As from tomorrow until the 3rd of September, Japan will be the host for the most important basketball event on the globe. In fact it is the first time that the country of the rising sun is hosting a championship of this magnitude.
The FIBA World Championship is played every four years and determines the best basketball nation of the world. The first FIBA World Championship was played in 1950 in Argentina and has since then been organized 14 times.
For one team, there will be a special task: after the disappointing sixth place in Indianapolis, and a bronze medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, the USA will try everything the regain the position as the dominating basketball power over the past 5 decades.
From this year’s edition, the number of participating teams was increased to 24 from 16. This decision was made to address the internationally enhanced level of basketball and the circumstances that basketball is the most popular indoor team sport in the world.
The host nation, the 2004 Olympic Champions and countries that won the preliminary matches of FIBA Africa, FIBA Americas, FIBA Asia, FIBA Europe and FIBA Oceania zones qualified for the World Championship and four wild cards.
Most countries qualified through the 5 continental championships in summer 2005 but four countries received a wild card from FIBA.
The 24 participating countries were drawn in four groups:
Group A: Nigeria, Lebanon, Argentina, France, Venezuela, Serbia
Group B: Panama, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, Spain, Angola
Group C: Qatar, Australia, Turkey, Lithuania, Brazil, Greece
Group D: Senegal, USA, China, Italy, Puerto Rico, Slovenia
In the preliminary round, each team plays all the other squads in their own group in single round-robin group contests.
The national teams that finish in the top four of each group qualify for the Eighth-Finals. The first and fourth place finishers and second and third place teams play single elimination games in these Eighth-Finals.
Teams from Group A will face teams from Group B in those contests and teams from Group C match up with teams from Group D. The winners advance to the Quarter Finals where they will face off in single elimination games.
Puerto Rico(7th in the Americas zone) , Serbia (11th in Euro 2005), Italy (10th in Euro 2005) and Turkey(12th in Euro 2005) qualified as wild cards, as determined by the FIBA Central Board in November 2005. The board took things such as recent national team success into consideration.
There was some criticism for this selection, especially from Europe when Croatia, Russia and Israel, who had finished 7th-9th in the European 2005 championships, were left out.
In the Americas zone, the Dominican Republic, who had finished 6th, one place ahead of Puerto Rico, was also omitted.
Historically, born in Massachusetts (USA) in 1891, basketball has rapidly spread worldwide in the last years. For more than a century it has been led by the USA. This structure, however, has been changing recently and in fact, presently, the USA are trying to prove again that they are the best around.
Sport enthusiasts may remember that during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, the USA formed a national team consisting of top super star
players of the NBA, the world’s topmost league of basketball, and won the gold medal, showing overwhelming and irresistible strength.
The NBA exploded in popularity around the world and started to attract each nation’s top players along which enhanced their policy of internationalisation. Ironically this phenomenon resulted in the other countries raising their playing level and thus, the gap between the US and the world closed quite rapidly in the last years.
Finally, the day the US team (with NBA stars) lost arrived. This occurred in the last World championships in 2002 incidentally played in the USA itself.
USA played Argentina in the Eighth Final Round and lost with 87 – 80. This loss meant the end of USA’s 58 – 0 running streak until that game in FIBA competition and forced the 2000 Olympic Champion to play reigning FIBA World Champion Serbia and Montenegro in the Quarter Finals. After losing against the Serbs with 78 – 81, it was clear that the USA was out of the medals for the first time since using NBA players. USA was further dishonoured by losing the consolation final against Spain.
In the gold medal game Serbia & Montenegro, having 5 NBA players, were able to repeat their 1998 triumph in a overtime thriller against Argentina (84 – 77) whilst Germany secured a bronze medal against New Zealand (117 – 94) and their first medal in the FIBA World Championships.
Dirk Nowitzki from Germany was voted MVP of the championship with Manu Ginobili (Argentina), Yao Ming (China), Pero Cameron (New Zealand) and Dejan Bodiroga (Serbia) joining him in the All Star Five.
Two years after the World Championship in 2002 where the improved level of each country was revealed, the US formed again a team of top NBA players with an aim to win the gold medal for four consecutive Olympic tournaments, starting from the Athens 2004 Games.
They defeated Spain in the quarter-finals but were defeated again by Argentina in the semi-finals, seeing an end to their hope.
However, they managed to beat Lithuania, the country that defeated the US in the preliminary round, in the third-place match and win the bronze medal.
The final game was fought between Argentina and Italy. It was a see-saw game until the third quarter, but Argentina, who showed slightly better skill both on offence and defence, finally won the championship.
Argentina’s Emanuel Ginobili, who is also a well-known NBA player, was selected as MVP.
With the most likely winners being eliminated, and the lower-ranked teams making it to the final rounds, the basketball universe seems to have entered an eventful state of upheaval.
No one can predict who will win the championship in Japan, although the USA begin as favourites with, in my opinion, Argentina, Spain, France and Serbia following.
To confirm this reduction in the gap between the level of play, here is a complete list of players (non-US) who presently play in the NBA:
Manu Ginobili (Argentina) – San Antonio Spurs; Fabricio Oberto (Argentina) – San Antonio Spurs; Andre Nocioni (Argentina) – Chicago Bulls; Carlos Delfino (Argentina) – Detroit Pistons; Andrew Bogut (Australia) – Milwaukee Bucks; Leandro Barbosa (Brazil) – Phoenix Suns; Anderson Varejao (Brazil) – Cleveland Cavaliers; Yao Ming (China) – Houston Rockets; Mickael Pietrus (France) – Golden State Warriors; Boris Diaw (France) – Phoenix Suns; Michael Gelabale (France ) – Seattle Supersonics; Tony Parker (France) – San Antonio Spurs; Johan Petro (France) – Seattle Supersonics; Ronny Turiaf (France) – Los Angeles Lakers; Dirk Nowitcki (Germany) – Dallas Mavericks; Vassilis Spanoulis (Greece) – Houston Rockets; Arvidas Macijauskas (Lithuania) – New Orleans Hornets; Darius Songaila (Lithuania) – Chicago Bulls; Linas Kleiza (Lithuania) – Denver Nuggets; Ike Diogu (Nigeria) – Golden State Warriors; Ime Udoka (Nigeria) – New York Knicks; Ejike Ugboaja (Nigeria) – Cleveland Cavaliers; Peter Ramos (Puerto Rico) – Washington Wizards; Carlos Arroyo (Puerto Rico) – Detroit Pistons; Darko Milicic (Serbia) – Orlando Magic; Kosta Perovic (Serbia) – Golden State Warriors; Primoz Bezec (Slovenia) – Charlotte Bobcats; Bostjan Nachbar (Slovenia) – New Jersey Nets; Radoslav Nesterovic (Slovenia) – Toronto Raptors;Uros Slokar (Slovenia) – Toronto Raptors;Beno Udrih (Slovenia) – San Antonio Spurs; Pau Gasol (Spain) – Memphis Grizzlies; Jose Manuel Calderon (Spain) – Toronto Raptors; Jorge Garbarosa (Spain) – Toronto Raptors; Sergio Rodriguez (Spain) – Portland Trail Blazers; Ersan Ilyasova (Turkey) – Milwaukee Bucks
There are other players who could have further enriched the world championships, like the NBA’s first pick this year, Italian Andrea Bargnani, but these will be missing either through injury, team commitments or a personal choice to withdraw from the championships.
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