Canadian basketball never stops.
While men’s Olympians Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lu Dort of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Andrew Nembhard and likely future Olympian Bennedict Mathurin of the Indiana Pacers will meet Thursday night in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, there are plenty of things going on elsewhere on the Canadian hoops landscape.
The women’s senior national team is in training camp under new head coach Nell Fortner in advance of the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2025 in Santiago, Chile later this month. There are multiple age-group teams training for international events, and Canada Basketball is getting set to mark the return of GLOBL JAM, the innovative five-day event where Canada hosts international under-23 teams on the men’s and women’s side at Toronto Metropolitan University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre.
Conceived as a way to help potential senior team athletes gain FIBA experience to bridge the gap as they try to jump from the top youth level – under-19 – to the senior level, GLOBL JAM took a hiatus last summer with the focus on both men and women being at the Olympics. But the event back for its third iteration, Aug. 13-18.
On Thursday, Canada Basketball is expected to announce its men’s and women’s roster invitees.
The women’s team is particularly interesting, given how young the senior team is projecting to be as it begins rebuilding with a new coach and transitions from the veteran core that helped the women advance to four consecutive Olympic tournaments.
Tellingly, the under-23 women’s roster could include two recent Olympians in Syla Swords and Yvonne Ejim. Swords – the daughter for former men’s Olympian Shawn Swords – is coming of a standout freshman season at Michigan, where she earned ESPN All-Freshman Team, Big Ten All-Tournament Team, and All-Big Ten Second Team honours while averaging 16 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game.
Ejim, recently drafted by the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, is the younger sister of Canadian men’s senior national team Olympian Melvin Ejim and finished her NCAA career as Gonzaga’s all-time leading scorer. She earned West Coast Conference player of the year and defensive player of the year honours after averaging 14.8 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.
Another name to watch is Agot Makeer, a five-star recruit set to join the 2024 NCAA champion South Carolina Gamecocks this fall after helping Canada earn a historic silver medal at the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup last summer, where she was named to the tournament’s All-Star team.
Another candidate is Savvy Swords, Syla’s younger sister, who is entering her senior year at powerhouse Long Island Lutheran and who is being recruited by the top women’s college programs across the U.S.
The men’s side features Xavian Lee, the dynamic point guard who was getting some NBA draft buzz during his junior season at Princeton where he averaged 16.9 points, 5.5 assists, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game. He opted to transfer to defending national champion Florida for his senior year.
Other notable names on the men’s side include Aden Holloway and Michael Nwoko, both of whom represented Canada together at the 2023 Nike Hoop Summit as members of the World Team, also headline the list of invited athletes.
Holloway was raised in the U.S., and has a Canadian-born mother. The former five-star recruit averaged 11.4 points per game for No. 2 seed Alabama Crimson Tide during their NCAA Tournament run, while Nwoko averaged 6.1 points and 4.6 rebounds this past season with No. 8 seed Mississippi State, helping the Bulldogs reach the NCAA Tournament.
There are also plans for an open tryout in advance of the training camp for each team.
The coaching staffs on the men’s and women’s sides are still being finalized.
Canada’s U23 women’s national team – invited athletes
Jasmine Bascoe – Milton, Ont.
Kyrah Daniels – Highlands Ranch, Colo.
Shy Day-Wilson – Toronto
Yvonne Ejim – Calgary
Delaney Gibb – Raymond, Alta.
Avery Howell – Boise, Idaho
Phillipina Kyei – Calgary
Latasha Lattimore – Toronto
Agot Makeer – Thunder Bay, Ont.
Merissah Russell – Ottawa
Savvy Swords – Sudbury, Ont.
Syla Swords – Sudbury, Ont.
Tara Wallack – Surrey, B.C.
Serah Williams – Brooklyn, N.Y.
Canada’s U23 men’s national team – invited athletes
Vasean Allette – Toronto
Bubu Benjamin – Medicine Hat, Alta.
Enoch Boakye – Brampton, Ont.
Javonte Brown-Ferguson – Pickering, Ont.
Jordann Dumont – Montreal
Dylan Grant – Mississauga, Ont.
Simon Hildebrandt – Winnipeg
Aden Holloway – Charlotte, N.C.
TJ Hurley – Pelham, Ont.
Felix Kossaras – Montreal
Xaivian Lee – Toronto
Elijah Mahi – Toronto
Michael Nwoko – Toronto
Elias Ralph – Okotoks, Alta.
Justin Rochelin – Encino, Calif.
David Simon – Windsor, Ont.
