September 25th: On This Day, Canada Topped Their Group at the 2000 Olympics
When Canada touched down in Sydney in September 2000, it was their first appearance in men's Olympic basketball for twelve years. As such, they weren't one of the more favoured outfits in the twelve-team competition, but they ended up being one of the biggest surprise packages of the tournament.
Their roster for the Sydney games did not boast the most firepower. They did have players who had seen international experience - Rowan Barrett, Peter Guarasci and Shawn Swords - and Todd McCullough, who at the time played in the NBA with the 76ers.
Even so, they didn't have players who were at the same levels as some they would be facing, including NBA stars Vince Carter, Kevin Garnett, Andrew Gaze and European stand out Sarunas Jasikevicius. Canada's number seven, Steve Nash, was still on the road to becoming the basketball superstar he would later be, at the time serving as a rotation player for the Dallas Mavericks.
What's more, they were in the most difficult of the two groups. As well as basketball mainstays Russia, Yugoslavia and Spain, they would also have to take on hosts Australia and African giants Angola.
In the opening game on September 17th, Canada dominated in the second half against Australia, a team headlined by 95/96 Chicago Bulls alum Luc Longley. Leading 101-97 at the final buzzer, they shocked the hosts and completed one of the early upsets of the tournament.
They followed this up with a 45-point win over Angola and two days afterwards were led by Michael Meeks with 24 points in their third straight win, 91-77 over Spain. They came up short in the following game, where they were defeated 77-59 by Russia. They were quick to pick themselves back up, seemingly saving the best for last.
On September 25th, 2000, Canada played their last group game against Yugoslavia. The silver medalists from the last tournament were among the favourites in Sydney and the only undefeated team in the group. When they faced Canada they led by nine points at half time, but the heroics of Steve Nash would turn it all around.
Leading all on the floor in scoring (26 points), rebounding and assists (eight each), Nash inspired the 83-75 eventual win over Yugoslavia, which saw them finish first place in Group B. The feeling was high for them to go even further in the knockout round, but sadly their time in Australia was about to be over.
They went on to face France - the fourth place team in Group A - in the quarter finals, who came out firing behind their leading all-arounder Laurent Sciarra. 23 points from Todd McCullough would not be enough to turn around the fifteen-point deficit. Canada's great start came to an abrupt end after the 68-63 loss to the French.
France went on to defeat Australia in the semi finals and face the USA in the gold medal game. True to form, the Americans won the gold with a 85-75 final victory, winning their third straight Olympic gold. Lithuania completed the podium with a 89-71 win over Australia in the bronze medal game.
Canada have not since returned to the Olympic stage, but for the player who went on to become one of the country's best known players, the 2000 games have more significance beyond that. Steve Nash has since called playing at the Olympics the best experience of his career, and cited that experience which helped better build his career in his lament of more players forgoing the chance to play internationally.
