Team Canada will play an important tune-up game on home soil before heading off to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China this summer.
Canada Basketball announced on Monday that the Men's Senior National Team will host Nigeria on Friday, August 9th at 7 p.m. CT (8 p.m. ET) in Winnipeg, Manitoba at Bell MTS Place — home of the Winnipeg Jets.
The city of Winnipeg hasn't hosted a Senior Men's National Team game in 20 years. It will be the first time Team Canada returns since a fifth-place finish at the 1999 Pan Am Games.
“This is going to be an exciting game against a talented and athletic Nigerian national team," Glen Grunwald, President & CEO of Canada Basketball said via a press release. "Only a few weeks away from the start of the FIBA World Cup, our game in Winnipeg will be very important for our team’s preparation.
"I expect we’ll have Canada’s most talented team ever, with most of our NBA players proudly representing their country.”
This game comes in addition to Canada already scheduling two pre-tournament games in Perth against Australia on August 16 and 17.
The Canadians last faced Nigeria in preliminary round play at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games last summer.
Canada's expected to have their most talented team yet at a global competition with the likes of Kelly Olynyk, Dwight Powell, R.J. Barrett, Jamal Murray and Andrew Wiggins potentially available to play.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 in China begins on Aug. 31 and lasts through Sept. 15, 2019. It will be the biggest edition of FIBA's flagship event with a record 32 participating teams playing 92 games over 16 days.
Canada was drawn in Group H along with Senegal, Lithuania and Australia.
They kick the tournament off against Australia on September 1st in Dongguan, China.
