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RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL — By the middle of the third quarter, it was so sad even the Brazilian fans forgot to boo Canada.
Losing a Pan American basketball game 98-63 isn't one of life's experiences a father wants to share with his son, but it happens when Leo Rautins is the coach of Canada's national team and Andy Rautins is its best guard. It's building a career the hard way, for both of them.
"You dream of coming to a place like this, of being in front of a crowd like this … but it was embarrassing," said Andy Rautins, 20, a junior who followed his father to Syracuse University to play for Jim Boeheim. He started 21 of Syracuse's 35 games last season as a sophomore.
Papa Rautins plays no favourites. He kept Andy on the floor for almost 32 minutes of a 40-minute debacle. The 8,300 fans in the Rio Multisport Arena, most clad in Brazil's green and gold, started out jeering loudly and ruthlessly every time Canada had the ball. A single Canadian flag, waved briefly in the corner by the rafters, was outnumbered about 300 to 1. The game officials were jeered every time they made a call against Brazil.
It was just as Leo remembered from his days playing on Canada's national team for Jack Donohue. Crowds in Latin America have to be experienced to be understood, like a nightmare. Donohue used to say he feared for his players' safety.
"But you want to be in an environment that's crazy and hostile and fun," Leo Rautins said. "If anything, it was a little less today because it's [only] the Pan Am Games."
The team Canada has brought to Rio may not win a game. It has already been outscored 180-126 in losses to Puerto Rico and Brazil and the opponent today, the Virgin Islands, lost by only five to Brazil on Wednesday. But Leo Rautins admits this a collection of parts, not a team.
"This is a fraction of the team we start putting together on the 31st [of July]. The core of this team will be role players on the next team," the coach said.
That's the team that will carry Canada's hopes into the Americas zone Olympic qualifying tournament. Ten teams converge on Las Vegas, from Aug. 22 to Sept. 2, with the top two getting berths in Beijing. The third, fourth and fifth teams can try their luck again at a 12-team world qualifying event.
So, what Rautins is looking at in Rio is bits and pieces — who can shoot, who can come off the bench and defend. "We'll see who can emerge from this group for the next group."
Rautins has fantasies about that next group and NBA players who could help it. He told a group of reporters that Phoenix Suns star Steve Nash and centre Jamaal Magloire, recently signed as a free agent by the New Jersey Nets, "haven't closed the door" on playing for Canada. That might be true in this sense: they haven't had to close a door if they've erected a wall.
"I recognize Steve has an obligation to fans as an MVP. He won't even step on the court unless he can be an MVP," Rautins said, admitting discussions have been few.
"It would be a completely no-pressure situation. He's played and given willingly to the national team before, and he has back problems. This would be a limited-minutes situation.
"We don't need to tax him, so much as we need his leadership."
