When it comes to the discussion of basketball powerhouses in the Americas (North and South combined), the Bahamas doesn't even come close to entering that discourse. But the tides may be turning in that regard, especially when the Bahamas men's national basketball team took one step closer to their dream of qualifying for their first-ever Olympic games. On Sunday night, the Bahamas squad led by the Phoenix Suns duo of Eric Gordon and Deandre Ayton defeated a veteran Argentina team, 82-75, to come out as victors in the 2023 FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament.
With the Bahamas trailing by four, 59-63, to enter the fourth quarter, the team needed a herculean effort from its trio of established NBA players — Gordon, Ayton, and Buddy Hield — to defeat an Argentina squad that has been in these kinds of positions before. Among those three, it was Gordon, one of the Suns' newest additions, who stepped up.
In the dying embers of a hard-fought contest, Suns sharpshooter Eric Gordon torched the Argentinian defense, nailing three straight triples to give the Bahamas a lead they wouldn't relinquish — and a golden opportunity to qualify for the Summer Olympics in Paris a year from now.
Eric Gordon finished the contest with 27 points on 8-13 shooting from the field (6-7 from deep), emerging as the Bahamas' best player on a night when they needed someone to step up and get the team across the finish line, especially when Deandre Ayton and Buddy Hield weren't exactly on their A-games. Ayton ended the night with an unconvincing 10 points on 5-14 shooting from the field (although he did haul in 21 rebounds), while Hield threw up brick after brick, shooting 5-17 from the floor (2-11 from deep), en route to an inefficient 15-point night.
Nevertheless, even with Bahamas crossing off one task in their Olympics qualification checklist, the road to Paris remains an extremely difficult one to navigate. They will have to win another tournament later on, this time the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, to seal their fate as one of the 12 teams that will be competing in the next iteration of the Summer Olympic games. But with Gordon, Ayton, and Hield leading the way, they'll have a strong chance of coming out on top.