Shoot the J

We need credibility in this sport. Leo does not provide that as it showed in the qualifying stage. When Dalembert says he will play for us when things are more organized it proves Triano should be in there. And why did Nash not play?? Leo !!!

Fire Leo, Re-hire Triano. What a stupid move to hire Rautins in the first place.

It would be interesting to get the real truth about what the friction was between Dalembert and 'Daddy' Leo!! Probably will be swept under the carpet as usual!!

Nice to see Jay in Calgary has his head in the sand.

An ignorant misconception exists that basketball is a purely American sport. Basketball has the 2nd highest worldwide participation rate and the 2nd highest number of professional leagues throughout the world next to soccer. On top of that, the top leagues in Europe pay multi-million dollar salaries that rival NBA payrolls.

Canada has it all backwards. The best young coach in Canada is Dave Smart. All he did was win five straight national championships with Carleton. Yet he is an assistant coach to Leo Rautins. No disrespect to Leo Rautins and the job he did in cultivating Canada's squad, but what wass his coaching resume before becoming the coach of Canada?

Canada will remain middle of the pack until the dreams of a domestic league are fulfilled. I use the word "dreams" because it will be one heck of a leap of faith to get something like that off the ground. Pretty tough to bring players together from all over the world for a month and expect them to magically gel. The chaos in Canada's half-court game when the transition offence broke down was obvious to even the most casual of basketball fan.

Personally I think Leo is way over his head. He was a mediocre player and even worse head coach. I've personally seen him lose his temper over the smallest things. It's time to get rid of him! Basketball Canada needs someone who has coached before not some rookie learning at a elite level.

Who cares?

When will Canada ever change it's losing formula for International competition. The last time Canada won a medal in Olympic basketball was 1936 Berlin I believe. The rest of the world have made drastic gains in improving and working toward developing a winning brand of basketball, but for some reason you continue to use the same losing formula. I haven't seen your point guards display the kind of intensity and talent that's needed to compete with the rest of the world, Joel Haywood has all the tools and you know it. Yet, you denied him the opportunity to compete for his country.

While other countries have learned how to beat the Dream Teams, Canada never will until Canada changes it's formula. You guys should have destroyed undersized Korea and yet they almost stole one from you. Joel Haywood would have averaged 15 assists against the teams you have played so far. He would have upped everybody's game on that team and that's a fact. Shame, shame, shame.

It's simple. If your team isn't good enough they don't make it. As for spending money for the next olympics, why bother? What small percentage of the population cares about or even watches the olympics?

So why on earth do people still care about basketball? Heres an idea lets focus on sports that are not boring but exciting such as soccer. I could care less about the lameness that is basketball. The money we put into basketball should be going into soccer.

Dump the entire basketball program, no one plays the sport outside of the states or cares. You are kidding yourself if you think the few leagues in Europe are anything more than a joke....

we should have been looking at our best college players.
There are few Canadians in NBA etc - this doesn't matter. The Olympics are supposed to be for amateurs. All profesionals should be disqualified immediately.

The same should be in Hockey!!!!

Who wrote this headline? Canada Basketball? Could it refer to Canadian basketball?

When Canada's best player , Steve Nash, and best Coach, Jay Triano, are not involved there something drasticly wrong with the program.

"On the other hand, talking like Canada has a good a shot as any team sets nationalistic fans up for disappointment"

Are you serious? This is what builds nationalistic pride. The belief you have a shot. Every European country has it in Soccer (The belief they can win and when they lose they still show up in groves the next time their country plays a match.)

I am not a basketball fan, but when it’s my country playing I'll watch lawn bowling and cheer as loud as I can. ie. Brit’s watching darts is a good example (Not attack on lawn bowling either)

The reason we can't compete is because we can't emotionally (as a nation) put ourselves at the level that other countries can. It’s hard for our athletes to believe in themselves when we can't support them and believe in them (No matter the outcome.)

Forget about possible disappointments and give our kids a reason to play. Because we as a nation need to support them, recognize them, and want them to represent us at the highest level. This will give more teams and athletes the added boost to do better.

Hire Ken Read.

