Team Canada's Hopes and Dreams Rests on Samuel Dalembert

In an act of rare patriotism here in Canada, Samuel Dalembert of the 76ers got himself sworn in officially as a Canuck yesterday so that he can help the Canadian Men's national team qualifying for the Olympics.

"This was the first country to give me residence, the least I can do is give something back," Dalembert said last night. "I'm just happy to be a Canadian now."

As you surely know, Dalembert was born in Port-Au-Prince Haiti, but moved to Montreal, Quebec for a couple years. He even won a high school championship before skipping to the States with an NCAA scholarship and then picked up to the NBA.

It's great to have at least one NBA player on the Canadian team since Steve Nash and Jamaal Magloire aren't about to join the Maple cause any time soon. Might not be much (they might not even quality this year), but beggars can't be chooser y'know?

I bet if I were to walk out to St-Catherine's right now and ask how proud Montrealers are that Sammy D is repping the Canadian flag ... I'd probably get blank stares and a slap to the face (though the latter would be for entirely different reasons ...)

Apologies for back to back posts on Canadian ballers ... an anomaly, I swear.