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Sirius XM NBA: Will Jamal Murray play for Team Canada in the 2024 Paris Olympics if they qualify? 🔊 @CanBball Executive Advisor Glen Grunwald gives an update #FIBAWC #WinForCanada @RickKamlaSports | @adaniels33 pic.twitter.com/SkgnyvGd2P
Will Jamal Murray play for Team Canada in the 2024 Paris Olympics if they qualify?
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) August 28, 2023
🔊 @CanBball Executive Advisor Glen Grunwald gives an update #FIBAWC #WinForCanada@RickKamlaSports | @adaniels33 pic.twitter.com/SkgnyvGd2P
“Isiah fell in love with him,” said Glen Grunwald, who was Thomas’s top assistant with the Raptors when they drafted McGrady ninth in 1997, and he was the general manager for the Raptors when McGrady left for Orlando in 2000. “Isiah had this theory at the time that maybe it could be a bit like where we’re at right now, what the Raptors are doing (with Scottie Barnes and Pascal Siakam), he had the ‘Raptor four’ — a long, 6-8, 6-9 forward who had multiple skills, could switch out, guard all sorts of positions, play all over the floor, be a playmaker, be a shot-maker. They weren’t easy to find. “Isiah was just excited by his potential. It turned out that he was right.”
Doug Smith: Glen Grunwald, who led an era of unprecedented growth in the game, stepping down as Canada Basketball CEO, to be replaced by Michael Bartlett. Former Raptors and Knicks GM will stay on in a consulting role.
Doug Smith: His contributions over 3 years set the organization on an upward arc in both the development of the sport and the national teams programs. Known him for 25-plus years and he's one of the good ones, no question about it.
Eric Koreen: On conference call, Canada Basketball says Glen Grunwald will stay on in an advisory role through Paris 2024, on a part-time basis.
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If the choice to award the Cup in exhibition games strikes you as strange, consider that the teams, in conjunction with NBA Canada, used it as an opportunity to host the events around the country. The five Naismith Cup matches held between 1995 and 2000 (the 1998 game was cancelled due to the lockout) were played in Winnipeg, Calgary, Halifax, Edmonton, and Ottawa. That’s a tradition the Raptors do their best to continue to this day, holding recent training camps in Victoria or Quebec City, and exhibition games in Montreal, Vancouver, and London. (They still owe St. John’s a game, as former Raptors general manager and current CEO of Canada Basketball Glen Grunwald is quick to remind us.) The touring Naismith Cup games were well-attended, ranging from 8,190 to 15,104 fans in attendance.
Last week’s Knicks press release quoted new executive VP William Wesley on his “long history with and respect for Jim Dolan.’’ Sources confirm Wesley has been in the Knicks owner’s ear for 15 years, working behind the scenes. As is his custom. A Knicks coach from the Glen Grunwald era verified the influence of “World Wide Wes.” “When we were there, I was told he listened to ‘World Wide Wes’ more than he did Grunwald,” the coach told The Post.
Let’s be clear — that is all on the Raptors, from Larry Tanenbaum to Peddie to former general manager Glen Grunwald. Still, Carter did have legitimate power. Even if he could not swing ownership and management in the directions he wanted, such as the hiring of his childhood idol, Julius Erving as GM instead of Rob Babcock, he still had a voice. And, most of all, his game. “(Babcock) thinks (Carter’s) not part of going forward with Bosh. (Carter) is injured. He’s not engaged,” said Peddie, who has repeatedly taken the blame for the hiring of the late Babcock. “The general manager thinks he can do better, puts together that trade. I honestly believe, and I don’t know this with certainty, that Vince wanted out as well.”
Glen Grunwald, the CEO of Canada Basketball, began to wonder then about the fate of a season that had held so much promise. “It’s been like a cascade, right? You heard about the virus in China and you start thinking about the pandemic movies that you’ve seen in the past, and you think. ‘That’s not going to happen,’ and then it just keeps rolling downhill and keeps getting bigger and bigger,” Grunwald said Tuesday.
Among Canada Basketball’s highlights for 2020 was the opportunity to play host to a men’s last-chance qualifying tournament in June in Victoria. Coached by Nurse, the Canadian team was expected to feature a who’s who of NBA players. “FIBA is fully intent on running it here in Canada in Victoria [next summer],” Grunwald said, adding Victoria’s organizing committee is also on board for the postponed event. “I think it’s a good outcome of a bad situation,” he said. “There’s obviously a lot of details to be worked out, but I think it’s very positive for our men’s program.”
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“I know FIBA want NBA players to be able to participate in the Olympics, and I know the Olympics want the NBA, the best athletes, to be participating as well,” Grunwald said. “So I’m sure they’re going to try and work the schedule around where NBA players will be available. But again, all the details need to be worked out.”
Mike Ganter: Glen Grunwald Canada Basketball pres on getting our NBA talent to play nationally: “We’ve got to respect each person in terms of what’s going on in their career or their life, but at the same time we’ve got to figure out how we can fit in better with their life and their career. We’ll continue to do that, and sometimes it’s just not going to be solvable. And that’s going to be the case”
Omari Sanfoka II: Can confirm @Adrian Wojnarowski's report. Grizzlies have hired Rich Cho as VP of Basketball Strategy and Glen Grunwald as Senior Advisor. Cho and Grizzlies VP of Basketball Operations Zach Kleiman have a long-standing relationship dating back to 2012.
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