MEXICO CITY—The so-called ‘Golden Age of Canadian Basketball’ truly starts this week.

From the day in May 2012 when Steve Nash returned as the senior team’s general manager to attempt to restore some lustre and legitimacy to the game in his country — while all those Canadians were going in the first round of the NBA draft — eyes have been focused on the next two weeks and a chance to gain some global legitimacy.

Armed with the most talent ever assembled on one Canadian senior team and the heaviest contingent of NBA talent on any of the rosters at the FIBA Americas championships, the Canadians are seen in some corners as heavy favourites to grab one of two Rio Olympic berths.

If they are successful, it will mark a rapid ascent for a program led by Nash and coach Jay Triano, two iconic figures from the last, very good Canadian team, one that came within an upset loss to France from playing for an Olympic medal a decade and a half ago in Sydney.

The trouble is, while Canada has been rising, the world has been taking notice and the national team goes into the 10-team tournament here on the minds of all opposition.

A team with nine NBAers — led by No. 1 draft picks Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett and league champion Cory Joseph — will not sneak up on anyone.

Running through the Tuto Marchand Cup last week with a 4-0 record against teams they may see here has only heightened the awareness of Canada’s talent.

“We have a little bit of a target on our backs,” Triano told TSN.ca after the Puerto Rico tournament. “People are going to be geared up and giving us their best shot. We have to be prepared.”

That’s a stark change in a short period of time for a senior men’s program that hasn’t been in the Olympics since Sydney and bombed out winless at the 2010 world championships before failing to qualify for the 2014 World Cup.

Canada has never won a FIBA Americas championship — this is the 17th installment of the tournament — and hasn’t been on the medal podium since a third-place finish in 2001. Their best finish was second in 1999, when Nash was the star player, Triano the head coach, and they beat Puerto Rico in Puerto Rico to earn that trip to Sydney. But since then, they’ve never been better than fourth and were sixth in each of the last two tournaments.

But that was long before the game’s Canadian renaissance began and the sense of optimism is palpable. Nash returned, he brought Triano back into the fold about three months later and the explosion of Canadian talent reached unfathomable levels.

“We’ve got guys who want to play for Canada, who want to be part of our program,” Triano said early in the short Canadian season. “We have all kinds of talent, now it’s about becoming a team.”

Canada gets an extra day to work on its cohesion, but it sets up a grind. The tournament begins with four games on Monday but Canada was given a first-day bye and must play eight games in nine days starting Tuesday to even have a chance at the semifinals.