Canada won their first ever medal at a FIBA world championship by beating the United States 127-118 in overtime on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines to finish third behind champion Germany and runner-up Serbia.
The United States, which won the FIBA world cups in Turkey in 2010 and Spain in 2014, failed to make the top three in both China in 2019 and Philippines in 2023, marking their worst phase since failing to medal in 1963, 1967 and 1970.
In one of the greatest performances in Canadian basketball history, Dillon Brooks hit 7 of 8 from beyond the arc (matching Kevin Durant’s total in the 2010 World Cup final) and scored 39 points, two more than Manitoba native Carl Ridd notched against the Philippines in 1954.
“I missed a couple of Qualifiers and Windows, and I’m just happy to be here with my teammates, and put this jersey on, represent my country for all the Canadians out there,” said Brooks. “Everybody that was throwing shots on Twitter and Instagram, watching me play, it just helps me get better each and every day, motivates me to be better on the court for my teammates.”
“I’m really proud of Dillon. This is how it looks when they let Dillon play,” said Canada coach Jordi Fernandez. “It’s not just on the defensive end that he’s the best perimeter defender in the World Cup, offensively he’s been extremely efficient. Not just in this game. I would take this guy on my team every day of the week from now until the end of my career.”
“He plays his ass off every single day,” said Canada captain Kelly Olynyk, the only holdover from Canada’s winless journey at FIBA 2010 in Turkey. “He’s someone you want fighting beside you in the locker room. I was really happy to see him play the way he did. He’s just gotten better and better every game for us.”
The game often resembled an NBA all-star game, with spectacular plays at both ends. “It was back and forth for the most part,” said Canada’s all-NBA guard Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 31 points, 12 assists and 6 rebounds. “We built leads, they came back, we built another lead, they came back.”
Brooks hit threes to give Canada a 9-point lead after the first quarter but USA responded with a 15-2 run. Canada led 58-56 at half-time and 91-82 after three quarters. USA tied the game after a 12-3 run.
Late in regulation time, SGA made a pull-up jumper from midrange and Brooks added a pair of free throws to give Canada a 4-point lead with seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. But USA’s Mikal Bridges hit his first free throw, intentionally missed the second, got his own rebound and hit a three-pointer falling out of bounds with 0.6 seconds left to force overtime. “Coach told me to miss the second one,” said Bridges. “I tried to miss it to the right, that’s where you want the ball in situations like that and I just read and reacted. I knew it was low time so I just went and shot it.”
Olynyk, who scored 11 points, had a chance to win it for Canada but just missed a three at the buzzer.
Led by SGA and Brooks, Canada dominated in overtime against the exhausted Americans, who were missing three players due to illness.
Overall, Canada converted 24 of 28 free throws. RJ Barrett had 23 points and 7 rebounds. Lu Dort had 11 points and was plus-25 in 32 minutes.
For USA, Anthony Edwards had 24 points, Austin Reaves added 23 and Bridges finished with 19 points.
“We fought today, I’ll take that with me after this, but it hurts,” said Bridges, who was known for often greeting every member of Team USA’s support staff, including media officers. “The biggest thing I’ll take away are the relationships with the coaches, the players, the staff, that’s what I’ll take away from this experience. I think I’ll never say no (to the national team). It’s an honor every time, even though the outcome was not what we wanted, I wouldn’t trade these six weeks for nothing.”
“Feel bad for our guys, they put so much into this for the last six weeks, an amazing group,” said USA coach Steve Kerr. “It was tough to hang in there tonight without three guys who are important to the team. But these guys fought, Mikal hit an incredible shot to force overtime, we just ran out of gas. Canada deserved it.”
Kerr noted that other teams have caught up with the USA. “I was on the staff in 2019 and we finished seventh. The United States haven’t won the World Cup since 2014. It’s hard, these teams in FIBA are really good, well coached, they’ve got continuity. It’s been difficult already. What I’m so impressed with is just the way our guys fought, especially tonight under these circumstances, missing three key teammates, just battling to get to overtime was impressive. The narrative about USA basketball in FIBA, do we need reminders, we’re past that. These teams are really good.”
Several teams won the crowd in Manila. Fans who earlier booed Brooks chanted “M-V-P, M-V-P” during the final. “They did the same thing in Jakarta,” said Brooks. “It’s an amazing feeling to be recognized during the game. But you know that I never take it for granted. The work doesn’t stop here. I’m not satisfied, neither is anyone on this team.”
“We have a great coach who believes in us, has great schemes, is very patient with us, finds a way to motivate us every single day to get better and figures out how to get guys in the NBA, who don’t get paid for this, to sacrifice,” Brooks said. “Kudos to Jordi, he’s been one of my best coaches I’ve ever played with and we’re grateful for everybody in this thing.”
“It’s the beginning of something that’s gonna last for a long time,” said coach Fernandez. “From the first guy, all 12 guys came in and worked every day since August 1. They got better at least one percent every day, and they built the identity that we’ve just shown. We can do great things.”
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