Spurs Joseph To Play For Canada's Men's Basketball Team

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The Canadian Men's Senior National Basketball Team announced its 2011 Training Camp roster late last week. And noticeably absent were Canada's newest NBA ambassadors and long time teammates Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph.

The NBA Lockout has forced many International Federations including Canadian National Basketball Team Head Coach Leo Rautins to get creative with his roster selection.

As usual with NBA players, Canada Basketball must come up with insurance money for all Canadians playing in the NBA.

Canada Basketball is currently in better financial shape thanks in part to strong partnerships from corporate support and the Toronto Raptors.

A deal is currently in the last stages to ensure that Cory Joseph will join the Canadian Team at Ryerson University (Toronto) for training camp

Joseph is familiar with National program and has played in two world championships, 2007 and 2009.

Tristan Thompson, Canada's highest ever selected NBA player will take the summer off to rest his body.

Thompson has intentions on playing for Canada but will use the time to regroup after a long NCAA season that concluded with an even tougher NBA showcase tour and led to his name been selected by David Stern.

Having Cory Joseph in the line-up will certainly help Canada as it attempts to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics Games in London England.

The Spurs and Head coach Greg Popovich certainly will be happy to see their young point guard earn more experience and develop throughout the 2011 NBA Lockout.

Joseph will certainly make a case for a starting point guard position. Leo Rautins will have to make some tough decisions as who to keep as the third point guard as well.

Jermaine Anderson who took over the point guard duties after Steve Nash called it quits returns for another season with the program and is the front runner for the starting gig.

The battle for the last PG spot will likely be between Brady Heslip (Baylor University-NCAA) and newcomer Antwi Atuahene (Leones, Mexico).

Atuahene is more a scoring guard and has a few more years of experience both at the NCAA(Arizona State) level and professionally. Heslip is also solid contributor who can knock down outside jumpers’ consistently, which could fair better for Canada at the international play.

Joseph average 13.6 points in 30.0 minutes a game while shooting over 50 per cent (41-76) from three-point range at the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championships.

Team Canada opens up play with a European Tour (July 24 – August 5) against France, Italy, Czech Republic.

Well I think this is one case where we can be happy that one of the Spurs are playing international ball, during the off-season.