Sixers’ Samuel Dalembert Joins Team Canada

Good news from Team Canada basketball this morning: Samuel Dalembert of the Philadelphia 76′ers is finally going to play for our senior men’s national team. (Jamie Foxx? Still undecided.)

The 26-year-old Haitian-born, Montreal-bred centre officially joined the team last night after becoming a Canadian citizen earlier in the day at a swearing-in ceremony in Hamilton, Ontario. (Ugh. Hamilton? This is the hellhole new Canadian citizens first see? Samuel, I’m sorry.)

Dalembert is a six-year NBA veteran, all with Philadelphia, who averaged a career best 10.7 points and 8.9 rebounds in the 2006-07 season. A 6’11” centre, with great athletism, Dalembert was Philadelphia’s first round (26th overall) pick in the 2001 NBA draft.

“I wanted to join the Canadian Team in 2003 but had a surgery and out for their season and so it didn’t work out,” said Dalembert. “But in the back of my mind I knew I always wanted to play for Canada and this time it worked out and just seemed to fit. To have the chance to play in the Olympics is really something special.”

This is obviously a huge addition for Team Canada, who need to try and finish in the top five of this month’s FIBA America’s Championship to even keep the Beijing Olympic dream alive. (The top two teams garner automatic berths; three-through-five will be invited to another qualifier tournament next summer.)

As Doug Smith notes in the Toronto Star this morning: Dalembert gives Canadian coach Leo Rautins an anchor for his defence and a big man who can finish around the rim. He also represents the lone NBAer on the squad because Toronto’s Jamaal Magloire blows, and Steve Nash is busy playing pick-up soccer in Central Park.

Oh Todd MacCulloch, if only you could walk away from the pinball machine. (Hell, if only you could walk!)

Samuel Dalembert Headlines Additions To Canada’s Training Team … [Canada Basketball]
Dalembert Welcomed To Team Canada [Toronto Star]

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By J.E. Skeets at 10:43 am on 08.08.2007 — Tags: Samuel Dalembert, International, Sixers

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