Halford & Brough in the Morning - Does Canada Basketball Have A Chance At The Olympics?

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they chat with NBA on TNT’s Nabil Karim about Canada Basketball’s chances at the Olympics (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

you're listening to halford and brough six o'clock on a friday happy friday everybody's halford it is brough it is sportsnet 650 we sound a little different today before we get into all that i'm going to do our usual rigmarole uh jason good morning to youmarole. Jason, good morning to you. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. This is our blue screen of death intro. Do you like it? And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello.

Halford and Brougham of the Morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Their friendly, knowledgeable staff are here to help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, parts or service. Pacific Honda does it all. We are in hour one of the program hour one is brought to you by north star metal recycling vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal north star metal recycling they recycle you get

paid visit them at 1170 powell street in vancouver we are coming to you live from the kintec studio kintec canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star google reviews sore feet what are you waiting for kintec that's what you're waiting for so what's happening right now there is a massive it outage globally that has affected businesses airlines banks middling sports talk radio stations hospitals if you've got a flight today good luck yeah the outage which happened overnight and is destroying the world on Friday morning, is believed to be related to Microsoft and global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. So if you want to point fingers at anyone, CrowdStrike, this is on you.

No CrowdStrike. I'm no information technology specialist, but I did wonder, is this Y2K? Finally? Is this what happened? Did we not pay enough attention to it? This might have been worse than what happened on Y2K finally is this what happened did we not pay enough it's maybe worse than what happened on Y2K should we have taken it more seriously is it getting caught up with us now are we too reliant on technology I want to know is this the message I have many questions we are going to put together a quote-unquote competent show today despite the fact that we're not going to have a podcast we're not going to have any audio. What else are we missing today?

Competent workers. We might have a podcast way later in the day, but it's not going to be popping up at the normal time. So is anyone actually recording this? I think for legal reasons, they have to have a hard copy recording. It's recorded into the system right now.

Just in case you guys go on one of your political rants again. Is the system running then? I mean, well, I don't know. We'll find out. It's into the system right now. Just in case you guys go on one of your political rants again. Well, is the system running then? I mean, well, I don't know. We'll find out, I guess. It's accessing the system. Maybe there won't be a podcast. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.

We'll see. We'll have to see. Are we going to have to send a Terminator anywhere? Yeah. I have many questions. Again, back to the Y2K. What we could do is we could tape the show onto a VHS and mail out a podcast to the stream to all our listeners.

I've got a ghetto blaster at home if we want to do that. You just press the record button and the play button at the same time. And we're good. You can make your own podcast. So, live stream looks like it's held up. Oh, we got some semblance of a live stream.

Look, folks, we we're gonna try our best here to go along with about a third of the technological advances that we normally had at our disposal i know the phone line still works so we'll be able to get our guests today our guest list begins at 6 30 nabil kareem is going to join us on the program uh cbc olympic basketball reporter canada plays france this afternoon assuming that the blue screen of death doesn't take over the game. So we'll talk to Nabil about that. We'll talk to him about Canadian basketball as we inch closer and closer to the start of the Olympics.

Do you think Nabil will know anything about the three-on-three? I don't know anything about that. What would you like to know? How many players are on the court? There's six. There's six. But, like, who are these players? On the American team, there's a former NBA player player remember jimmer fredette yeah yeah no i remember

i know but like what what's going on here what are they what are they doing three on three and why why are you asking to explain the concept of three no but it's like five on five basketball but what's it gonna prove it's not gonna have the best players in the world it's gonna have the best three on three players no it's not it could be no it's not going to have the best players in the world. It's going to have the best three-on-three players in the world. No, it's not. It could be. No, it's not. Anyone in the NBA is among the best three-on-three players. Also, I don't know if he's covering... The three-on-three is like an entirely different circuit.

They have different play-by-play guys, different analysts. Like Dan Shulman and Nabil aren't working the three-on-three tournament. We're going to have someone on from the three-on-three. But he must know something about it. Can I ask him? You can. You can also wait until Monday when we have the three-on-three guys. Oh, we have the three-on-three guys on the show? Yeah, we have the three-on-three guys on the tournament. We're going to have someone on from the three on three. But he must know something about it. Can I ask him? You can. You can also wait until Monday when we have the three on three guy. Oh, we have the three on three guy on the show? Yeah, we have the three on three on the show.

We don't even know if the world will still be with us on Monday. Yeah, right. Does the technology allow us to play three on three? That's a real question. Will cybersecurity keep us from doing that? Nabil's going to join us at 6.37. AJ from AJ's Pizza. Reminder, it is Ask Us Anything Friday.

The text message in basket still works. Dunbar Lumber is still up and thriving in this crazy world we live in. So you can get your text in 650-650. Best Ask Us Anything today, hashtag it AUA. Gets a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway, the best little pizza place in the world. So AJ's going to join us at 7705. Jeff Wilson is going to join us. This 705 jeff wilson is going to join us uh this weekend it's the nation's cup for my money the best amateur sporting event in the

province regardless of sport regardless of length of tournament it is the best it's going to be in richmond at three different parks we'll talk to jeff about it uh amazing beer garden after parties they got shuttle service between fields this year so we'll talk to jeff about that for the players and fans oh really shuttles you can shuttle around oh that's a good idea yeah it's pretty impressive actually they've really built it out to a very cool tournament the 43rd nations cup so we'll talk to jeff at 705 about that 7 30 and eight couple big gets here satyar shah and bob marjanovic i don't know how we were able to track them down but we were sat's going to join us at 7 30 to i don't know how we were able to track him down but we were sat's going to join us at 7 30 to talk some canucks moj is going to join us at 8 to talk

about the lions they of course play this weekend against the calgary stampeters in calgary so that's what's happening on the program moj at 8 sat at 7 30 jeff wilson at 705 aj at 7 and then w kareem at 6 30 again that's what's happening on the program. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca.

