Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander announced on Thursday that he will not try out for the Canadian Olympic team due to the injury he suffered during the NBA season.
Gilgeous-Alexander posted a graphic with the announcement and said that he needs to continue rehabbing his right foot. He missed the final 29 games due to plantar fasciitis.
He broke out over the 35 games he did play in his third season, averaging 23.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game while shooting 50.8% from the field and 41.8% from 3.
During Gilgeous-Alexander’s end-of-season press conference, he said that he wanted to play on the Canadian Olympic team but would only do so if he was 100% healthy.
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While Gilgeous-Alexander is out, Thunder wing Lu Dort will attend tryouts. Athletic reporter Eric Koreen, who covers the Toronto Raptors, tweeted out a list of players who accepted invites to try out for the qualifiers.
Other notable names include R.J. Barrett, Dwight Powell, Tristan Thompson and Andrew Wiggins.
The 21 players have accepted invites (barring playoff participation) to try out for the Canadian entry in the Victoria Olympic qualification tournament. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chris Boucher and Kevin Pangos are notable absences, but this is a very good group. pic.twitter.com/VP4PUq0XcL
— (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) May 27, 2021
As Koreen noted, players could withdraw from this list if their NBA team remains in playoff contention during the tryouts.
On May 17, Gilgeous-Alexander said his foot had improved but it was not back to game shape.
“Feel a lot better than I did a month ago, two months ago, I feel like I’m getting better every day. So I’m satisfied with that,” Gilgeous-Alexander said at the time.
