Canadian basketball teams hope summer trips across world end with ticket to Paris

Basketball has rarely, if ever, been more global than it is at this moment.

The NBA Finals MVP, Nikola Jokic, was born in Serbia, and his sidekick Jamal Murray hails from Kitchener, Ont. The regular-season MVP, Joel Embiid, was born in Cameroon but also holds American and French citizenship. He's reportedly weighing representing the latter two internationally.

On Thursday, France's Victor Wembanyama is the overwhelming favourite to be picked first overall by the San Antonio Spurs.

Fittingly, a busy international summer basketball schedule will touch many corners of the world. For Canada's teams, the ultimate destination is Paris, for next year's Olympics.

Here's what lies ahead:

The rest of the summer is a mere teaser for this main event, which takes place across Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines beginning Aug. 25. The top two teams from the Americas regions will earn direct berths to the Olympics, with others relegated to last-chance qualifying tournaments.

In a best-case scenario, Canada enters the tournament with the second-most talented team on paper. In the past, though, chemistry has been its undoing, which is why the team has scheduled a pair of two-game exhibition stints in Germany and Spain in mid-August.

And even if the talent and chemistry are there, Canada must still get past either No. 1 Spain or No. 5 France to reach the quarterfinals. Anything less would make automatic Olympic qualification extremely unlikely.

In the women's 3x3 squad and the men's and women's senior teams, Canada owns three legitimate Olympic podiums contenders in Paris. They just have to get there.

WATCH | GM Rowan Barrett discusses path to Paris:

Canada's senior women's national team is currently training in Toronto ahead of the