Houston Rockets forward Dillon Brooks, who is representing Canada in the 2024 Olympics, shared a message ahead of Wednesday’s exhibition game between Team USA and Canada.
“I take it as (just) another game, but me being who I am, I like to make a statement,” Brooks told reporters on Monday. “So I’ll be ready to play. Team Canada will be ready to play, and we’re gonna go balls to the wall and watch the film after and see if we got better.”
Brooks was a part of the Canadian team that defeated the United States and won the bronze medal in the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
While it was a massive win for Brooks and Canada, the team that he and his teammates will face on Wednesday will look much different. The United States will have players like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis and others on the roster in the 2024 Olympics.
In fact, the only two players that are on the Olympic roster that played in the 2023 FIBA World Cup are Tyrese Haliburton and Anthony Edwards.
“Yeah, because there’s new USA players, you know, that spoke up after (the bronze-medal game), and wanted to play,” he said. “So, you know, I’m happy that they’re playing because, you know, we get to test our talents against theirs. And you know, it should be a fun one.”
Canada also has several NBA players on its roster, including All-NBA guard Shai Gilgeous Alexander, Jamal Murray, Brooks and Lu Dort to name a few.
Brooks and Dort are two elite wing defenders that could make things tough on some of the United States’ top scorers.
The Rockets forward is setting his sights high for the 2024 Olympics, as he’s hoping that the team can build on the success it had in the 2023 FIBA World Cup.
“The belief was always there; we just had to put it together,” Brooks said. “Now we’ve got a lot of players that are committed, willing to build this every single summer to get better and better and build chemistry and build camaraderie.
“Our time was last year. And now (it’s) our time for this year. But instead of getting bronze, we want the gold.”
The United States has won four consecutive gold medals in men’s basketball, taking it home in the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2021 Olympics (the games were pushed a year from 2020 due to COVID-19).
It’s going to take a lot to knock off the United States’ team of stars, but the exhibition game with Canada will be a good test to see where Brooks and company stack up. The United States will face Canada, Australia, Serbia, South Sudan and Germany as part of the USA Basketball Showcase from July 10 through July 23 to prepare for this year’s Olympic games.
