Joseph, Birch, Nembhard highlight Canada's final World Cup roster
With the opening ceremony in the books and the FIBA World Cup set to begin in China on Saturday, Canada finally announced its 12-man roster for the tournament.
Highlighting the squad are a pair of current NBA players, point guard Cory Joseph of the Sacramento Kings and center Khem Birch of the Orlando Magic. The lone amateur of the group is guard Andrew Nembhard, who is entering his sophomore season at Florida.
| POS | PLAYER | TEAM |
|---|---|---|
| G | Cory Joseph | Sacramento Kings |
| G | Brady Heslip | Istanbul BBSK (Turkey) |
| G | Kaza Kajami-Keane | Mitteldeutscher BC (Germany) |
| G | Andrew Nembhard | Florida Gators (NCAA) |
| G | Kevin Pangos | FC Barcelona Basketball (Spain) |
| G | Phil Scrubb | Club Estudiantes (Spain) |
| F | Melvin Ejim | Baloncesto Malaga (Spain) |
| F | Conor Morgan | Divina Seguros Joventut (Spain) |
| F | Thomas Scrubb | SIG Strasbourg (France) |
| F | Kyle Wiltjer | Turk Telekom (Turkey) |
| C | Khem Birch | Orlando Magic |
| C | Owen Klassen | Antwerp Giants (Belgium) |
The group, led by the Toronto Raptors' Nick Nurse in his first tournament as national team head coach, will look to improve on its 22nd-place finish at the 2010 World Cup. Canada did not qualify for the most recent edition of the event in 2014.
"Playing for your country is one of the greatest honors in sport and the players are fully committed to giving everything they have for Canada," Nurse said in a statement. "I'm proud of the group of players we’ve selected to represent Canada at the upcoming FIBA Basketball World Cup.”