Lady luck did not smile in favor of team Canada, one of the representatives of the FIBA zone in the Americas, as they found themselves drawn into what was easily the "group of death" in the upcoming Olympic qualifying tournament.
Apart from playing against the hostile crowd from host country the Philippines, which was known to have some of the most passionate basketball fans in the world, team Canada has to slugged it out against no. 5-ranked team France led by superstar point guard Tony Parker and other NBA stars like Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz, Nicolas Batum of the Charlotte Hornets, Evan Fournier of the Orlando Magic and Ian Mahinmi of the Indiana Pacers, wrote Sports Net.
Andrew Wiggins and his team would also have to bring their A-game going up against the tough Turkey national team with NBA stars of their own like Ersan Ilyasova of the Detroit Pistons, Omer Asik from the New Orleans Pelicans and Enes Kanter from the Oklahoma City Thunder. They also have to hurdle teams from New Zealand and Senegal.
"We're happy to be going anywhere, and every side of the draw was going to be tough, every team in there has the same goal as we have," Canadian national team coach Jay Triano said. "There's not a lot you can do about it, there's not a lot you can stress about it, you've got to get ready to play games now."
The 2016 world Olympic qualifying tournament will be a week-long international men's basketball tournament staged by the sport's governing body FIBA. It will be held in three different cities around the world on July 4 to 10, 2016. The bid for the right to host the Olympic qualifiers was eventually awarded by FIBA to Italy, the Philippines and Serbia.
There will be a total of 18 teams vying for the coveted slots which will complete the cast for the upcoming men's basketball tournament in the Rio Olympics in Brazil at the latter part of the year. The teams were divided into three groups of six teams. The champion team for each bracket will book a ticket to the main tournament.
The complete results of the draw, which took place at the House of Basketball, FIBA's headquarters in Switzerland, were as follow:
For the Olympic qualifier to be held in Belgrade, Serbia: Group A- Serbia, Angola and Puerto Rico; Group B- Japan, Czech Republic and Latvia.
For the qualifier in Manila, Philippines: Group A- Turkey, Senegal and Canada; Group B- France, New Zealand and Philippines.
For the qualifier in Turin, Italy: Group A- Greece, Mexico and Iran; Group B- Tunisia, Croatia and Italy.
