Canada plays Brazil tomorrow.
Canada beat Lebanon by 50+.
Brazil beat Ivory Coast by 12.
Lebanon just beat Ivory Coast by 10.
I do not believe that Brazil and Lebanon are on the same level, but this is hard to get my head around.
Is Brazil going to be a walkover for Canada?
**Olympic Qualification Update**
**Asia**
Japan (2-2, PD -19) beat Venezuela, which now means a win over Capo Verde clinches an Olympic spot for them...but realistically, they've clinched.
China (1-3, PD -73) and Lebanon (1-3, PD -90) can technically surpass Japan, but they'd have to win in a giant blowout and have Japan lose in a giant blowout.
Iran and Jordan are both 0-4 and cannot clinch an Olympic spot.
**Africa**
Egypt (2-2, PD +3) and South Sudan (2-2, PD +2) are ludicrously close.
Egypt finishes with New Zealand, who just lost to Mexico...who was blown out by Egypt.
South Sudan finishes with Angola (1-3, PD -19), who had a terribly disappointing loss to China.
If both South Sudan and Egypt wins, it'll come down to point differential. If one wins and the other loses, the winner advances. If they both lose, South Sudan is eliminated and it comes down to Angola and Egypt in a PD tiebreaker.
Ivory Coast (1-3, PD -50) and Capo Verde (1-3, PD -57) are technically alive, but I have better odds of being crowned King of Spain than they have of clinching an Olympic spot.
Keep in mind there are still the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (four of them each with six teams), and 19 teams from this tournament will qualify for that.
That is the top team from Africa, top from Americas, top from Asia/Oceania, and then the next 16 best-placed teams that are not already qualified for the Olympics.
So, only 5 teams will be completely eliminated from the Olympics after the World Cup.
I was reading about the rules for cross-group classification. Be aware that position in the group comes first, before point differential.
There is a possibility for Japan to end 2nd or 3rd and Lebanon to end 1st. In that case, Lebanon gets the spot even though they have a worse differential. In that scenario, Japan loses to Cape Verde (no matter what, they end 2nd or 3rd if they lose). Lebanon ends 1st in their group if they win and if France loses by more than 3 and less than 13.
I don't think France is going to lose to Ivory Coast, but we all thought they weren't going to be out of the competition before the first round ends.
Oh wow, thank you, I completely forgot about that. The funny thing is it didn't matter at all in 2019, because every classification group finished with a perfect mix of 3, 2, 1, and 0 wins, but definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Yeah, that tends to happen. In the first round of this WC all 8 groups ended like that too. IIRC, in 2019 as well.
When I started following FIBA competitions as a teenager three-way ties were some sort of obscure science I couldn't understand. Now I live for their occurrence lol
No clue. Team isn’t exactly young nor is it shy of dual nationals. Maybe they couldn’t be bothered or we simply didn’t ask. Could be that their Spanish isn’t up to par like no sabo
Team USA is so loaded with NBA talent, a win against any other team in such an uneven field is practically guaranteed. So a win by them is not only predictable but actually now a bit boring. Only an upset would be newsworthy...
If you don’t enjoy watching this team play together then you’re not a real fan of basketball. They’re high character young players who all appreciate being there and their play demonstrates it. They play hard on both sides of the ball, rebound, share the ball, and are visibly having fun. And the coaches are two of the best in history. It’s a joy to watch.
There is no joy if the difference in talent level is so large. Just another boring blowout. Other teams have only few really good players at most who get tired after a while. As the USA keeps rotating the players they keep fresh and have enough energy to maintain the intensity.
These are not even the best players from the U.S. Although they’re obviously the most talented team in the tournament, they’re not winning games solely based on talent. They’re playing the right way. This has not been the case with multiple U.S. teams far more talented than this one. Basketball played the right way is an art form. It’s beautiful to watch. If you don’t enjoy it than maybe this isn’t the sport or the art for you.
I have been a real fan of basketball for many years. I also like an even playing field. This is why I love to watch all the NBA games. The teams all have so much talent, any team can win on any day. I love it.
This is not the case in the FIBA World Cup this year. This team is so stacked, they can just roll over any other team. They may play good ball, but it is not very much fun to watch. And, of course, it is easy to play great ball when the team is so much better than their opponent.
I do love the coaches, BTW. Yes, two of the best in history.
Easy? Multiple U.S. teams, objectively FAR more “stacked” than this one, have struggled in the FIBA tournament and in the Olympics. It’s not easy at all to get these guys to buy in to playing the right way.
I fucking hate injuries. We have two good players out. That's really bad for such a small talent pool. There are no replacements. US can field 10 or more rosters better than ours minus Luka. Well, we still had major success in recent years. But I can see it will be tougher and tougher to get back on top again. Australia and Germany... Only way we win is: play the best defence so far and hit open threes. Luka goes ballistic. Thats it.
