On Saturday, head coach of the Utah Jazz Will Hardy buried his pride in his country and publicly resolved a bet with assistant coach Scott Morrison.
The American, Hardy, showed up to his pre-game media conference hours before Utah’s game against the Raptors in Toronto, sporting a bright red Team Canada jacket. The two coaches had a friendly wager with Scotiabank Arena as the payout location for the bronze-medal match in the FIBA World Cup in the fall.
Before coming back to Utah for the elimination phase, the head coach of the Jazz had been to Southeast Asia to see the international men’s basketball tournament’s first round.
“It wasn’t something Scott and I watched together, but we were close, closely monitoring the scores to try and figure out who needed to wear what to this game (in Toronto),” Hardy said.
On September 10, Canada defeated the United States 127-118 to take third place in the World Cup. Canada won its first-ever World Cup medal and a spot in the next Olympics in Paris as a result.
Hardy stated, “Canada had a great team this summer,” citing Jazz forward Kelly Olynyk of Kamloops, British Columbia, as an illustration.
