Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Canada win FIBA bronze medal over USA in overtime
Manilla witnessed its best thrilla since Mohammad Ali and Joe Frazier boxed it out in their final match back in 1975. What should have been the gold medal game, the USA and Canada battled for bronze in the FIBA World Cup after the teams lost their semifinal matchups against Germany and Serbia respectively. In the end, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his fellow countrymen took down the United States in overtime.
It would have still been a great game, but the moment that sent shockwaves across North America was Mikal Bridges’ incredible play at the end of regulation. Down three with 4.2 seconds left on the clock, Bridges missed the free throw on purpose. As soon as it caromed off the rim to the right, Bridges tracked it down and drained a fadeaway 3-pointer in the corner to tie the score and force overtime.
Despite Bridges’ heroics, Canada would ultimately pull out the victory 127-118, marking the first time the country has won a medal in the FIBA World Cup in 87 years. Conversely, this marks the second consecutive World Cup where the USA has not medaled and it is only the seventh time in 38 appearances at the Olympic or World Cup level that an American team did not finish with gold, silver, or bronze.
It is safe to say Earth has caught up to America on its basketball talent.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander helps lead Canada to victory
After Bridges made the highlight play of the summer, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made sure to put him on the lowlight reel too.
In one of the first plays of overtime, Bridges came over to help on SGA who had Austin Reeves guarding him. Shai hit him with a step-back sending Mikal falling to the court in a proverbial ankle-braker. Of course, a defender going to the ground is just half the battle; the shot has to go down in order to get a full jump-out-of-your-seat reaction. SGA did exactly that, knocking down a 3-pointer from the top of the key, giving the Philippines residents in attendance their best chance to act like walk-ons at the end of the bench and hold their seat neighbors back.
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After the game, Shai said of the win: “We won the first 40 minutes. Well, obviously not, but we won the majority of the first 40 minutes and we didn’t think it was a fluke. So, we just tried to focus on winning the next five.”
Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 31 points, 12 assists, six rebounds, a steal, and a block. Dillon Brooks led all scores with 39.
Canada now moves to 2-21 against the USA in FIBA competition with their only other win coming in 2005 on a team void of NBA stars.
Canada’s only other basketball medal was a silver which came in the 1936 Berlin Olympics when it lost a snobbler-knocker to the USA with a final score of 19-8. The game was played outside, in a rainstorm, on a clay court, so this one likely felt good for our friends up north.
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