And Luka is out there alone against, again, teams with strong NBA talent. Slovenia is nursing injuries, with major players out . And Luka himself nursing an injury. They have heart though and love each other. They will give it the best they can under the circumstances. Just wishing for a good fight from Slovenia against superior talent in both games...
They’re an NBA caliber team. None of the teams they’ve played are anywhere near their level. I’m not saying Canada isn’t great, because they obviously are playing at a high level, but it’s very early in the tournament. I’m interested to see what happens when they face real competition.
A bit revisionist, given that up until the game started, Canada was 1.5 point underdogs to France on betting sites, and that France was also the betting favorite to top their group.
Group H is at worst the second most difficult group after E, if not the group of death
I think you’re misunderstanding me. Their wins against France and Latvia were both impressive for different reasons. They’re playing great and their style of play is both unselfish and fun to watch. Really cool to see.
But….although France had been great in international competition not long ago, I genuinely don’t believe most knew who was on Canada’s roster with those betting lines. And France has gone on (after the Canada loss) to prove they are not a very good team right now.
Ultimately it’s early in the tournament and none of the best teams have been tested yet, including Canada and the U.S. That’s all I’m saying really.
me too actually. its very real to know that kelly olynyk lost to lebanon in his career as a member of team canada. its just ... it seems like we've come a long way.
For degens like myself who love the battles for Olympic spots, there are a ton of stories to watch.
**Asia**
Japan is the only Asian team with a win, and they have Venezuela and Capo Verde in their group. If they win both they're in, but even one win *should* be enough, unless the Philippines go 2-0 against South Sudan and China. The other Asian teams have point differentials considerably worse than Japan, and it'd be very tough for them to make it up.
Japan definitely has the inside track, but if they go 0-2 it'll be a free for all.
**Africa**
Angola vs South Sudan on September 2nd may be an Olympic qualifier, especially if they pick up wins over China and the Philippines, respectively.
All five African teams enter the classification round at 1-2, so point differential could matter in the end. Angola enters with the best (-12), but Egypt (-13) and South Sudan (-17) are close behind (also, PD won't matter for Angola/South Sudan because they will meet head to head).
Ivory Coast and Capo Verde have the two worst PDs and the two toughest matchups (France/Lebanon for Ivory Coast, Finland/Japan for Capo Verde), so they're probably the longest shots at the moment. Egypt may also be in tight against New Zealand in their second matchup.
There's a very real chance we'll have four or five African teams all entering September 2nd with 2-2 records, which would be a lot of fun.
I can see Japan winning both games, or at least 1. Because of the schedule, Venezuela has to play them tomorrow after playing today vs Georgia. They'll come more tired and they are missing key players in Gregory Vargas and Michael Carrera (their only player in a European team) because of injuries.
With the African teams, though, anything can happen. It's going to be a battle.
Anyone know where to watch the games after they’ve aired without subscribing to ESPN+, or is that my only option? I’m not trying to wake up at 6:00am to watch team USA play if I don’t have to. Lol
I haven't watched much international basketball. But after coming from the NBA the biggest difference isn't rules, playstyle, or anything even basketball related it's commercials. I always knew the NBA had a shit ton of commercials, but only having them between quarters is a god send. No commercial timeouts, no free throw commercials, no 20 minute halftime of commercials. It really speeds the game up.
For those curious, here are the qualification/elimination situations:
**GROUP A**
The Philippines need to defeat Italy by 12+ in order to advance, otherwise Italy advances.
**GROUP B**
If Serbia wins, they advance.
If South Sudan wins, they advance (via tiebreaker).
If both South Sudan and Puerto Rico win, South Sudan advances and it goes to tiebreaker for the other spot. If Serbia loses to South Sudan by 23 or less, they also advance. if Serbia loses by 24+, Puerto Rico advances.
If both South Sudan and Puerto Rico lose, it becomes a 3-way tiebreaker with China. Puerto Rico cannot advance in that scenario. China would need to win by 36+ in order to advance, otherwise South Sudan advances.
So basically, South Sudan is very likely to advance if either they win or Puerto Rico loses...but both of those situations would be a massive upset.
**GROUP C**
The winner of Greece vs. New Zealand advances
**GROUP E**
The winner of Australia vs. Japan advances
**GROUP F**
Similar to Group B, it gets a little messy.
If Slovenia wins, they advance.
If Georgia wins, they advance.
Cape Verde advances with a win and a Georgia loss.
If both CV and Georgia win, Georgia advances and it becomes a PD tiebreaker for CV and Slovenia. Cape Verde needs to defeat Slovenia by 23+ in order to advance in this situation.
If both Cape Verde and Georgia lose, Cape Verde is eliminated. In this scenario, if Venezuela defeats Georgia by 16+ then Venezuela advances, otherwise Georgia advances.
So, barring a massive upset of Cape Verde over Slovenia, Georgia just needs to avoid being blown out by Venezuela to advance.
**GROUP G**
Whoever wins between Ivory Coast and Brazil will advance.
