San Antonio Spurs first-round pick Corey Joseph to play for Canada in FIBA Americas: NBA Update
The 6 ft 4 in reserve point guard of the San Antonio Spurs, Corey Joseph recently revealed that he is all set to join the senior Canadian national basketball team, which will participate in the upcoming 2011 FIBA Americas men’s
championship.
“It’s an honour to play for your country and I’m excited to get on the floor and represent Canada as best as I can. I know we have a young, great group, with Joel (Anthony), (Carl) English and (Andy) Rautins coming in. Hopefully
we come back with the gold, but if not, qualify for the Olympics.” The tournament will be hosted by Argentina from August 30 till September 11.
Corey was picked up by the Spurs in this year’s draft as 29th overall pick. Prior to this, the Canadian national represented the Texas Longhorns at the collegiate level. It was with Texas; that Joseph achieved his career
high stats, when he thumped 21 points along with a game winning jumper against North Carolina.
This victory enabled the Longhorns to secure the fourth spot in the West Regional Division during the 2011 March Madness. However, later in the tournament, the Longhorns were thrown out of the tournament by the fifth ranked Arizona
with an outstanding performance from their star player Derrick Williams.
As a freshman Joseph’s scoring average with the Longhorns was 10.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and three assists per game. It was because of his high-quality performance that Corey was selected for the Big 12 All-Rookie Team. After that
tournament when Joseph decided to declare himself for the 2011 NBA Draft. However, because of the dispute over new Collective Bargaining Agreement between the players and the owners, league headed into a lockout and Corey along with many other rookies have
been left in the cold.
The lockout has already eradicated the free agency market and now is pacing towards the 2011-12 season like a tornado. The next season is scheduled to begin from November 1 and one month prior to that, training camps takes place.
Corey will join the second stage of the summer program with his the number fourth pick Tristan Thompson, who also hails from Canada. The session will start from Friday at Ryerson University in Toronto.
Corey hasn’t played for a while but was hopeful that he will be able to form an integral part of the team in the All American tournament;
“Hopefully we come back with the gold, but if not, qualify for the Olympics.”
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