HAMILTON — The Senior Men’s National Team showed out for Hamilton over the last few days, with blowout wins over Puerto Rico and Jamaica. While Canada is now 6-0 in the FIBA Americas World Cup Qualifiers, Friday and Monday were headlined by back-to-back reigning NBA MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, along with balanced scoring efforts from Andrew Nembhard and Dillon Brooks.
SGA led all scorers with a 26-point effort on Friday, accompanied by Andrew Nembhard’s 23 points off of incredibly efficient shooting. Not only did they combine for 18/25 shooting combined, both guards were able to facilitate the ball with only committing three turnovers altogether.
Monday night felt like more of a balanced attack as Dillon Brooks carried the offense for the Canadiens with 20 points off of 8/12 shooting. Even though their field goal percentage took a step back against Jamaica, Canada still shot it effectively, notching 57.5% from the field. That’s back to back games in Hamilton where they shot over 55% from the field.
Dillon Brooks understands what all of Canada's teams have to offer
While the results in Hamilton were outstanding, it was the hometown support and the electricity from the fans that powered TD Coliseum. Whether it was the alley-oop from Nickeil Alexander-Walker to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the second quarter of Monday night’s game that set the crowd ablaze or Andrew and Ryan Nembhard having the opportunity to play together for their home country, the undeniable growth of the sport in Canada was on full display in Hamilton, ON.
I asked Dillon Brooks after Monday night’s win what stood out the most with the growth of basketball in Canada and what next steps he’d like to see:
“I love the Toronto Tempo. They're such a great team. Overall just having that CEBL, having the Toronto Tempo, obviously the Raptors and us [Team Canada] it just shows you how much basketball is recognized here. Being a young guy early on watching like Jevohn Shepherd and Denham Brown, those legends right there kind of motivated me.”
- Dillon Brooks, July 6, 2026
Brooks would continue to elaborate on his journey and how he intends to give back.
"Me being in this position now I want to motivate the next generation and be more hands on with it. While I'm working out, there's younger guys there and I always want to join their workouts, pick their brain and let them pick my brain. I want them to be successful just like me, I never got that part when I was growing up. I had to figure things out on my own, so having a guy that's been there done and has excelled at it, as the Senior National Men's team, giving back to the U17 team, U18 team is a big thing on why we're growing at the rate that we're growing at.”
- Dillon Brooks
Canada will now focus on the second round of qualifiers which picks back up on August 27th, as they take one step closer to advancing to Qatar for the FIBA World Cup in Summer 2027.
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