Elliot Cadeau was born and raised in the USA, but has a Swedish mother and made his national team debut just over three years ago.
His development has continued since then.
The guard previously led the Michigan Wolverines to the title in the American college championship last spring. Pelle Larsson was one of many who was impressed by Cadeau's efforts.
"He was the 'most outstanding player' in college basketball; he achieved something that I never did - to win in college - and he was the best player," says the 25-year-old NBA player.
World Cup qualifiers in July
Elliot Cadeau recently opted out of this year's NBA draft to play another season at Michigan. Larsson would like to see the successful Swede in the blue-and-yellow squad for the World Cup qualifiers against the Czech Republic (home) and Slovenia (away) in early July.
No squad has been selected yet, but Cadeau tells SVT that he will be in the World Cup qualifiers.
"It means everything to have a country on my chest to play for. It's a country I've spent a lot of time in," says Cadeau.
Larsson on Cadeau:
"He's good enough for the national team, 100 percent. He plays in a way that makes everyone else better on the court and he's incredibly fast. In European games, where there's more space than in college - college is very congested in the middle - he could have done even more."
“Better than people think”
Larsson himself hopes to get the go-ahead from Miami to play in this summer's World Cup qualifiers. In the best-case scenario, the national team could then field a blue-and-yellow dream team. In addition to Larsson and Cadeau, there is also Bobi Klintman, the other Swedish NBA player who has now ended his contract with Detroit.
"We could be better than people think. Bobi and I together... well, we don't even know how good we can be," says Larsson, who helped lead Sweden to the round of 16 in last year's European Championship.
"I hope it lit a spark in Swedish basketball. I just thought it was incredibly fun; we felt the support and it felt like there was a hype after that."