Basketball Canada needs to be blown up and started all over again! I ran a summer basketball camp in Eastern Ontario for 10 years and never once received ANY help from those folks in Ottawa when I requested it. They are not in touch with the "grass roots" development of the game, instead concentrating on internationl play. We have some very good women's and men's players in our country in towns & cities outside of Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. Get with it Basketball Canada and PROMOTE this great game to our young people instead of hiring a TV commentator who could not coach his way out of a paper bag! Take a lesson from other sports teams who have won championships . . . they concentrate on ACCOUNTABILITY; INNOVATION: and COLLABORATION. Read some leadership and management theory texts. Ever heard of startegic planning? What is the strategic plan for Basketball Canada? Lastly, show some pride by being humble and studying the developmental programs of those countries that beat us up every 2 or 3 years on an internationl stage! Learn from our competitors. Come on Basketball Canada - toughen up AND smarten up!

A successful team requires strong chemistry between everyone in the locker room and a coach that has earned the respect of his/her players. The truth about locker room chemistry can only be speculated upon, but it is obviously not great at present. As Chris-Edmonton stated, Jay Triano was a coach who earned his position, and why he isn't still in that role is unclear. Rautins was arguably the best player in Canada in the late 80s-early 90s. But let's remember that prior to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics (the first year of pro player-dream team participation), Leo headed to Lithuania (he has citizenship) to try out for their squad as they had qualified and were expected to do well (they earned bronze). However, it was only after being cut from that squad that he returned "home" to Canada and got a spot on the squad immediately , which created a bit of tension in the locker room. But as Canada was in the last qualifying tournament, his talents would hopefully give us a better chance. Unfortunately, Canada did not qualify for the Olympics that year. Rautin's choice to play for the better team (Lithuania) instead of his home country shows something of his character. In addition, his coaching experience prior to the National Team was insignificant. With this combination of inexperience and his priority of personal success over representing his county, it looks like now is the time to replace him with someone who can start re-building our national basketball program.

We will be hypocritical not to point out that the biggest problem of Canada's Basketball is simply no support from city, provincial and federal levels of government. Even tax money intended for sports program just drops like a drizzle on a hot summer day for basketball in our country. The majority of support goes to ice games and horse games. No wonder the national team also get mediocre support from it's best players. Another problem is Canada Basketball is represented by hockey players.

Leo Rautins as ccoach of our National Baskatball Team----unbelievable----Jay Triano is class and a great coach and was treated unfairly by Canada Basketball. Get rid of Leo and get the program on solid ground.

Canada B-Ball need to realize that Leo's time has come and gone. From St. Mikes to Syracuse- gone-done -been there-never really did it. Unfortunately Leo you cannot live through your dreams through your son.
This has been another disappointing year of B-Ball in Canada. With the growing Developmental teams/camps kids need to have something to aspire to rather than going across the border. Leo needs to leave and a new coach selected. Perhaps someone who has not biases towards players or underlying issues.

fire leo...he ghad done nothing for canada

Rautins has been a spindoctor for the time he has been coach of the Canadian team. Just a few months ago he tried to sell the idea that there was a chance at getting Nash to play on the team. Only people who know the game were not fooled by his comments. He worked hard in trying to get Dalembert to join only to let him go saying he only wants people who want to be on the team. Kind of contradictory considering Nash never wanted to be on the team at all. I don't blame him either. He probably knew the team wouldn't be competitive and it would have been a waste of his effort and his body would have been tired for the following season. Rautins was a role player at best in his basketball and national team career and choosing him to replace Jay Triano is a mystery to me. Jay has been an excellent national team player and a great coach. I guess that's why he is coaching with the Raps and Leo is well, analyzing commentary. Those who "do" will do and those who "talk" will talk. I believe Rautins is the latter.

It is so difficult for Canada's national basketball team to be successful. We do not have any leagues in the country and no center of excellence or whatever. We have our best scattered over North America and Europe and the ability to get this team together is a logistical nightmare! We do have the talent to make it to the Olympics but there needs to be a fundamental change in organization. This must start today for the next Olympics in London. The best high school players in the country should be taken for a month and have them play basketball in one location. From this group, a core group of twenty or so players should be chosen and honed. Since there will be attrition over the time frame, new players could be brought in annually from the universities and from schools. By 2012 you have a nucleus of strong players who know the game, are motivated, know the game and more importantly know each other. Only thing I can think of. Now if we can convince the Federal government to kick in some dollars we will be fine. The last hurdle will be the hardest!