Jamal Murray was announced today as one of the 18 Senior Men’s National Team invitees for their training camp ahead of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Americas Qualifiers in June. Here is the link to the press release below:
They’ll be traveling the breadth of Canada as they host the Chinese men’s team in British Columbia on June 22nd prior to FIBA, and then head back to Ottawa a week later to host the Dominican Republic and the U.S. Virgin Islands (with a possible Tim Duncan appearance in the building).
Trey Lyles was listed as one of four players who were “unavailable” along with Tyler Ennis, Nik Stauskas and Andrew Wiggins. Whether he is resting his body for his upcoming season and free agency push or recovering from something minor, Lyles was not overlooked by Team Canada, and I would expect him to be a part of the next FIBA round in 2019.
Jamal Murray has a history of playing for Team Canada, having been a part of the 2013 FIBA Americas U16 Championship where Canada took home the bronze medal. He also played in the FIBA Americas U17 Championship the following year - he takes international play very seriously. The Nuggets will have a lot of that going forward. Nikola Jokic stirred up some controversy last year by passing up the chance to play Eurobasket for Serbia in order to continue his transformation into an NBA star, but he also will be a feature player on the international stage in the summers to come.
The Nuggets can only home their international stars live up to the San Antonio Spurs, where their Big Three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili had long and successful careers despite the extra responsibilities of international play. Murray’s international career will add another page in just a few weeks, and his game shoul
d be finely tuned prior to training camp with the Denver Nuggets in August.