CAN - Canada cannot wait for worlds to start

TORONTO (FIBA World Championship) - Canada will return to a FIBA World Championship for the first time in eight years at the end of the month and the players cannot wait to get going.

Canada failed to qualify for both the 2004 Olympic Games and the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan, and they are eager to set the record straight in Turkey.

"There’s obviously a sense of urgency to come out and compete, especially for Canada basketball, it’s been a long time coming for us,” point guard Andy Rautins told The Record.

“It’s definitely proving time for us.”

Being back on the world stage has given the players a huge lift and finding motivation for a major tournament is much easier than the qualifiers, according to Miami Heat star Joel Anthony.

“There’s a lot of excitement,” he said. “Obviously it is a different mood because we’re playing toward something really big, it’s not like before when we were always trying to qualify, now we’re actually going to be playing in a major tournament on the world stage.

“Guys are starting to realize that and that’s a big part of our motivation.”

Canada finished 13th in the 2002 FIBA World Championship, and improving on that is the goal for coach Leo Rautins, father of Andy, who believes his team will not be content with qualification alone.

“Now, these guys are thinking, we can play, we got into the worlds but we don’t just want to be in the worlds,” he said. “They have a lot of confidence in each other, each one of these guys is more confident in themselves, they’re each a year older, better, wiser.

"I think it’s just an expectation of what they can accomplish together if they do it right, and they want to try to make it happen.

“This is by far the closest group we’ve had and that’s kind of been the goal, to build these guys and grow them together, and hopefully they get to this point they really are a tight group right now."

However, Canada have suffered one setback, as a bid to get San Antonio Spurs forward Matt Bonner into camp looks doomed to failure.

The American-born Bonner applied for Canadian citizenship after marrying a Toronto woman he met while playing for the Raptors, but his paperwork has not yet come through.

FIBA