When we compiled the show yesterday, we were going to lead with an open championship update where Tiger woods was at eight over following an opening around 79 at royal troon and jason it's only gotten worse from there this morning yeah i don't know what he's up to now 13 over he's gonna miss the he's gonna miss the cut again um and he's gonna miss it by a mile um so maybe colin montgomery was on to something uh it's hard to watch tiger it's not enjoyable to watch a guy like tiger woods who's been arguably the greatest golfer some people might still say jack um but to go out there in these tournaments and say he's healthy and still

not even come close to contending but hopefully it's a good weekend still to watch golf because a canadian cory connors is hanging around he's already finished his round today and he is tied for ninth one under now i don't know what the scoring conditions are going to be like today they seem to be very difficult in the morning yesterday and maybe got a little bit easier as the day went on because shane lowry came in uh with a good score an englishman by the name of daniel brown uh not to be confused with the author of the da vinci code right that's what that's what i thought i was like man he is he is multi-talented another englishman uh justin rose um he's in the mix too the leaderboard isn't what you would call like star-studded.

No. I mean, Scotty Scheffler is there. He is hanging around for sure. He's tied for fourth right now. He's two under, 14 holes. He's through 14 holes today. So he should be around and in the mix on the weekend. But, you know i i'm looking at

the scoreboard right now trying to find where rory is i don't know if rory's gonna make the cut um so it could be uh a different sort of weekend at royal troon yeah as for the other canadians mackenzie hughes had a good opening round he finished 200 but he's three over through 12 today. And it was real tough, real tough for Nick Taylor yesterday. So I'm assuming this is bad. This is a golf stat, and I don't exactly know what golf stats mean. But apparently Nick Taylor had nine birdie looks from inside 21 feet and made just one. He looked at nine different birds?

Wrong. That's what that means. You could not be more wrong. It's like bird watching. I even know that's wrong. And then I know this is bad because after his round, he said, quote, I might throw my putter in the ocean. So that leads me to believe that he left a lot of strokes

up there on the ice. Which was crazy because remember his putting at Phoenix? It was just like everything he was looking at was going in. I seem to recall that he hit a pretty big putt at the Canadian Open. Oh, that was a pretty big putt at the Canadian Open. Oh, that was a pretty big putt. You know, like I figured the flat stick, they call it the flat stick.

I figured that he was pretty good with that. But you know what? Connor is, I think he's currently sitting ninth on the leaderboard. And you've talked about it enough on our show, about a Canadian breaking through to make a real push at one of the majors and not necessarily having one of those like Sunday backdoor top 10 finishes you know like being in or going in he's

he's gone into a few tournaments on on the Sunday like with the chance to make a run and then he just kind of does nothing on the Sunday that's another thing that he does so I I really want to wake up on Sunday morning and be able to cheer Corey Connors to try and win something, you know, not just hang around in the top 10. And he's got some work to do. Like you can't just par your way around the course. Right. If you look at what Shane Lowry's done and he's won an Open before, he's at five under. I doubt Daniel Brown's going to stick around, but who knows.

So that is the golf story. What else we got? Well, there was a pretty big trade in the National Basketball Association yesterday. Russell Westbrook is gone from the LA Clippers. His time in Utah will be brief because he's going to be bought out and he's going to be joining, not this year's, but the previous year's NBAba champions denver nuggets joining jamal murray and nicola yokich in denver in the process what's what what happened to him russ um well when he signed with la that was before

that they got james harden in the door so he was their starting point guard then james harden came aboard and when you looked at the start of the roster it was kind of crazy they had kawaii leonard paul george james harden russell westbrook and you're thinking like man if this was 2014 this team would be killing it but it's not it's 2024 um he kind of turned into a really good defensive player in la in large part because there just wasn't enough ball to go around he scored like a career low 11 points per game last year but he actually really improved his defensive prowess and then funny thing happened in la they kind of realized that they couldn't have all these big high profile big personality guys uh that went on the air technology this that was an evil laugh by the way that was pretty good this

uh this could be an interesting show because all the engineers are trying to fix what's going on right now where were you on russell westbrook so the clippers had this very like big powerful star-studded team and they actually had a good run last year at a certain point they went 26 and 5 and during one stretch when all the guys were there and available and healthy but then you know kawaii got injured and didn't play in the playoffs and it looked like they were just kind of limping along so paul george leaves he signs in philadelphia uh they trade russell westbrook they bring in some more defensive-minded guys including chris dunn now it just looks like they've gone in a different way the weird part is is that and i don know, you probably missed this because you were in Italy

and not really paying attention to the inner workings of the Los Angeles Clippers. Kawhi bowed out. I didn't have to be in Italy for that. That's right. You could have been right here. You could have been in Los Angeles. Kawhi bowed out of the Olympics. He was on the Olympic team, and then he said no.

Now, things got weird because Lawrence Frank, who's one of the executives for the Clippers, said that, well, we had nothing to do with this. We didn't tell Kawhi to leave. In fact, we think Kawhi should be playing to get back into shape in order to have it. So there's this real weird part where they're like, well, what really happened? Kawhi's whole playing career has been like, should he play? Should he not play? Does he want to play?

Does he not want to play? It has absolutely been a recurring theme right and so this was weird because some people were saying well maybe this is like he knew he wasn't going to play a lot because he would have been a low rotation guy given the fact that they're putting over like the second coming of the dream team in paris that's why lindholm didn't want to sign in vancouver he didn't want to be a three c he wants to go to boston via one c that's right i mean you go else, there's greener pastures. Maybe Kawhi could have played for South Sudan. Possibly. He could have played against the Americans. I don't think it works

like that, but you probably could have done it. Anyway, so that was the NBA trade yesterday in the midst of all this international basketball going on. And we mentioned that the Canadians are going to get a real big test today going up against Rudy Gobert and Victor Wimbanyama today when they play France. We are going to talk to Nabil Karim at 6.30 about all that.

On the Canadian soccer front, and it's something that you and I didn't get to experience together because you were on vacation, but after a scintillating run through Copa America, Canada moved up eight spots in the latest FIFA men's rankings all the way up to 40th, which, to be honest, is still kind of weird because Panama still ranks ahead of them and they're still like fourth in CONCACAF despite their highest ever was 33rd and they got to that possibly right after qualifying for the World Cup February 10th 2022 I'll remember the day forever I won't I just read it off my notes um that was the highest that they achieved and like you said that was on the strength of not just qualifying for the World Cup,

but winning CONCACAF along the way. Do you remember when they were at like 120th? Yes. They were at countries that weren't actually, below countries that weren't actually countries. Yeah. You know what I mean? They were like confederations or I don't even know. Some of them didn't belong to a particular, like, well, you're not in CONCACAF.

You're not uncomfortable. They're like, we're our own thing. We're doing our own thing. We are designed specifically for money laundering. Right. And they're like, also, we're beating you 2-0. Like that kind of thing. So it's great that Canada is up there now.

Weirdly enough, though, despite showing out and being the best CONCACAF country at Copa America, they still remain fourth in the CONCACAF country at Copa America, they still remain fourth in the CONCACAF Federation. So behind the Americans, behind Mexico and Panama? Panama jumped eight spots to 35th, despite the fact that they only made it

to the quarterfinals of Copa America. How far did Spain jump? Spain is... I think they jumped five spots, didn't they? Yeah, they did. That's a big jump in the top ten. It's no Panama. No, so France is two.

Argentina is one because they retained that because they won everything. France is two. Spain is three. England is four. Brazil is five. And Brazil really should have dropped because they had a horrible Copa America. They didn't look good at all. They're in a bit of a funk right now, aren't they?

Yeah, they were very disappointing at Copa. Didn't Ronaldinho call them out? Yeah, for the squad that they assembled, it didn't strike fear into the hearts of all the opposing countries, which it normally does. Because usually you see the Brazilian lineup and it's like, whoa. Okay, so to give you an idea of how slow it is in the sports world right now, we started with golf, which is fine. It's the British Open. But there wasn't, like, a big story there. People like golf.

We just, it was on. Our second story was about the LA Clippers. And the Denvernuggets and our third story was uh canada's ranking like they didn't even play a game they just went up in the rankings so for all the hockey guys out there this was the number one story this was like the profile story at sportsnet.ca here's the headline identifying the top 25 ufas in 2025 nice so this was the one that got the prime real estate on sportsnet.ca yesterday far away it was a list of players who might become free agents next summer uh it led with a couple of Leafs, Mitch Marner and John Tavares. But there was a Vancouver Canuck on the list and fairly prominently on the list,

Brock Besser of the Vancouver Canucks. And maybe one of the things we can talk about with Sat is what the Canucks are going to do with Brock Besser, who, of course, just had an unbelievable season, an unexpected season. You know, we all wondered when Brock was going to hit 30 goals and he ended up hitting, what, 40? And Jim Rutherford was asked by Ian McIntyre back in June, right before the draft, what the plans were with Brock Besser. And IMAC asked him, will you make a decision on his Canucks future this summer?

And Jim Rutherford said, you know, I couldn't be happier for a player after what he's gone through to have that year but I think that this will be a case where we will watch this closely into the season we believe that Brock is back on track and that he'll continue to do what he was doing and once we get confirmation of that during the season then we'll make a decision on him going forward so the onus is still on Brock Besser to go out and do something but then the Canucks have a decision to make this wasn't Jim Rutherford saying we'll definitely sign him because the Canucks might not be able to afford this guy because if he goes out and has another you know if he's on pace for another 40-goal season and it's, I don't know, Christmas time heading into the new year,

when are you going to start making these decisions? Because you're looking at the trade deadline and going, okay, well, this is very interesting. It will also depend on how the Canucks are doing as a team. Then they've got a decision to make on him. And if he puts up back-to-back back let's say he even goes 30 goals sure next season and he's a really still a really good fit with JT Miller and he's a really important part of the team he's got a lot of money well he's gonna want he's gonna want term he's gonna want more than 6.65

and he's gonna want term and I think that's gonna be a really frankly I think that's gonna be a really tough decision for the Canucks. And one of the factors that we always talk about with Brock Besser is his speed and lack thereof. And one of the things that Patrick Alvin said heading into the offseason is we've got to get faster. Now, we'll see if they've managed to do that with the addition of DeBrusque and Heinen sure I yeah and sure would but they're he's more of a he's you know he probably just replaces Lafferty right hopefully a little bit better than Lafferty hopefully with a little better performance down the stretch and in the important games but I think you look at the the Canucks and one of the issues that they have in creating rush chances

is frankly their lack of burners so I don't I haven't watched Jake Dabrowski and Danton Heinen enough to know whether they're really good skaters do you remember we had Pete Blackburn on and we asked him like are these guys good skaters and he's like yeah they're okay yeah they're fine yeah they're fine right like they're not burners so anyway I don't want to I don't want to focus on too much of the negatives with Brock Besser because he's a really good player and that could be a tough decision that they have to make. But I'd be curious to get some of the listeners' feedback on what you think will happen with Brock Besser, what should happen with Brock Besser.

Maybe the assumption we make is that he's still a pretty good player next season. Like he doesn't regress in a bad way. He's still an important part of the team. He's still scoring big goals. He's still a pretty good player next season like he doesn't he doesn't regress in a bad way uh he's still an important part of the team he's still scoring big goals he's still a match with JT Miller what do you do then if he's got a really good uh negotiation case to make with the Vancouver Canucks I would imagine that once they get clarity on the health they're probably going to try and move forward with a contract before letting him play it out and you know it's it is a risky, as you've just suggested, to let him play out the season and potentially blow up again. I mean, have another...

Well, play out the season and lose him for nothing. Yeah, and then you're kind of painted yourself into a corner where you've got to pay based on two years. He's like, not only did I score 40 a season ago, but I followed it up with another solid campaign. Also, and this goes against every fiber of my cold, callous being, if there's a guy that you want to maybe just maybe a smidge reward for past performance as opposed to future performance.

Never do that. Never do that. Never do that. He? Never. Look, what he did last year was super impressive. Super impressive. And I think that there's something to be said,

something to be said for a guy that has the fortitude to rebound from a few off years, goes through whatever he went through off the ice, and quite frankly on the ice, because his performance was down on the ice at times, remained healthy for an entire year, proved that he could score at a clip that exceeded everybody's expectations.

Let's remember that. 40 from Besser was not in anybody's wheelhouse prior to the start of the year. Everyone thought it would be amazing if he could hit 30. And then they could trade him. Right. And that's serious. That's a legitimate way that we all looked at it. He seems to be incredibly liked in the room.

Yes, that's important. I think that he is the kind of individual that you want to keep around now you don't want to do it at the expense of hamstringing your cap and i think hopefully everyone understands what i'm talking about here you should not go and pay him retro actively will lecker or mackie be a factor in all this if lecker mackie looks like he's a player i have a real hard time he needs top six i have a real hard time seeing that well not next season but the year after right if he looks like if he comes into the ahl and starts ripping it up in the ahl or even looks good in the preseason and you can you can't always act like 100 project but you can maybe make a calculated gamble that he's going to be in your top six in the next couple of years.

Is that a factor? Yes. In the scenario that you're laying out, 100% yes. In the scenario that I'm thinking of, it's an organization that has maybe in the past fallen victim to rushing players along. And a management group coming from Pittsburgh where they let guys. Like, he hasn't played nearly enough North American hockey, I would say, that they would be like, let's go. Well, the other factor, too, is what if the Canucks are in a playoff position and they haven't been able to get a contract done with Brock Besser?

Would they trade him? That would be. Would they do that? Well, I mean, it's. Seems crazy, right? We've seen other teams go the distance with it. would they trade him that would be that was that would they do that well i mean it seems crazy right we've seen other teams go the distance with it i mean maybe not necessarily to the case i guess tampa bay did it with steve stamkos they just let it twist in the wind and then they lost them and then they lost them right and that was not necessarily a great look for tampa bay although it was compensated by the fact they got jake genel. Yeah. Back to Lekker Mackey for a sec.

I think that he would have to come in and play at a level that it's where you just couldn't deny him. You know what I mean? Like, it would be like, well, we can't hold him back. He's more than ready for this. And that's going to be tough because he hasn't played a lot in North America. I'm not necessarily sure that his game is going to be one where he's going to blow you away. Like, he would have to blow somebody away in every facet.

Two-way game, speed skating, forechecking ability, all of it. He'd have to have the details down. I'm hoping that he is going to be one day a real fixture on the power play because his shot is a big thing. His shot might be his calling card. Yeah, and that's kind of what I'm saying about like this scenario that we're dreaming of like he'd have to come in that you'd have to be like wow every part of his game is nhl ready yeah and he's forced his way onto the roster as opposed to one day we might see this guy be an important fixture of our power play it's not right now but we're going to give him a look anyway uh nabil kareem

is going to join us next we We'll talk a little Canada basketball. But just a reminder, it's Ask Us Anything Friday. So text your Ask Us Anythings into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at DunbarLumber.com. You're listening to the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season. Get your tickets now at BCLions.com. 631 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Alfred Brough, Sportsnet 650. Alfred and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. Visit them online at PacificHonda.ca.

We are in hour one of the program. We are working on getting to build Dream on the program in a moment here. He's going to be working alongside Dan Shulman at the upcoming Paris Olympics, calling all of the Canadian men's basketball games. Canada's men play today in an exhibition against France, France, if you will. I don't know where the game is. I think it's in Orleans. I want to say New New Orleans or Old Orleans?

Old. Old Orleans, as they call it, on the Halford and Brough Show. So we're working on getting Nabil on the program in a moment. So just to reiterate to those listening, and those that are trying to listen, and maybe you could pass along this message to your friends, send them a text, an email, write a letter, put it in the mail. It'll get there next week. We are experiencing some massive technological issues here on Sportsnet 650.

So this is not just, you know, unique to us. There's a massive IT outage going on across the globe right now. It's affecting businesses, airlines, banks, hospitals, radio stations. So if you're looking for our Andy, I'm going to throw you on the spot here. Can you let the listeners know what's working and what's not, what they can listen to and what they can't? That's kind of vitally important for what we do here. Yeah, well, if you have a radio, like an actual radio, you know those things, the radios with the knobs and the dials and the antennas, that's working.

So we are on the air right now. You can hear us through radio. The audio stream is not working. This is going to be hard for the people trying to listen on audio stream to hear. Correct, yes. If you are on audio stream right now, you're not hearing what I'm saying because the audio stream is currently down. However, the video stream which we get via Toronto is

working. So you could watch us at watch.sportsnet.ca What about the podcast? Don't do what Donnie Don't does. The podcast is either not going to be available today or if it is available, it'll probably be way later in the day because who knows how long it'll take

for all the systems to be restored, but no guarantees on a podcast today. Okay. Thank you for the update. We're going to go live. You know what works? The phone lines work. Sort of. Nabil had to call us. Okay. Nabil Karim joins us now on the Halford and Braff show on Sportsnet 615.

Good morning, Nabil. How are you? What kind of operation are you guys running over there? Not a good one. Not a good one. Things are happening. You guys are troopers. Let me tell you, you guys are troopers. If I was going through this situation right now, I'm not showing up for work.

I'm just leaving. Is that an option? Not an option. Okay, let and doing that. Not an option. Okay. Okay, let's talk a little Canada basketball here. So you're in Atlanta right now, if I'm not mistaken. But today in France, France will be hosting the Canadian men's national team in a tantalizing pre-tournament matchup.

After what you saw from the first game for the Canadians, again, in North America, in Vegas, against the U.S., what can we anticipate for today's game against France, Victor Wimbanyama, Rudy Gobert, and a very talented French side? Yeah, I think looking after watching that first game, I mean, obviously Canada did some things that they wanted to do and other things, you know, they didn't play their starters in the fourth quarter. And it'll be interesting to see how they approach this game. As you get closer to, to Lil, where the games are going to be played. You know, I saw Canada in that first game. You can tell a lot of those things is going to be their defensive presence,

right? Like that's going to be their identity there. They got so many great guys on the wing when you've got like Dylan Brooks and Lou Dort and Nikander walker guys who can really defend so i think that's going to be a big part of their identity i think one of the things that really stood out to me though in that first game is canada's ability to score with sga which i'm already you're not worried right they're going to get their buckets they're going to figure it out and that backcourt's going to be really dynamic i think but secondary scoring could be a real issue on this team. Guys who

can create their own scoring. Guys can get buckets, obviously. We have enough depth and a lot of depth for Canada this time around, but it's creating your own shot, creating your own basket. Dylan Brooks, he's been solid when he's worn the Canadian uniform. I look for a guy like R.J. Barrett.

Can he get his scoring up? If he's a guy who can create his own shot, right? Kelly Olenek's a guy who can give you some threes. Lou Dort's another guy who can really shoot the basketball, didn't treat it great. But on top of his defensive presence, can he get you some buckets? The X factor for me throughout this tournament

might be a guy like Andrew Memphart. If you're paying attention to the NBA playoffs, he was fantastic, right, for the Pacers in a high-pressure situation and over, you know, a few rounds. So can he get back to that level? He didn't look great. Again, there's just one game. He didn't look great for Canada at that point. But if he can start kind of rolling, that will be really impressive. Because then you get another guy, you know, who's going to be a reliable scorer.

Now, one thing to look out, obviously, against France today. And France is this massive team with these two twin towers, right? With Victor Wabinyawa and Rudy Gobert. Canada's side really stood out against the United States, who are obviously a big team also. And that's going to be a problem in this tournament, I think. Dwight Powell, who sits at 6'10". They lift him at 6'10". I don't know if he's 6'10". Kelly Lennox lifts him at 6'11".

I'm not really sure he's 6'11", either. But I think that's where you saw the United States, they just dominated the boards, right? And now you play in this France team that's got Rudy Gobert, that's got Victor, who, by the way, I was talking now you play in the France team that's got Rudy Gobert, that's got Victor, who, by the way, I was talking to Jamal Croft the other day, and Jamal is working out with Victor, and

my goodness, I mean, things are getting scary with Victor Webben-Yama and how good he is going to be, but I think size is going to be a real issue for Canada, so how do they figure that out? Because remember, in FIBA, especially defensively this is where it's going to be an issue and secondary scoring too because guys like Rudy Gobert can just

sit in the paint there's no three-second violation right it really changes the way they play but for Canada again you can get that secondary scoring they're going to be I think in a pretty good spot uh in this tournament was it a big deal that Zach Eady decided to not play Because we don't even really know what he'd be at the NBA level playing with the best players in the world. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I understand it from his perspective. You know, he went into that draft. They weren't sure where he was going to go.

He goes pretty high up in the draft. And, you know, he wants to make a name for himself, and he wants to establish himself. And I was at Summer League, and I did one of their games, and unfortunately he was hurt. I think he had twisted his ankle. He had ankle soreness. And again, he just got hurt the other day.

So I think if he had played for Canada, even if he wasn't going to play big minutes and he wasn't going to have a huge role, he changes the dynamic, right? I mean, you have a guy who's 7'4", and he may not be physically as strong as some of these guys who are just men in this tournament. He would have changed the dynamic, right? Again, because Zach Eady

could just sit in the paint and block shots, and even if he's not going to block a shot, he's going to alter a shot. That's something that we're talking to Greg Popovich about during the regular season when they won the Spurs game, is that they look at victory. Even the shots that he didn't block, he alters them.

They have the stat now, altered shots, that the Spurs kind of look at. And so that would help Canada, no doubt, right, to bring E.D. off the bench if he wasn't going to start and kind of give them a different look and get some rebounds and help with that. So I do think that is a big loss. Which country, if there's going to be one, and let's all acknowledge that there probably won't be one,

but which country, if there is going to be one, to upset the United States, which country will that be? That's a tough one, right? You look at the United States and that roster and on paper, the only way that doesn't work is if guys don't accept roles, which I don't think is going to happen. I think they're pretty good. Southern played Serbia the other day.

I watched that game and I thought Serbia might be a team that could challenge them with Nicole Yoke, and with the size that they have, and they're not intimidated of the United States. They look good for about half. And then, you know, it kind of broke down after that.

I still think Serbia is a team. If they're going to beat them, they could be in contention. You look at France, they got the size to do it. You know, the rest of their roster is not as good, obviously, as the United States. But when you have Rudy Gobert and you got Victor Wendanyama and some solid players around them, they have the potential.

And then you got to throw Canada in there. As far as NBA talent is concerned, Canada is right there. But definitely going to have to change, you know, some of the ways they play. I think FIBA way, again, playing is such a more physical game, which I think, you know, is an advantage for a team that has less talent like Canada over the United States, even though Canada's got all this talent. Because if you saw it in that game, you can bump LeBron James, You can bump a Joel Embiid. You can bump some of these guys. Joel Embiid's been trying to get foul called. He's been really struggling. And he's not getting the foul call that he's been getting in the NBA, right?

Because he's actually not going for that kind of stuff. Where they're kind of baiting him into these fouls. So, potentially there's an opportunity to beat him. But, I mean, if you're taking this one team, I don't know who the one team would be. I think there's, you know, two or three that may be in contention germany won the fevers i don't think germany beating this team if i look at like a france or serbia and canada you get those three in the mix it seems they could potentially compete for it we're speaking to nabil kareem here on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 he will be calling alongside dan shulman cbc basketball olympic reporter here on the halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

You know, we talked about this yesterday. We had Marcus Fitzgerald from our very own Basketball Central on the show, but the group that Canada is in and how difficult it's going to be to get out of the group. Now, the reason that it's the group of death is very much because Canada is in it and has the second most NBA talent among any of the teams in the tournament. But, I mean, for whatever FIBA rankings are worth, Spain and Australia are top five teams in the world. Greece has Giannis Antetokounmpo. So I know going into the tournament, expectations were high for Canada.

But when I saw the qualifiers play out and I saw the group starting to take shape, I quickly came to the realization that this is going to be a very, very difficult task. Am I off in that assessment, or is that fairly accurate? No, you're accurate. You're really accurate. Giannis has been unreal. When he plays for his country, I mean, we see what he can do in the NBA, but when he plays for his country, he is absolutely dominant. He looked dominant in the qualifier from what I saw

and from what I've looked at as far as reading, just researching. Obviously, you don't get all the games, but he ends up. I mean, you're going to have Dylan Brooks on him. You're going to have Lou Dort on him. He's still going to be a problem. He's going to be on top. In those situations, what teams are doing, a team like Croatia against Giannis, is they're playing off of him.

Again, that goes back to being able to have a guy just sitting in the key and they're daring Giannis to shoot. But that also leaves other guys wide open. So, you know, so far, Greece has been lighting it up in three as far as the qualifiers are concerned. So that's a problem. And then at Canada's first game, it's going to be a tough one right away. Remember, you only get five fouls in FIBA.

And it's funny because Canada had this thing about who's going to get the first technical foul. Bill Brooks is such an important part of this team, but a technical foul here in this tournament also counts as a personal foul. So that goes against your five. So they've got to be careful with that. You look at Australia, they don't have, you know, a ton of name recognition as far as like stars,

but they got a guy like Paddy Mills who, again, when he plays for his country, he's a different Paddy Mills. They got some good young players, Josh Giddey, Dyson Daniels. They got Joe Ingles. These are all really solid NBA players, and they know how to play that game. And then Spain, who's the number two ranked team, like you mentioned,

they get no real star recognition there, but they know how to play this style of game. And that's what it goes back to. And Kenny Atkinson, who we were talking to at Summer League this past week, the new head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He's the assistant coach of France. And he was telling us that this game,

this international game, it's kind of blowing him away because he feels like it's a whole different sport. It goes just because how physical it is and how different they play and the styles and things you can get away with. It almost feels like a completely different sport than what they play in the NBA.

So even for our players, we talk about the Americans adjusting, but even for our players, we have 11 NBA players. It's going to be an adjustment for them also. And can they figure it out? Can they build the chemistry? Unfortunately, a guy like Andrew Wiggins, I mean, Andrew Wiggins, he had a tough NBA year,

but he would have helped us out a lot. Not having Ben Mathur in there is going to be difficult. You're not trying to make excuses going into this tournament. We've got a ton of talent. But at the same time, like you mentioned, that would have helped because this is a really, really tough group. And if you want to avoid the United States, the way the quarterfinals works is you've got the top eight, right? You've got top two seats from each pool and then the top two third-place teams. But you want to be one of the top two teams because you go in opposite brackets.

And you just don't want to see the United States at any point until the finals. So it is going to be a difficult pool. And again, you start with Giannis right away, which is, I mean, that's a tough task. Can you explain a little bit more about how FIBA rules are more, they allow for more physicality? Like how do, what does that look like? You're going to see a lot more bumping, a lot more grabbing, you know, a lot more, you can move on screens. They're not going to cause stuff like that And I think that is what

The court's a little smaller, right? So there's less space So the thing with the NBA game Is you see a lot of one-on-one play, right? A lot of isolation You don't really see that as much in FIBA It doesn't work as much in FIBA Because the space is tighter

And then again, the big thing is the zone defense uh where you guys you can you can plot a guy right in the middle and that's where the intimidation factor comes in when you're coming into the lane right so i think that it's just a different style of play where we're more used to this drive kick out shoot the three you're not going to see as much as that you're going to see a lot of three-point shooting but you're not going to see as much of that. You're going to see a lot of three-point shooting, but you're not going to see as much of that. Whereas you're going to see a lot more ball movement, a lot more guys getting open, and even some more play

in the mid-range in this tournament. But that physical play and getting away with some of the stuff that you don't really get away with in the NBA, I think is going to be eye-opening to some fans. So is it going to look like the old NBA or something? Is Anthony Mason going to be playing in this tournament? No, I don't think it's going to be eye-opening to some fans. So is it going to look like the old NBA or something? Is Anthony Mason going to be playing in this tournament?

No, I don't think it's going to go that far. It's not going to go that far. Do you like it? You know, if you watch, I like it. I think it's better for us. We're like a Canadian fan, again, because it kind of evens out the talent a little bit. And I find the NBA a little frustrating at times, too,

when you see some of the fouls, guys baiting refs into fouls. It is frustrating at times, right? Because it's like, oh, come on, that can't be a foul. Well, here, it might not be a foul. And the refs are not intimidated by the star players. They're just going to call it as they see it.

And, again, it's just a different style of play. And it's going to take a game or two to get used to. And I think for fans, once they really start to lock in, they're going to be like, oh, that's a foul. Well, no, not here, it's not. So there might be a little bit of frustration for maybe Canadian fans as they watch and are used to seeing SGA get some calls or Jamal Murray get some calls and them looking at the refs.

But that's just the way it's going to be for both sides. Nabil, before we let you go, I wanted to circle back on what your time with Jamal Crawford, working with Wemby. And, you know, we all watched his rookie season incredibly close because he's this generational type talent. The Spurs were really bad record-wise, but you could see at the end of the year, he started putting up those gaudy box scores where it really caught your attention. It's like, uh-oh, here it comes.

The next, you know, great NBA generational superstar is on his way um is that being fast-tracked right now like could we see a massive leap from an already good rookie season next year for wim banyama well again when we did that game um i did a game it was like the spurs and the warriors it was toward the end of last uh the end of the year. And so we had a coach who was being Greg Popovich. And our team sits down and asks him questions and stuff. And he told us, you know, for the first three months, maybe even until like end of January,

they kind of held him back because they just didn't know what they had with Victor. And I don't know if you remember, they were trying like Jeremy Sohan at point guard and they were trying all these different things. Like they didn't have what they had with Victor. And I don't know if you remember, they were trying like Jeremy Sohan at point guard, and they were trying all these different things, but they didn't have a real point guard. Jeremy Sohan had never played point guard in his life. And they were trying to experiment, they were trying to do this whole thing.

And then at some point in mid-January, they're like, screw it. Let's let this guy roll, and let's just see what he can do. And that's when he really started to flourish, when he had the ball in his hands a lot more, doing things that are really non-traditional for a guy who's, you know, 7'5".

And the Spurs and Popovich, he actually told me, he said, what they've been doing a lot with Victor is working on his footwork. He said it's very different than when Tim Duncan came in and then what they did with Tim Duncan. And with Victor, they're working so much on his footwork.

And so they would show in videos, not only big like Sakeem and like Kevin McHale, but they were showing in videos of like Larry Bird, you know, Michael Jordan, Cody Bryant, some of the greats and how they had their footwork. And so he is this absolute machine who is not only supremely talented, but works incredibly hard. The stuff, you know, I hear about in the season stuff, you know, kind of Jamal was telling me. This guy, I mean, in the next two years,

I don't even know what he's going to do this season. He might be a top 10 player by the end of this season, top 15 for sure. And then after that, who knows? Because his work ethic matches his talent which is really rare and there's stories about him going to bed at like 8.30 or 9 or whatever the time

is and he's reading that's all true like that's not just some kind of myth people are trying to make up and trying to create this aura around him he really lives and breathes basketball and that's all he cares about. I'm really excited to see what he

does in this tournament, but then going into next year, especially now that they got Chris Paul, it might be the one year thing with Chris Paul, but now he's got a real point guard for at least a year. And we should see some real growth from Victor this year. And if he has handles like Jam, some real growth from Victor this year.

And if he has handles like Jamal Crawford, it's over. It is absolutely over. That guy is breaking people down at three point line. And with that size and athleticism, he's just a truth to watch. Canada will take on Victor Wimbanyama and the French national team today at noon. You can stream it on CBC Sports. That's assuming the Internet is working for the rest of society. Nabil, thanks a lot for doing this today, man. We really appreciate it. Enjoy

the trip over to France. Enjoy the tournament. Hopefully we can do this again during the tournament. Yeah, sounds good, guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Nabil. CBC, he's going to be working alongside Dan Shulman. They're going to be calling all the Canada games when the tournament gets underway. It's a pretty good duo. Yeah, I know. It's going to be great alongside Dan Schulman. They're going to be calling all the Canada games when the tournament gets underway.

It's a pretty good duo. Yeah, I know. It's going to be great. He was really good. Let's do some Ask Us Anything. It's Ask Us Anything Friday on the Halford and Brough show. And we want to do lots of these today because it is a pretty slow time in sports.

BNCR texts in, don't you think the tug of war would be a great event for the Olympics? You could have a weight limit per side, so you could have 10 100-pound men or women or five 200-pound competitors or three 333-pound competitors. The tug-of-war used to be an Olympic event. That'd be awesome.

From 1900 to 1920 That was my favorite part of sports day Really? Oh yeah Because they got the entire school to do it It was probably like 100 kids on each side It was just chaos Yeah

So much fun Seems dangerous I'm amazed it was a thing But going to school in the 90s I actually said there was a tug of war The recent sports day I saw So they're still doing it Keep the tradition alive There were some face plants Oh I'm sure but going to school in the 90s. I actually said there was a tug of war at the recent sports day I saw. So they're still doing it.

They're still doing it. Keep the tradition alive. There were some face plants. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. The egg toss in there. The Olympic egg toss. Oh, yeah. Look, I'd watch that.

I would too. I'd watch the heck out of that. Yeah. Maybe the three-legged race. Could that be an Olympic event? You know? Especially down like a hill, imagine. They could add that to the track component.

Yeah, three-legged race. That would be awesome. Three-legged race, can you imagine? That would be awesome. Sack race, yeah, there you go. I think we're going too far afield now. Why don't they do this? This is Olympic quality sack I've got here.

I would love to, like, how would you, okay, so who would you, how would you organize your team? Would you want, like, so there's one guy at the back. Would you want like a big dude right at the back? And then what, a bunch of workers that can get in on the four check or something? Well, we need to set the parameters. Do you go your team just based on total weight or does it have to be a certain number of individuals?

No, I think we could do total weight like the BNCR suggested. So then you could probably... My theory... Would you have 10 flyweights? No. That's a good question. Yeah, I would have 10 flyweights because they might be stronger than their frame. We'd have to bring in someone who's into physics

on that. I don't know... If it was a total weight and the number of... No, no, think about it. If it was total weight and the number of... I was going to think about it. If it was total weight and the number of... I was going to say physician. I'm like, no, that's not it. Physicist. Physicist.

There you go. No, just think this out. We're smart enough. We're not. But we're smart enough. If it was total weight and number of humans didn't matter, you would obviously take the lightest, strongest people you could find. I think every team would have to have the same... You would have to have parameters on it that it would be you couldn't surpass the total

weight and you'd have to have a equal number of i don't think you'd have no why i think it would be more interesting if you had just the total weight like oh it'd be more interesting yeah yeah more strategy can you imagine trying to put together the team? If you just put, let's say, three sumo wrestlers and just had them sitting there just holding on to the rope, you wouldn't be able to move them, would you? I don't know. With ten super strong guys, maybe you could. You know what?

We've got to put this to the test. Can you get the IOC on the phone? Yeah, sure. The next time, we're going to go AJ and then Jeff Wilson and then the IOC. President of the IOC. Yeah, I think that'll be good. That's the whole next hour of the Halford and Brough shows.

Hey, we got an idea for an Olympic event. Hello. Hello. You mentioned that we need Ask Us Anythings because it's a slow sports time. I'll also mention that we need Ask Us Anythings because we're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's, the best pizza place in the world, on East Broadway. The best Ask Us Anything Today will win a $100 gift card to the restaurant. All you got to do is text in.

Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. Hashtag it AUA. Put a pizza emoji into your text. I believe pizza emojis still work despite the massive tech outage that we're having. Pizza emojis are working. Thank you tech outage that we're having. Pizza emojis are working. Thank you. That's good.

I imagine they had a little blue screen of death. All the emojis. Every time we use an emoji, it's shut your computer down. Also, make it a good Ask Us Anything. This is a contest, not a giveaway. You have to have good content. So, again, Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. Coming up on the show, AJ from AJ's Pizza is going to join us. Jeff Wilson,

the president of the Nations Cup tournament, which was going on in Richmond this weekend, one of the best soccer tournaments of the year in the province of British Columbia, amateur-wise anyway. 7.30, Satyar Shah, 8 o'clock, Bob the Moj, Marjanovic. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.