Hamilton's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, rest of Canada's NBAers left wanting more in 2024

Canada's best men's basketball players were left wanting more in 2024.

Canada's best men's basketball players were left wanting more in 2024.

Hamilton's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished second in NBA MVP voting for the 2023-24 season, the best performance among a record-high 27 Canadians in the league. His Oklahoma City Thunder had a disappointing second-round exit in the NBA's Western Conference playoffs, and Canada's men's senior team finished fifth at the Paris Olympics.

Gilgeous-Alexander said that it was only once Canada fell to France 82-73 in the Olympic quarterfinals on Aug. 6 that he realized exactly what he'd lost.

"The opportunity to medal and win, we didn't get a chance to do it and being in it, you kind of take it for granted," said Gilgeous-Alexander after the Thunder visited the Toronto Raptors on Dec. 5. "Every year I get a chance to win an NBA championship, and every four years I get a chance to try to win the Olympics."

Canada qualified for its first Olympic men's basketball tournament in 24 years at the 2023 FIBA World Cup, earning a best-ever bronze medal at that event with a 127-118 win over the United States on Sept. 10, 2023.

The Canadians were a perfect 3-0 of the group stage at the Olympics this past summer, advancing out of Group A as the third seed in the knockout stage. Then Canada ran afoul of France in the quarters for the disappointing fifth-place finish.

"I think obviously the World Cup was awesome. The Olympics could have went better, I think," said centre Kelly Olynyk of Kamloops, B.C., who also plays for the Raptors, on Wednesday. "Obviously, it's not how any of us wanted to finish but when you look at it retrospectively, it's our best finish in however many years or whatever. First time we made it in however many years.