‍Men’s Basketball

What: Canada Senior Men’s National Team vs Greece

When: Saturday, July 27 - 3:00 p.m. ET / 12:00 p.m. PT

Where: Pierre Mauroy Stadium - Lille, France

Watch: CBC Gem / TSN

Canada's Senior Men's National Team open Olympic campaign‍

The Senior Men’s National Team will be the first Canadian hoops team to take to the court at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. After a solid exhibition schedule where Canada defeated Puerto Rico and France after falling against the United States, Canada will face Greece, featuring NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who served as Greece’s flag-bearer during Friday’s Olympic Ceremony. This is the first Olympics appearance for the Canadian Senior Men’s National Team since Sydney 2000. Canada enters this year’s Olympics after winning a bronze medal at last year’s FIBA Men's Basketball World Cup 2023, defeating the U.S. in the bronze-medal game to earn Canada’s first-ever medal at the event.

Repping the red and white

Canada’s 12-man roster for the Paris Olympics will feature Nickeil Alexander-Walker, RJ Barrett, Khem Birch, Dillon Brooks, Luguentz Dort, Melvin Ejim, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Trey Lyles, Jamal Murray, Andrew Nembhard, Kelly Olynyk and Dwight Powell. Head Coach Jordi Fernández will lead the team and is joined by lead assistant Nate Bjorkgren and assistant coach Nate Mitchell. Fernández led Canada to their highest finish in 88 years in an international FIBA competition in last year’s World Cup. Prior to taking the helm for Team Canada, Fernández served as the lead assistant for the Nigerian men’s national team at the 2020 Olympics and was recently hired by the Brooklyn Nets as their head coach after spending the previous two seasons as associate head coach of the Sacramento Kings. Olynyk will serve as team captain for a roster that features 11 players with NBA experience. The 33-year-old Toronto Raptors forward made his debut with the Senior Men’s National Team at the 2010 FIBA World Championship when he was just 19 years-old. Canada is second only to the United States for players with NBA experience on their roster.

Group A

‍The Canadians are ranked No. 7 in the FIBA World Rankings, presented by NIKE. They will begin Olympics group play in a tough Group A alongside No. 2 ranked Spain, No. 5 ranked Australia, and No. 14 ranked Greece. While this is the first Olympics appearance since a seventh-place finish in Sydney for Canada’s Senior Men’s National Team, they will be facing a Greek team that is making its first appearance in the Olympics since 2008, where they also reached the quarterfinals. Two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo is expected to lead Greece in Paris after helping the team to qualify for the Olympics with a 23-point performance in an 80-69 victory over Croatia in one of four men’s basketball qualifying tournaments. After winning back-to-back silver medals in 2008 and 2012, Spain captured a bronze medal in the 2016 Olympics before finishing sixth at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Australia is coming off a bronze medal win in the last Olympics.

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Olympic Shai

‍Shai Gilgeous-Alexander starred in last summer’s FIBA Men's Basketball World Cup and he is looking to do the same in Paris. The 25-year-old superstar was named to FIBA’s All-Star Five last summer after averaging 24.5 points, 6.4 rebounds and 6.4 assists at the World Cup. He won the Northern Star Award, given to Canada’s top athlete and followed that up by having his best season in the NBA with the Oklahoma City Thunder, leading OKC to the top record in the Western Conference and finishing as runner-up to the MVP in NBA MVP voting. Gilgeous-Alexander is a two-time NBA All-Star and was named an All-NBA First Team selection this year.

Keeping tabs

Fans can catch all of the action from Paris 2024 live on CBC. In addition to TV broadcasts on CBC and partner networks TSN and Sportsnet, audiences will be able to watch live events daily on the free CBC Gem streaming service, CBC’s Paris 2024 website and the CBC Paris 2024 app for Android and iOS devices. The website and app will also house full event schedules, results, athlete bios and features, daily updates and more. Plus, exclusive coverage will be provided by CBC Sports including in-depth reports, highlights, digital series and on-demand replays of the biggest moments and events.

Fans can also keep track of everything Canada Basketball by following @canadabasketball on Instagram, @CanBball on Twitter, Canada Basketball on Facebook and @canbball on TikTok.

Up next

While the Men’s National Team is the first Canadian hoops squad to hit the court, the Senior Women’s National Team will face the host country, France, on Monday, July 29, at 11:15 a.m. ET/8:15 a.m. PT. Canada's Women’s 3x3 team will begin play on Tuesday, facing Australia at 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT.