Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 8/7/24

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

Guest hosts Jamie Dodd & Israel Fehr look back at the previous day in sports, plus they talk a tough Canada Basketball Olympic elimination loss with commentator Dan Shulman, who joins the show from Paris. 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 the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. It's hard to be the laughing stock of baseball. These long losing streaks, everyone talks about it, and the rest of the national news pick up on it. It's easy conversation, it's easy news. Out to left field, coming in, then attending, and the streak is over! You play to win the game. Good morning, welcome to another edition of Halford & Brough here on Sportsnet 650. Still no Halford, still no Brough, it's Jamie Dodd and my guy Israel Fair filling in for the week.

Izzy, how's it going man? Still, uh, still just recovering from that uh canada basketball loss yeah we will i was so excited leaving the show man we'll get into it in full detail but like and that's my nap that's my nap window yeah missed a nap to watch that and it was crushingly crushingly disappointing um all right so last or yesterday, I rattled the dogs by addressing them inappropriately and surprisingly. So I'm going to do it very carefully here. Hey, dog. Good morning. Good morning. Alright, nailed it.

Laddie, good morning. Hello, hello. How you guys doing? We're excellent. Is that your catch phrase, hello, hello? It's the best I could come up with. It is, yes. You're trademarking hello, hello? Yes. No one else can use it. I look forward to that. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line.

Already lots of good what we learns coming in, so get those in now. We might hit some of them throughout the course of the show, and of course we'll do it at 8.30 as well. Halford & Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. And of course, 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? We got a lot going on today. Of course, the Olympics still in full swing. We got some, I was going to say judo, taekwondo action on the TVs here, as well as some track cycling. So, you know, we'll keep you updated on any of the big developments in those sports.

Of course, on the guest list today, 630 John Greenberg from the Athletic in Chicago columnist is going to join us. As you heard in the intro, the White Sox snap a 21-game losing streak with a win against the A's last night. So we'll talk to John a little bit about the White Sox, everything they've been going through. But also, there's a lot going on in Chicago sports, right? Caleb Williams, first overall pick starting for the Bears. They're on hard knocks as well.

We might even get a little Conor Bedard talk in with John Greenberg. So that's at 630 at seven. Dan Shulman, who was on the call for that very, very disappointing performance by Canada basketball yesterday. He'll join us to break down everything that went down in the quarterfinal against France and and where the program goes from here at 730. Ben Lewis. He's the host of the Matchpoint Canada podcast,

also a writer for Sportsnet covering tennis. The National Bank Open got going last night, overshadowed a little bit more than it usually is, I would say, by the Olympics, but still always a big tournament in Canada. So we'll talk to Ben Lewis about that. And then at 8 o'clock, Vanni Sartini. His squad's got a big match against Pumas tonight at BC Place. So we'll talk to Vanny about that.

Also, I believe the transfer window ends tomorrow in MLS. So busy, busy time for the Whitecaps. Lots to get into with Vanny Sartini at 8 o'clock. Working in reverse. 8 o'clock, Vanny Sartini, Whitecaps manager. 7.30, Ben Lewis, host of the Matchpoint Canada podcast and a tennis writer for Sportsnet. 7 o'clock,

Dan Schulman, who called the Canada game against France yesterday. And at 6.30, John Greenberg, a columnist for The Athletic in Chicago. Before we do any of that, let's do What Happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit bccsa.ca. There's some good news coming out of the Olympics for Canada from yesterday that we will touch on. But, of course, we got to start with the bad news. The game that we spent a big portion of the show hyping up yesterday, Izzy. We were excited for it. We both rushed home right after the show to watch it. But unfortunately, Canada loses to France. 82-73 in the men's basketball quarterfinals in Paris. Their quest to get on the podium is over.

And 82-73, nine-point loss, doesn't really tell the whole story of this game. Right from the jump, France all over Canada. Canada looked rattled early. You and I both said, I live a lot closer to the station than you, but even by the time I got home and turned the TV on, it was like 16-5. They're down double digits.

I rushed home and turned the TV on. They're already down double digits. And it was one of those games where watching it, I just had that pit in my stomach, that sinking feeling in my stomach for pretty much the whole game. They made it close at points. We can talk about that. But right from the jump, more or less,

this was a tough one to watch if you were rooting for Canada. Yeah, unfortunately, a familiar feeling when it comes to Canadian basketball at this level. And that was a gut punch because it didn't play out the way that we anticipated. It wasn't Victor Wemenyama having an all-time game. Did he have some plays that only a guy like him could make? Yes, a couple of blocks, a couple of steals that were momentum shifting,

but he didn't dominate. It was a bunch of French League euro league veterans that that crushed canada and that was that was hard to stomach for a team that had the expectations not just in this country but going in they were expected to be the second best team in the tournament after the americans and obviously going out in the quarterfinals is not getting anywhere close to realizing that potential. Yeah, and there's so many different frustrating elements to this game. And, you know, I should mention, right, they were down by as many as 19. They got it to a five-point game with about four minutes left. So you do want to give some credit for sticking with it, for battling back.

But then a lot of the problems that had contributed to them digging that hole cropped up in the final minutes. Turnovers, lack of shot making, fouling on defense. We can talk about the refs as well. They just couldn't execute down the stretch. So they get it to five points. But it was never really in doubt. France always seemed in control of this game.

And as you mentioned, you know, we spent a lot of time on the show yesterday talking about this game from the perspective of how are they going to deal with Victor Wemba and Yama and Rudy Gobert, right? The Twin Towers download the height, the elite NBA defensive presence that both of them bring, the versatility on offense that Wemby has. What are they going to do with this, especially given the lack of size for Canada? And I don't think it was just us. I don't think that was like a media creation that that was the focus on this game. Because, you know what, reading the reports at a practice, a lot of the questions were, hey, what are you going to do against Wemby, right? And it's like, well, Dylan Brooks is going to do it. You know, we're going to have to try some different things.

I think the Canadian coaching staff was really prepared to think about and solve the problem of how do we deal with those two guys. And then Gobert plays less than four minutes in the game. Like he was a total non-factor. France didn't even, he wasn't even a part of the game plan, more or less for France. Wemby goes two of 10 from the field, seven points. Now he did impact the game defensively, right?

Blocks, deterring shots, steals, rebounds, all of that. So he did, I don't want to say he didn't affect the game, but he wasn't a key part of their offense by any stretch. And as you said, it was the supporting players, right? Gershon Yabasili, Matthias Lesore, Isaiah Cordinier. Those are the guys doing the damage. Those were the guys killing Canada. And it's very, very frustrating to finally have this team loaded with

not just NBA talent, but good NBA talent. Obviously, starting with SGA, who was really good yesterday, but like contributing players on contending teams. Right. Lou Dort's a starter on a really, really good team. R.J. Barrett is a you know, he hasn't been on contending teams, but he's a regular starter in the NBA. Dylan Brooks, regular starter in the NBA. Dylan Brooks, regular starter in the NBA. And those guys all got outplayed by, as you said, EuroLeague guys, guys who had a cup of coffee in the NBA, but then went back to Europe. And that happens in FIBA, but it just felt like they didn't have an answer and they were maybe caught a little bit off guard by the game plan from France.

Well, France, to me, they flipped. They basically flipped the game plan on Canada's head because going into the game plan from France. Well, France, to me, they flipped, they basically flipped the game plan on Canada's head because going into the game, my thought was those wing players, you know, the guys like Dort and Brooks, and we talked a lot about how Brooks is the one that sets the tone for this team and he's the one that's going to take on Wemby

and he has that attitude, he has the personality that they're not afraid, etc., etc. And that they needed to be aggressive early. Because our thought was, well, France is going to win. They're going to have to play this methodical game. They've got the two big guys take advantage of Canada's weakness. They didn't even give Canada that opportunity because they have these energy players, these guys that are very accomplished in the EuroLeague, to do what I was hoping Canada would do to France.

They flipped it on their head. Despite going small, France was the more physical, aggressive team. That is one of the most frustrating things, right? That you thought, okay, maybe they'll have this advantage inside because of their height. But they had an advantage inside, not necessarily because of their height, just because guys like Yabaseli and Lesort were out-muscling Canada, were working harder, were being more aggressive. And they fed off the crowd. And yes, we haven't mentioned the refs yet.

And the refs are, I think, a part of this conversation. It might be a small part of the conversation. There were a few calls that went against Canada that were pretty shocking. But you still, you lose by nine. At one point, you're down by over 15. Like, you're not, it's not one call at the end of a game where you're getting screwed. No. And so, look. you're not, it's not one call at the end of a game where you're getting screwed. No. And so look, and you know, I know Shea Gildress Alexander was asked about it after the game.

And he basically said, you know, we didn't lose because of the refs. And credit to SGA for taking that approach, for not having the kind of emotional reaction and blaming the refs. I get it. You look at the free throw discrepancy, it was a massive discrepancy, right? But at the same time, France was being way more physical and aggressive inside. And when you're on the front foot, when you're the aggressor, what tends to happen is you get the calls. And I think there's a part of this where you can be frustrated by some of the calls that went against Canada. But also at a certain point, you got to defend without fouling. You have to stop fouling. And Canada just wasn't able to do that. And it felt like every time Canada made a big bucket offensively, France came back and they were able to get to the line and they were able to get some easy points up and kind of stop any momentum that Canada might have had. a little bit, right? Which you wouldn't think would be possible. You know you're playing on the other team's home court in front of their home fans.

But part of that is that the refs might be caught up in it a little bit. You have to be mentally prepared for that. And it felt like Canada just kept getting more and more frustrated

that they were sending France to the line over and over again. You have to have a plan in place to deal with that. And I will say, you know, we can talk, look, we haven't talked about Jamali Murray yet.

OK, so let's do that actually first before we get into the coaching jamal murray had an ugly ugly game three of 13 from the field seven points turnovers bad decisions and this was a game you know there are some players and there are some games where like even wemby right two of ten from the field wemby had a positive impact on the game for France. He was making plays defensively. He was getting rebounds. He was impacting the game. Jamal Murray, three of 13 from the field, not a defensive guy, wasn't creating offense for others, was making poor decisions,

was kind of killing the flow of the offense at times. It wasn't just the bad shooting. He wasn't doing anything to help the team out there. And it was tough to watch. And we know what a great player he can be at his peak we never saw it in this tournament and certainly not yesterday and this is a team loss right they win and lose as a team i'm not pinning it all on jamal murray but if you're just listing factors that contributed to it his night is up there for sure yeah it has to be and it was a really really disappointing tournament

for him and i know that there are some lingering why was he coming off the bench stuff coming from him right that that's that's been expressed by him that's a you know coach's decision and look i get it you're a guy that at the highest level at his best changed nba finals games was the second best player on a team that won the title he did not look anywhere close to being that guy they needed him to hit some big shots he had a

couple of open threes that he didn't hit and that was at a point in the game where they kept closing the gap and they got to within five and it reminded me a little bit and this tends to happen a lot in international basketball,

it did remind me of the game against Spain where Canada went up pretty big early, had a double-digit lead, and then throughout the second half, Spain gets to within five, and then Canada gets it back to 10. But what the difference was is that late in that game when things kind of got a little bit tighter

and it's not so much back and forth, it's very much a half-court game, spanish team eventually did get it down to two right and canada just could not do that murray missed a number of layups he missed a number of threes he had a couple of bad passes that you know as you said jamie just basically took the team out of their offense. So, yeah, a really tough one for a guy that was, you know, I think a lot of credit was given to him for wanting to continue to play for Canada despite having, you know, he's been on a contending team. He's been on a team that's made some deep playoff runs. He's had injury issues.

He's had those injury issues, and it's been, you know, I might not be there at the training camp immediately, but I'm still committed to play for Canada. So for this to be the result is hugely, hugely disappointing. I'm sure disappointing on a personal level, too, but he's supposed to be the second guy on this team. And you saw the difference in this tournament, and especially yesterday when he is not even close to that level, what it does to the team. And he had a play in the first quarter where, you know, pulls up for a long two. Then it looks like it's going to be blocked.

So as he's in the air, changes his mind and tries to pass, and it's a turnover. And it's like basketball 101. Don't leave your feet if you're not sure what you're going to do. Right? Once you leave your feet, you're shooting the ball. You can't change it up in midair. And it's just a player who was not in rhythm, who was not feeling comfortable pretty much from the start and was never able to get it going now because I don't want to put it all on Jamal Murray.

My question that follows from this and what I was wondering watching this game is, why is he still on the floor? He played minutes of a 40 minute game coming off the bench just under 24 minutes of a 40 minute game and he probably plays canada's deepest position right andrew nemhard who played about 16 minutes had an incredible game against spain was knocking down shots was making plays for canada nikhil alexander walker is a good nba player played like three minutes yesterday so at a certain, you have to recognize and say, okay, this guy's supposed to be our second player, but he's not getting it done right now.

We have to go to another option. We have other options. It's not like he's a big and you're like, you know what? This is our guy we have to ride with. We don't have anyone else on the bench. They had other legitimate options. And I don't know why Jordy Fernandez kept going with jamal murray i do feel like that's another part of the story here is that canada got outcoached a little bit right

we talked about the surprise element of france going small and i almost think that watching the game it felt like canada got punched in the face right out of the gate and i think it threw them off their game plan and jordy fernandez be a little bit of panic because it felt like to me in the second half, he was leaving Jamal Murray and basically as a Hail Mary. Like, hey, maybe Jamal will get hot and he'll shoot some threes and that'll get us back into the game and let them get off their game plan. Because there's no way he was one of the five players who should have been out there trying to cut down that lead for Canada. He just wasn't being effective. And I don't know why, despite having other options, Jordy Fernandez kept running Jamal Murray out there.

It felt like the team and the coaching staff were all just very, very rattled by the environment, by going down early, and they were never able to adjust. They were never able to take that next step or the coach to make that adjustment to get the team back in the game. Yeah, I think you nailed it. That, to me, is the reason that Murray was in the game. Was, hey, they flipped the game plan on us.

They did what we should have been doing to them. Our Hail Mary, our wild card is this guy who has done this at the highest level and and help win finals games by getting hot and hitting big shots but there were no indications in the first three games that he was going he was bad that he wasn't the game against spain there was nothing to see that there were no like little hints that you could squint at and say like oh i see it coming for him he's gonna he's gonna get hot now it wasn't there. It wasn't their all tournament. That's tough. You can put it on the injuries,

but as a coach, you've got to adjust to that. You've got to recognize as difficult as this is, I'm not going to roll with the big name guy. I've got to go with the players like Andrew Nembhard who have been actually getting it done for me at this tournament. It was very frustrating sitting and watching it and not seeing Jordy Fernandez make those adjustments. 650, 650, you can text in what was the most frustrating thing for you watching that game? What's your reaction to this?

I mean, ultimately, as much as we can say this team has taken step forwards and they win their group and all of that, this is still a devastating, devastating loss for a team that clearly had the talent to contend for a medal. And now the question is, where does the program go from here? You start to look ahead to the 2028 Olympics. They'll be in L.A. And look, there's still lots of young talent on this team, especially Shea Gilgis-Alexander.

He's going to be in his prime, and he's one of the best players in the NBA. So you have that as a building block. You're always going to be in a pretty good position. But there's some major questions as well. Right. And, you know, for me, it starts. Who can they add? Who can they add?

Not just to the kind of the perimeters of the program, but to who can they add that's going to move the needle? Right. And Zach Eady is probably the name that comes up. We saw the lack of size. He certainly addresses that. Yep. Can he establish himself as a winning player first of all at the nba level but then as a guy who can move the needle at the international level

i think that's going to be probably the biggest question for team canada going into 2028 is is this another guy who you can kind of lock in as a starter lock into someone you can really count on not just to be there but to play a big role for you going into these types of big games. Yeah, the size is a factor. Even if it wasn't what decided the game yesterday, you could imagine a scenario where even if France decides we're going to go and we're going to play a little bit smaller,

we're going to play through the wings and with some of our energy guys, that just having a big presence at center would potentially help stabilize Canada. And then if you're going to look ahead to 2028, the Americans are still going to have big men. Wemby's not going anywhere. If anything, he's going to be better four years from now. And you have to imagine that Jokic is still going to be around.

And he's still going to be a factor that you're going to have to deal with. So, yes, certainly the size is going to be be part of that discussion. And then I guess, look, I don't want to belabor this or make it a bigger deal than it is. about coming off the bench, then you have to have a conversation about, you know, not to overuse a term that we use in sports talk a lot, but what's the culture like? You know, this is a guy that I just gave him credit for wanting to show up for Canada and being there.

But if he's not fully bought into the role that he's supposed to be playing, or at least, you know, using that as an excuse for his poor play, then you've got to evaluate that part of it you know you can get all the players that you want you know you can you can discuss oh canada missed out on would have andrew wiggins made a difference i think we're past those conversations now that that was for that was for four five six seven eight years ago let's a couple texters asking is is he the Elias Pettersson of the Canada team? That's good sports radio content right there.

That's the whole segment right there. So, yeah, I mean, they've got questions, Jamie. And the thing with Jamal Murray also is he's 27, and look, that's not old. He's in his prime, but you start to forecast to 2028, he'll be 31, and when injuries start, like you know

this in international soccer, soccer right as a player gets close to 30 sometimes they decide to focus on their club career more of an international player right especially a guy who's had repeated injury concerns so look would you love to have a really you know in form at the peak of his powers jamal murray healthy for 2028 yeah of course you would but i don't think you can count on that i think you have to have another plan for how you're going to win as a team rather than just crossing your fingers and hoping jamal murray is 100 and good to go i i don't think that's something you can rely on at all at this point i also wonder if jordy fernandez how long he's going to be around here right he's got a job with the brooklyn nets now as the head coach he's done a lot of good things, so I don't want to let one disappointing loss

kind of change my opinion of him, but it was a disappointing coaching job. So lots of questions going forward for Team Canada basketball. We'll talk to Dan Schulman about a lot of that coming up at 7. I did want to mention, as I said, the good news, and a bunch of people have texted in about it. Richmond's Cameron Rodgers wins gold in the women's hammer throw, which means Canada and B.C. specifically is officially the hammer throw powerhouse of world athletics. The hammer throw capital of the world right here in British Columbia as we go double gold

behind Cameron Rogers and Ethan Katzenberg. A woman hasn't won an individual athletics gold for Canada since Ethel Catherwood in 1928. It's been a long time since a Canadian woman has taken home individual athletics gold. So an incredible accomplishment for Cameron Rogers. And I got to ask, what is it? Where did we get our gift for chucking hammers a super long way? Like, what's in the water here? What makes us so talented at hammer throw?

I was trying it all day yesterday, and it is quite hard, I got to say. It's not as easy as it looks. You just went down to Home Depot and grabbed a hammer? Yeah, I'm not allowed there anymore. Started chucking it around? Apparently, it's frowned upon. I did want to read this, though, by Harry from New West, an early what we learned

says there must be something in the water that makes British Columbia the world leader in the hammer throw because he says not only do we have the Olympic gold medals in hammer throw, we have successful Masters athletes as well. Myrtle Acton is from Sook. She has the world record for women 90 years and above by throwing at 20.47 meters.

And Olga Katelko from North Van has the world record for hammer throw for women 95 and above by throwing at a distance of 14.92 meters. I had no idea that there were 90 and 95 year old age classes for hammer throw. So shout out to the 90-year-old. I'm trying to say that. Getting it done. Myrtle is like the most 90-year-old name ever. They got to bring Myrtle back.

There was also an Ethel a second ago. That was a great name. That was the person who won the gold in 1928. She could have been a contemporary of Myrtle. We got to popularize Ethel and Myrtle again. Got to bring that back. It's got to be a thing. I just love it.

I want to go to one of these like 90-year-old plus meets. This is incredible. Also like 20 meters? Throwing a hammer 20 meters at 90 years old? Yeah. That sounds really hard. With the technique too, right? With the spins.

With the spin? Absolutely. I think just doing the spins at 95, those hammer throw spins would knock a lot of people down. Seriously, that's dangerous. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. All right. Digging this one.

I like it. Is this Eurodance enough for you? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. See, I'm raising the bar and you're clearing it. I appreciate it. I'm pretty sure this is what France was partying to after beating Canada. This has some Daft Punk vibes to it, for sure.

No doubt about it. The pride This has some Daft Punk vibes to it, for sure. No doubt about it. The pride of France, Daft Punk. Halvard and Brough here, Sportsnet 650. It's Jamie Dunn and Israel Fair. Fill it in for the week. Halvard and Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today.

This hour of Halvard and Brough is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer, meticulously brewed for quality and taste. Primetime Craft Beer is full flavor without compromise at a liquor store near you or visit the brewery to see how it's made. Of course, we're also 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?

We're going to be joined by Dan Schulman momentarily here. Of course, he was on the call for the Canada-France quarterfinal yesterday in men's basketball in Paris. So we'll talk to Dan about that. Of course, 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. So we'll read, get your What We Learned submissions. And now, of course, we'll do them at 830. We might have a chance here. We got a lot of guests, but we'll see if we have a chance to touch on some of them before we get to 830 as well. No guests yet, but we'll get Dan on the line momentarily here. As I mentioned, 650 is the Dunbar-Lumber text line.

And we had a couple people, Andy mentioned this, we had a couple people text him. We were talking about Jamal Murray and his struggles in a big game. And Phoenix texted it in. Murray is the Pedersen of the men's basketball team. Somebody else texted it in. Where is Brough to draw this back to how this can compare to Elias Pedersen? I was thinking about this during the break. The difference

is, so what was the complaint about Elias Pettersson in the playoffs and down the stretch, but especially in the playoffs? He needed to be more engaged. He needed to have a bigger impact on the game, be more aggressive, be more assertive. With Jamal Murray, it's kind of like, we need you to do less.

It was the opposite problem, right? It's like, he was, was like Pedersen had trouble getting shots. Murray took 13 shots last night, but it was like this isn't working. So I see the you know, I see the parallels, right? Because it's a high profile player who had a disappointing moment in a big game. But it's just a different issue, right? Like Pedersen, it was like you're not doing anything out there. We need you to do stuff. Murray, it was like, hey're not doing anything out there. We need you to do stuff.

Murray. It was like, Hey, sit this one out for a little bit. Do a little bit less. You're killing us out there with all the stuff you're doing. So like, he's more of the McKay F is that,

is that where we're going? Yeah. Well, yeah. McKay was doing stuff, but it wasn't good stuff. It would be more like, just like Murray.

Yeah. Murray would be, I think Murray's performance would be more akin to like a defenseman who was being too aggressive, trying to rush the puck up and having turnovers and stuff. You know what I mean? Where it's like, OK, hey, I see what you're trying to do. That's a nice idea. If it was working, that's fine. That would be good, but it's not working.

So cut it out and try to find something that would be working. You know what I mean? That's more what I would compare the Jamal Murray performance to rather than somebody who was invisible, which, you know, let's face it. Well, Elias Patterson was for the majority of the playoffs for the Canucks. Yeah, it would have been better if that was Murray, to be honest, the way that the game yesterday played out. That's tough. I feel bad dumping on the guy, but it was ugly.

Like it was just there's no way around it. It was just a really, really tough performance. He couldn't hit a shot. They needed him to be better to move on. That's just simple. Now joining us to talk more about the loss to France for the Canadian men's basketball team at the Olympics. He was calling the game

for CBC, calling all of the basketball on CBC for these Olympics. He is Dan Shulman. Dan, thank you very much for doing this today. How are you? I'm good, guys. How are you doing? We're doing all right. Pretty disappointed watching that game unfold yesterday.

And, you know, I was saying earlier on in the show, like it was one of those games where as a fan rooting for Canada, I just kind of had that sinking feeling in my stomach right from the jump, like that pit in my stomach. For you, what was it like just to kind of watch that game unfold in front of your eyes in person? Well, you know, disappointing, surprising to start. I think they were down, you know, what, 7-2, 16-5, whatever it is.

Like just to, you know, to fall behind so far so quickly was ominous. And, you know, we saw the impact that Uwe Mbanyama had on the game, but then he went out and France kept playing well. And you could see early that France was being uber-aggressive. You know, Isaias Cordinier, who's not an NBA player, a very nice international player, but he's like 8 or 9 on their depth chart, he totally went off and dominated the first quarter. And then their two bench big guys, Yabasele and Lesort, just dominated Canada.

Like, Canada was very small. And, you know, I know I kept saying it. They kept piling up the fouls. They kept getting to the free throw line. They kept making their free throws. And Canada didn't seem to have an answer on the inside. Eventually, Jordy Fernandez went to a bigger lineup. But by then, they had kind of dug themselves a hole. And at the offensive end, and this is the part I really

don't understand, they just never looked in sync. The ball movement wasn't as good as it normally is. I would have thought that their guards and wings would be able to get to the rim or get the shots they wanted against France. That's where Canada's advantage should have been. But, you know, Gilgis Alexander was great. R.J. Barrett certainly had his moments. Lou Dort was pretty good, too, but they didn't get much from Jamal Murray and they didn't get much from Dylan Brooks. And, you know, they needed all of their guys. I didn't think it was going to be easy,

but I did think Canada was going to win the game. You know, hostile crowd and all that, I get it. But I thought they were going to win the game. You know, hostile crowd and all that, I get it. But I thought they were going to win the game. But, boy, when you dig yourself a hole like that, like you have to expend so much energy to try to get back into it. You could see Shea Gilgis-Alexander was exhausted, like just exhausted. And, you know, he carried them the entire game, played 37 minutes of very physical basketball.

But he needed help. You've called some major events across a few sports, some great baseball, some great basketball. Where did that crowd rank for you? Is that up there? Because on TV, it seemed like they were having a really, really good time. Yeah, it's up there. It's funny, the headsets we have here,

they're like industrial strength, big headsets. And so I don't know, and I didn't take them off at all during the call. So I don't know how much that was muffling the crowd, but it's right up there. I mean, like you said, you do a basketball game at Kansas, you do a playoff game at Fenway Park. You know, you know, there are it's it's on the list. It's right up there. And it was it was festive and they could smell blood. Right.

And they just kept getting louder and louder and louder. And not only the fact that France was leading, but the way they were playing, too, I think really got them going. I mean, I'm sure the French fans came into it thinking they were the underdog because, you know, Canada was supposed to be a legitimate metal contender. But the fact that they jumped out to an early lead, I think, really even got the crowd louder. And there were a few hundred Canadians there, but the vast, vast majority of people, obviously, were rooting for France. So it's right up there, I think. Dan, just before we got you on the vast, vast majority of people, obviously, were rooting for France. So it's right up there, I think.

Dan, just before we got you on the air, we were talking a little bit more about Jamal Murray's disappointing performance. And really, it was yesterday. But, you know, watching the games on TV, he just never really looked right throughout this tournament, throughout these Olympics. And we know, obviously, the injury history of Jamal. He's coming off the bench. But just you watching these games in person, what did you see from Jamal Murray? What was it that prevented him from really having the impact he could have at his best for Canada? I mean, I didn't see a lot of jump, like, you know,

burst or whatever. He wasn't getting around guys very well. And I didn't think a lot of his shots, a lot, you know, some of the shots were a few dribbles and a step back three as opposed to just a catch and shoot. And he's obviously used to being a lead guard, right? He's used to being the alpha in the backcourt. Obviously, he plays with Jokic, but he's used to being the guy with the ball. And Shea's the guy with the ball on this team. And so I don't know if he had trouble adjusting. I know there are some comments alluding to that today, but you know,

he says he was healthy. So I got to take him at his word. Um, I don't know if he was in peak shape or not. Um, I don't know if his knee is back to a hundred percent or not. Like those are unknowns. He says he's fine, but, um, I never saw that explosion, like take a guy off a dribble, get to the ramp. Uh, I didn't see that very much. And it hurt them. You know, I still think they had enough to do better than they did, even with him at that level.

But it hurt them, the fact that he wasn't able to come in and be a, you know, he should have been able to come in and there's no drop off, right, when he comes into the game. And that wasn't necessarily the case. They had the starting five, and the starting five is great. But after that, Andrew Nembhard had one great game and another pretty good game, as far as I can remember. Murray wasn't great. McKeel Alexander-Walker wasn't great.

Kelly Olenek hardly played. Maybe Kelly's starting to be a little bit on the downside of his career, and the quickness is an issue. Kembridge gave him some good minutes when he was in there. Trey Lyles was fine when he was in there. But for all the depth that they added and they did, it didn't really show itself as much as I thought it needed to for them to get where they want to get. So they've got to go back to the drawing board now.

And some of these guys aren't going to play again. I have no idea, obviously, if Jamal Murray will play again or not, but he'll be 31, 32 years old the next time around if they make it to the Olympics. Like now you've got to start thinking again about, well, you qualify for the World Cup, but are all the guys going to go the year before and play in the world cup in order to get that direct path into the Olympics or not. And who knows if they, if they will, or they won't, I think there it's, you know, there are three or four guys. It's pretty easy to say won't be a part of this from now on, but, you know,

just because of aging out or whatever, but I have no idea if Jamal will, but it all starts with Shea Gilgis, Alexander and, and, you know, hopefully he's as invested in this in the next four years as he was in the last couple of years. You mentioned SGA, and he obviously was phenomenal yesterday and then had a phenomenal tournament. But you are right, obviously, they have to build the team around him as we do look forward a little bit to a potential World Cup, a potential 2028 Olympics. Based on what you saw at the Olympics here in Paris,

where's the key area that this team needs to look at, needs to try to strengthen? Size. Yeah, size. You know, if you bring back SGA, and let's assume Andrew Nembhard is a part of it as well, and we can leave Murray out of the conversation for now, and, you know, let's assume Bar Nembhard is a part of it as well and we can leave Murray out of the conversation for now and you know let's assume Barrett and Brooks are still there like that's

a very good backcourt wing and then you can add guys like Benedict Mathurin and Shaden Sharp like two young rising stars in the NBA but they're guards if you look at the big guys they have you know if a Linux not a part of it,

and I think Kelly is 33 now, so he didn't play much this time. I don't know if Virch will be a part of it. You know, he's in his 30s and has had knee issues. It's a good thing that he was healthy now. Powell is in his 30s. And then you've got Trey Lyles. Those were the four big guys.

They need size. So I think we could safely assume, well, in FIBA, you can never, you should never safely assume anything, right. Cause a guy's hurt, a guy's a free agent, whatever. But you know, probably Zach Eady is a part of it next time around. Let's see what kind of a pro he's going to be first. And then you got, you know, like some tweeners like, Oh, Max Prosper and, and O'Shea Brissett, but they need size. Like you look at, you know, they were bullied by Gershon Yabaselli

and Mathias Lesort. And again, those are very good European players. Very, very good European players. Yabaselli played in the NBA, but they were quicker and stronger in some cases than the Canadian bigs. So the one thing I don't think this program has had, even if they bring an ED, that's great. But that kind of 6'8", 250 dude who can really run, really jump,

shoot some threes, physical guy like LeSore and Yabasele. I mean, you watch the game. They got where they wanted to get. They did what they wanted to do. And Canada didn't have an answer for it. And again, a lot of times they were playing small ball, right? So Brooks or Barrett were trying to deal with guys two inches taller and 30 pounds heavier, and that's hard.

So, yeah, and I'm trying to think of other guys. I haven't put a lot of time into this, honestly, because I'm still doing two games a day. But, you know, hopefully there are some guys out there. But I keep hearing, wait till you see the next wave, wait till you see the next wave, and that sort of thing. But a 17-year-old now might not be Olympics ready in four years. They got to have some guys who are closer to being in the league, closer to their prime, that sort of thing. They need more size. No doubt about it.

Dan, I know you're busy. As you said, you're calling a couple games today, so we'll let you go. But we really appreciate you taking some time to weigh in on Canada basketball with us today. All right, guys. Thanks. Have a good one. Thanks, Dan.

That is Dan Shulman, who was on the call for the Canadian basketball games and, as he mentioned, still doing the call for the rest of the tournament for CBC. So you'll be able to hear Dan for the semifinals and for the gold medal game as well. And, you know, one thing he said there, obviously, we were talking about it as well, right? They need to find those interior players that size. I totally did not realize that Dwight Powell was already 33. I always kind of had an idea that he was like maybe 28 or something like that in my head.

So really, you're two bigs. You're two main bigs. Kelly Olenek, who, as he said, didn't play much, been a warrior for the program, given them a ton. He's probably not figuring into the next cycle.

Dwight Powell might not be figuring into the next cycle. It's pretty much a blank slate in the post, and Zach Eadie is going to be part of it. But beyond that, I think there's major questions. I think the other thing he mentioned there too,

where it doesn't necessarily have to be a seven footer, but as he said, that, that kind of six, eight, six, nine guy, who's not a traditional big,

but has the strength to play inside and can do some other things, right? Like that's such a big part of the FIBA game is everyone needs to be a little bit of versatile, right? Handle game is everyone needs to be a little bit of versatile. Right. Handle the ball, shoot the ball a little bit. It's that type of player that you really notice the absence of against France yesterday as well for Canada. And as he said, OK, it's great to have high school guys coming up, but you need kind of guys to win at these events. You need guys who are, you know, in that 24, 25, 26 age range.

If you're in high school right now, you can't really count on somebody being a contributor at the next Olympics. Yeah, certainly. I mean, look how long it's taken this group with guys in the NBA. We were talking Rio 2016 potentially being Canada's coming out party. They don't get there. They don't get into Tokyo, right? It took a long time with guys that were already in the NBA to get the roster correct and to get a team that could even qualify. So that obviously makes what played out yesterday in France a big part of that disappointment. your questions about how is this team going to establish themselves because in this is something that's come up a lot and it's not just with canada this was a conversation when the u.s kind of had its ups and downs post dream team was that the european teams and the south american teams with

some of those players um that play in europe and that play together and they play more international games together they have cohesiveness they have a fluidity to their game um and that's not really why i why france won yesterday i think france won yesterday because they had uh they flipped the match up on canada and then those players had phenomenal games and they were aggressive and they were not afraid and they were feeding off of a really pro france crowd and it did it did look like a lot of fun uh if i wasn't cheering for canada i'm sure i would have had a good time at that game the way that the crowd was reacting but uh obviously was

was hoping to see the canadians pull it out but that was that was the truth was that they put those guys and you know yabu sally in particular um being a guy that's in that range the type of player that you're discussing someone who's aggressive who can play a little bit of bully ball and like you know think about the there's there's i've seen throughout these olympics and arguments about who's the best american olympics player and because especially a lot of these guys on this team or on the past teams, you know,

the dream team, that was the end of magic. That was the end of bird. We didn't really see Jordan play for the U S again, right? That was, that was a one-time thing. Whereas LeBron's played a ton of Olympics.

Kevin Durant's played a ton of Olympics. There's a, I saw an argument about, well, is LeBron or Durant the better U S player? And then there are a lot of people prior to these Olympics saying Carmelo Anthony. Carmelo was there a lot and scored a lot.

Think about the kind of player that Carmelo was later in his career when he was thriving and often coming off the bench, but still thriving for the U.S. team. It was bully ball Carmelo. It was a guy that could shoot. Not a guy that you're expecting to be a defensive stopper, but a guy that's gonna he's gonna be aggressive he's gonna he's not gonna be afraid to take the ball into the post there is like

it's often discussed that the nba game and the fiba game are different and to me the most standout thing is that it's physical but not physical in the sense that you know you would compare it to hockey or anything like that it's physical on kind of these one-on-one battles where you, when you have an opportunity to take a shot at someone, you do it. Yeah. And the refs generally let you get away with it. Not,

you can't really do that in the NBA. So that is, and those, those French players are very well versed in that kind of game. And I think that that was another part of the, of the, of the consensus with Canada was that they weren't prepared for that.

Yeah, it's going to be a big job for Canada, I think, to just craft an identity. First of all, figure out, are there players of the mold we're talking about, right? That we can incorporate into the program. And maybe they're not NBA players, right? Because as we've seen,

you can be a non-NBA player. You can be a good European player and player you can be a good european player and really contribute to a team's success at these tournaments so maybe they have to expand the field a little bit but find guys who can contribute and then i think ultimately you're going to have to just craft an identity maybe you don't have those players but okay then what are we going to do to compensate for what are we going to do to build a winning identity with the players that we have and i think that's going to be key And that it's tough because you can't just go and sign a guy that's tall. It takes continuity. They don't have that opportunity. So, OK, hey, we don't have the ideal roster. What are we going to do to to make it work with the players we do have? And as Dan Shulman said, right now, you're in a position where, OK, you got to go to the world cup to try to qualify for the olympics are our high profile nba players up for that sort of commitment are they going to be there to help you build that program to help you build that culture it's a very

very difficult position uh that they find themselves in now i will say now as much as i'm saying it's not just about raw height right and you don't want to be relying on guys Who are teenagers right now There is a guy In Montreal have you heard about this guy Teenager he's going to He's going to play for Florida Olivier Ryu Listed at

Seven foot nine So this is what I'm talking about Well yeah I like I have no idea There's a certain point where you know like manu bowl and george version yeah it's like you're kind of canada's secret weapon you're kind of too tall to actually be that good at basketball you know what i mean you're you're more of a specialist shot blocker but yeah as you said maybe this guy can be our secret weapon seven foot nine out of quebec olivier ryu going to flor in four years. I'm just saying bring

him off the bench cause havoc for 10 minutes swatting shots and everything. This could be the answer. This could be the player that we're waiting for. All right, 650 650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. Do you want to throw one question at you? Is he okay before we go to break here? Are you

more confident in the next four years of Canada men's basketball or men's soccer, which side gives you more hope, more reason for confidence going forward here. I suppose like I know Canada soccer coming off the good performance at Copa did have a disappointing, I think world cup after like kind of similar,

right? Where it's like, wow, we're back at this big tournament. This is amazing. We have all this talent, not quite having the results you wanted so which one are you more confident in going forward i still think it's basketball and that's with understanding that the expectations for the basketball team will remain metal or bust yeah while the expectations

for the soccer team will not be you gotta win the world cup a world cup semi or something like that it will be progress and i still think that the foundation being there look if you're gonna make the player comparisons sga being alfonso davies for as good as alfonso davies is basketball is a sport where if you have that guy you have a guy that's arguably top three, top five in the NBA right now, it's going to make more of a difference. And I do feel like you're going to be able to, or you're hoping that you're going to be able to find the pieces to surround him to be competitive for this next cycle with the World Cup and the Olympics in four years. Whereas, look, I think that there were some there were some

positive signs from the copa america performance but at the end of the day the canadian men's soccer team still did not score enough right they they got by they got results they they played a one fairly competitive game with argentina but it's not like they went into that tournament scored a bunch of goals and got people really excited about what they were doing. They still have a ways to go to accomplish that. Whereas, look, as disappointing as yesterday was for Canadian basketball fans, it's still major progress.

It's just we don't view it that way because the expectations were so high. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.