THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
The FIBA Basketball World Cup gets underway today, August 25, 2023. The tournament is one of the most open outside of the Olympics with teams from all around the globe having gone through an extensive qualifying process to reach the finals. The 32 nations are coming together from four continents for three weeks of action held in three host countries, the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia.
The United States will start as one of the favorites but they will be tested by Spain (who are defending their 2019 crown), France and Greece who all boast NBA talent on their rosters. The World Cup also serves as part of the qualification process for next year's Olympic Games in Paris, with the top two ranked teams at the end from Europe and the Americas region booking their places, as well as the top placed team from Africa, Oceania, and Asia.
Basketball on the world stage has come a long way from the US Dream Team that dismantled all before them in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. The NBA now has a host of talent, making for some parity in major tournaments, at least in the latter stages.
The USA team is coached by Golden State Warriors play-caller Steve Kerr. The well-respected coach takes over from another leading man, Gregg Popovich. Kerr will be looking for a vast improvement since the last World Cup where the USA could only manage a poor seventh place. The president of USA Basketball is Grant Hill and he has changed the approach to how players are recruited into the side. Gone is the long-term commitment that was aimed at keeping squad unity. The players felt that it was too much to play the long NBA season and then be expected to play for the National team every other summer.
That said it is still a great honor to play for the team, and this year's roster boasts four All-Star players. Anthony Edwards, Brandon Ingram, Tyrese Haliburton, and Jaren Jackson Jr. In all, it is a fairly young pool of players, the oldest being Bobby Portis, 28, with the youngest 20-year-old Paolo Banchero.
The team has gone through a series of warm-up games in the last fortnight, winning all five. They blasted Puerto Rico 117-74 in the opening game, before closing with a trio of matches against European opposition. The closest was the last game on 20 August, when they ran out 99-91 winners against Germany.
The first game in the opening group of the World Cup has the USA paired up with New Zealand on Saturday (August 26). Two days later they play Greece who are less of a threat now that their leading light Giannis Antetokounmpo is out after knee surgery. They end the early stage with a game against Jordan on Wednesday.
Progression from the group should be straightforward forward and in the second round phase the USA will play whoever progresses with them from this group, and two from Egypt, Mexico, Montenegro, and Lithuania. All of their first and second-round games will be played at the Mall of Asia Arena, in Pasay, Philippines. A 16,500-capacity venue that will be largely full due to the pulling power of the USA team. The top two from the second-round group phase will advance to the quarter-finals, with the eventual final being played on September 10 at the same location.
https://www.nba.com/watch/league-pass-stream/fiba-world-cup
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