With the holiday season approaching, Canada Basketball has launched the ‘Give the Gift of the Game’ fundraising campaign. Funds raised through this campaign will go to the Canadian Basketball Foundation to help support the development of basketball in Canada.

“Generous Canadians can make an impact on the future of basketball in our nation with the ‘Give the Gift of the Game’ fundraising campaign,” said Michele O’Keefe, Executive Director of Canada Basketball.  “With this campaign, we hope to see the Canadian basketball community give a little to re-invest in the sport that they love in hopes of improving the quality of the game for the upcoming generation of young basketball players.”

Canada Basketball had a banner 2012 season, highlighted by the following successes:

Senior National Teams: The women’s national team qualified for the London Olympic Games and advanced to the quarter-final. The strong showing helped Canada move up to 9th in FIBA world rankings.

The big news for the men’s national team program was the return of Steve Nash as General Manager and Jay Triano as head coach. In August, the new leadership conducted a camp where over 30 of Canada’s top players were united in Toronto.

Senior B Team: The women’s senior ‘B’ team travelled to Montenegro and Belgium in May to play five games. The men’s team did not field a team this year, but are looking to do so in 2013, to give younger players experience in the international game.

U18 Teams: Both men’s and women’s teams qualified for the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship. The women finished 4th and will compete next year in Lithuania, while the men’s team brought home the bronze medal and will head to Czech Republic.

U17 Teams: Both the men and women competed at this year’s FIBA U17 World Championship. The women’s bronze medal victory gave them their first-ever medal at the competition. The men also had a successful tournament finishing 5th.

3x3 U18 Teams: This year Canada sent men’s and women’s teams to Spain to compete in the FIBA 3x3 U18 World Championship. The women finished 4th in their pool, while the men reached the bronze-medal game, but ultimately lost to France to finish 4th. This marked the second year for this FIBA 3x 3 tournament and in both years Canada fielded a U18 team for both genders.

CONTINUE THE MOMENTUM

In order for these teams to maintain their momentum going forward in the 2013 competition season and beyond, we need more resources to ensure we can provide them with training to compete with the other leading basketball nations. By giving the 'Gift of the Game’, your contribution will be used from the grassroots right up to our elite level development programs.

To participate in the ‘Give the Gift of the Game’ campaign, please visit www.basketball.ca/donations. Donors will receive a charitable tax receipt for the 2012 fiscal year once their donations have been processed.    

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