{"id":784720,"date":"2026-07-06T21:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T21:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/784720\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T21:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T21:57:12","slug":"nembhard-bros-reunite-for-canadas-in-fiba-americas-world-cup-qualifying-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/784720\/","title":{"rendered":"Nembhard bros. reunite for Canada’s in FIBA Americas World Cup qualifying window"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Andrew and Ryan Nembhard<\/a> grew up playing basketball together, starting with a Little Tikes net in their family living room, but it has been more than a decade since they have played together on a competitive team.<\/p>\n

The brothers from Aurora, Ont., are both on Canada\u2019s men\u2019s national team for the current FIBA Americas World Cup qualifying window. The Nembhards helped Canada beat Puerto Rico 110-84 on Friday and were on the court again on Monday against Jamaica.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeventh grade, eighth grade, we played middle school basketball together,\u201d said 26-year-old Andrew, who is three years older than Ryan. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a lot of fun just having him around, being able to compete together on the same side of the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan Nembhard<\/a>, fresh off his rookie season with the Dallas Mavericks<\/a>, has been looking forward to playing with his brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst time since, like, elementary school,\u201d said Ryan. \u201cIt\u2019ll be fun. It\u2019s cool to just be out there with everybody. Great group of guys, so I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

When rookies are introduced to new teams, they\u2019re usually paired with a veteran player to show them the ropes. Andrew said he was probably Ryan\u2019s de facto veteran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess so? I feel like I\u2019m still one of the young guys,\u201d said the older Nembhard at Canada\u2019s training camp. \u201cHe\u2019ll figure it out on the fly by watching and observing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Nembhard<\/a> impressed in Canada\u2019s rout of Puerto Rico at Hamilton\u2019s TD Coliseum with 23 points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal. He was leading all scorers in the game until two-time NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to finish with 26 in front of his hometown crowd.<\/p>\n

Ryan Nembhard<\/a> had four points, two assists and two steals in his 11 minutes of play in his senior team debut on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s special. I\u2019m excited for the opportunity to, of course, always have a great time playing on the young teams with some of my best friends,\u201d said the younger Nembhard, who represented Canada at the 2018 FIBA under-16 Americas Championship and again at the 2021 FIBA under-19 World Cup. \u201cIt\u2019s always nice to represent the country and look forward to doing it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Nembhard<\/a> had 16.9 points, 7.7 assists and 2.8 rebounds per game for the Indiana Pacers<\/a> over 57 games in the 2025-26 season. Ryan Nembhard<\/a> averaged 6.6 points, 5.3 assists and 2.2 rebounds over 60 games with Dallas last season.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 6, 2026.<\/p>\n

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Andrew and Ryan Nembhard grew up playing basketball together, starting with a Little Tikes net in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-784720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}