been the albatross around Canada Basketball's neck for two decades now. Money, politics and indifference. Michael Grange astutely pointed out that there's no real benefit to playing for Canada when you've already got a fat NBA contract on the table. And I don't mean injury risk or insurance either. It assists next to nothing in terms of player development - the way playing hockey for Canada does - and it certainly doesn't anoint one to that sort of canonization.

Like most sports organizations in this country, Canada Basketball is pathetically underfunded. For quick-hit evidence of this, visit their website. More public money needs to go to supporting amateur sports in this country. I'm not saying a lot. But look at Australia's success in various sports -- and their lower childhood obesity rates. It's not that hockey gets federal money either; it simply attracts a truckload of private sector support because it's a cash cow. And despite all the statistics telling us how fast they're growing, basketball and soccer are not.  

Throw politics into the fray and you have a toxic mix.

It's easy to throw Rautins under the bus. You can question his x's and o's and wonder aloud if he mismanaged the Samuel Dalembert thing. But in retrospect, he, like Levon Kendall, Jevohn Shepherd and the rest of them, must be given so much respect for going out there and trying with the odds clearly stacked against them. Their reward? Nothing. Anger from some, prose from a handful of media types and the indifference of millions.

In reality, Rautins is one of the good things about Canada Basketball. He's poured his sweat into the program since he was a teenager, and when politics struck again in 2004-05, he simply answered the call and coached his country. Should he have been a bench boss with absolutely no coaching experience? Probably not.

But then Canada Basketball executive director Fred Nykamp shouldn't have created the opening in the first place. When he let Jay Triano go in late 2004, Nykamp's flawed reasoning was that Triano's assistant coaching job with the Raptors would interfere.

"They thought it would be better for me to devote my full time to the Raptors, and to have a little bit more family time," Triano said at the time.

"I appreciate them looking out for me," he not-so subtly added.

For the record, Nykamp left Canada Basketball in 2007 and took a similar job with the Canadian Soccer Association, only to sue them when they reneged on hiring him. The CSA's problems are well documented also. It's this type of fiasco that is the calling card of the politics of sports not called hockey in this country.

Of course the silver lining to all of this is the talent we are now producing in basketball (and soccer, for that matter) is basically unprecedented in Canadian history. The question, as always, is will these players step up and represent?

Nash, peeved over Triano's release, said sayonara to the program. Jamaal Magloire, for reasons truly known only to him (and according to some valid) never bothered with it. How do we avoid this from happening again?

There's been much talk that we can't coddle our stars. Rautins proved this with Dalembert. These guys need to buy into the system and play because they want to.

For example, it's likely untrue that Kris Joseph wasn't on this team because of Rautins, just given that he's a Syracuse guy and a former teammate of Andy Rautins. But in the meantime we are left with cryptic tweets like this one from Joseph, saying he and Thompson will play "when the time is right."

It's a chicken and egg thing. If our best players play, there's more success. More success means more fans and corporate support. But it has to start somewhere.

Canada Basketball is at another critical juncture, but there's actually reason for optimism here. But the decisions ahead are not just about coaching. Whoever they hire - whether it's Triano or Dave Smart or someone from outside the country - has their work cut out for them. The grassroots system has improved over the years. But politics have to be minimized and real goals set. Rio in 2016? Peanuts. Think way beyond that.

There's nowhere to go but up. And for the first time in history there's a near tidal wave of talent behind them.

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