To the 12 players, the coaches, the management, the fans it meant sacrifice and hope and a burning desire to represent Canada on the grandest of stages.

It meant working to a common goal, to putting personal agendas aside, to choosing to play for country first and foremost.

And until there are more who think like the group of basketballers that fell short of the Olympics on Sunday in Manila, and until this so-called “Golden Age of Canadian basketball” gains some much-needed experience, the bitterness of falling just short will not go away.

“I’m not sure overall if the Olympics resonate with the younger generation like it did, especially in certain sports,” Steve Nash said Sunday, after Canada lost 83-74 to a better, more experienced France team to fall once again agonizingly short of qualifying for the Rio Games. “The world is changing all the time that it’s just one of those things. Kids have so many more options now to use and outlets — it doesn’t quite have the same resonance that it did before.”

Uuntil it does, and until this group of dedicated young 20-somethings grows into a group of grizzled 30-somethings, it will be hard for Canada to become a major player on the international stage.

“Other than improving our shooting, which I think every country wants to do, it’s experience and it’s a matter of our guys continuing to grow, not only in their careers away from the international game, but also playing for their country,” Nash said. “The next time this group gets together, they’ll be a much different, older group.”

But that means a commitment, and a sacrifice of time, which not everyone was willing to make this summer. Injury (Kelly Olynyk), contract status (Jamal Murray, Dwight Powell, Andrew Nicholson) and a simple disinclination to represent Canada (Andrew Wiggins, Nik Stauskas) limited Canada.

That is in no way meant to take away from the 12 players who did make a sacrifice to play. Tristan Thompson went from the NBA final to the Philippines because he cared. Cory Joseph went through three NBA playoff series and went because he cared. Tyler Ennis cared. Veterans like Levon Kendall and Joel Anthony, knowing they’d be lucky to get on the court, gave a month of their summer to help as they could.

“Whenever I get a chance to play for Canada, I keep Canada close to my heart,” Joseph said, after scoring 20 points in Sunday’s game. “Whenever I get a chance, I take it as I’m being honoured to play for them.

“There’s no better competition you’ll get in the world in the summer time than playing.”

Canada simply ran into a better, more experienced French team Sunday, much the same group that finished third at the EuroBasket championships last summer.

Tony Parker, in his French national team swansong, had 26 points, including a couple of game-sealing three-pointers in the fourth quarter, and Nando De Colo, the Russia-bound guard whose NBA rights are still held by the Raptors, had 22.

It was a bitterly disappointing end to an abbreviated season for Canada, which now has to regroup next year to start the new convoluted process of qualifying for the 2019 FIBA World Cup.

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The process includes four different qualification tournaments — two while the NBA season is going on — but the top seven teams from FIBA Americas will qualify.

“I think we’ve developed at an alarming rate and the project is moving in the right direction,” Nash said. “We’re all very, very disappointed but it’s a young group, minus Joel and Levon. We’re talking very early 20s and we were playing teams that were much more experienced.”

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