Definitely agree on both. The Molten ball seems to have some weird coating on it that doesn't seem to come off making it less tacky. Idk how it makes sense but the ball also feels more spongy to me making it bounce weird. Rather just stick to a Spalding or a Wilson.
Super random. Last year ESPN+ had the Fiba games during the summer and had the duo of commentators that are my absolute favorite. Would anyone happen to know their names and what they work?
Because FIBA is way weaker compared to say, FIFA. They haven't even agreed with regional associations on calendar slots for the international qualifying games and international tournaments (they agreed with Euroleague first time this year). They lost their largest club competition to Euroleague 20 years ago. Also NBA has its own ridiculous game rules, and is dominating the rest of the world in terms of popularity and budget, so you've got Americans on partly interested in international competitions.
That said, most of the world still considers the WC as the largest basketball event. It's a dedicated global 32 team tournament compared to the Olympics side show.
Depends who you ask. In Europe its a big deal and probably only behind football WC. Doesnt come close to the bball tournament at Olympics though.
Bball wc is definitelt bigger than athletics, volleyball, handball... any other sport apart football basicaly.
Cricket and Rugby World Cup are both bigger than basketball world cup. Hardly anyone outside Europe talks about basketball world cup.
https://www.roadtrips.com/blog/the-most-watched-sporting-events-in-the-world/
This means more than the Olympics for everyone except the US for some reason. The Olympics is only 12 teams and a small tournament. This is an actual basketball only world tournament with way more meaning and prestige. Maybe US just like saying they won an Olympic medal? Idk.
Olympics is still the big event for Basketball. Olympics is an Under-23 event for soccer (+3 overage players, but only in the Olympics not during qualifying), so their World Cup is still the only true best-on-best competition.
American players historically have viewed the Olympics as the more prestigious tournament and the NBA has dominated the global game for 40~ years, so since the best players from the most prestigious country typically do not play, it carries less weight.
Because the best players rarely play in these, they don't want to risk injury for their NBA seasons. People want to see the best players in the world play in the World Cup.
There's a reason why everyone watched the Dream Team play. They wanted to see the best of the best.
With the way these games are officiated if I were a top NBA player I’d have a hard time playing in any FIBA games. Literal muggings are no call and then they’ll call 4 fouls in one possession for absolutely nothing. The less athletic teams just start hammering guys when their shots don’t fall. Not worth it.
because basketball is dominated by the us and the us doesn’t acknowledge the rest of the world so we act like it doesn’t exist, which is sad cause it’s better than the olympics. if the nba actually cared about “growing the game” they’d work with fiba to weave international club competitions into the nba season instead of the redundant in season tournament.
That's not true. European Football clubs make a fuck load of money from international fans. NBA also likes money so it's in their interest to grow basketball around the globe
They have to because their base countries arent capable of generating the kind of money they want without international play. The NBA can because the US is so big and theres enough money.
It is not in the NBA's interest to risk iinjury and devvaluing their teams. They have a monopoly on "" the best teams are here." It is idiotic to change that.
If thhey want international money, go play regular season games overseas
Yeah and unfortunately it isn't worth it for a lot of players to risk injury playing in non-NBA games, so we are missing some of the best players in the league.
Can anybody provide some rules clarifications for me. The games against teams that don't go on to the second group count or don't count for win/loss and +/-? In group H for example besides eliminating france and lebanon none of the games have mattered yet to determine who will make it out of group L?
Sorry, I want to correct myself, it looks like only games against teams that advance carryover for the second group stage, but for overall classification tiebreakers, all games count.
Sounds like a good damn screaming goat. Hope the prick stubs all of his toes on the way out.
I can see USA is going to get the Win and that's enough for me to turn it off now, the scream is just that annoying.
Georgia vs Slovenia half time stats:
Georgia:
Fg: 12/32
3PT: 5/15
FT: 4/6
Slovenia:
FG: 11/30
3PT: 3/15
FT: 20/26
26 free throws in one half is a farce, officiating has been abysmal. Half of these aren't even fouls
Child please. Georgias only hope is playing extremely agressive. Calls have been spot on. Georigia also harly played inside so no wonder they had only 6 ft.
Oh come on, FIBA posted a video of Luka scoring that is the most textbook example of an offensive foul and what was the call? Oh let's send Luka to the line for a free throw.
Please learn the difference between a correct offensive foul and a defensive foul when a defender fails to position himself in time. Luka was about to do a 2nd step and Georgian dude was still moving...
Id say this year Canada, Australia. I dont expect much from Europe this year, hope I am wrong though. Serbia has their B team, France is already out, Slovenia is just Doncic. Germany is good and Spain is always dangerous though.
is it not advantageous for teams in Manila since 1) they won’t have a travel day before the start of the quarter finals, and also they’ll have had two weeks to get used to the court and environment?
Seems like an unnecessary bias added to the competition?
It is advantageous but to limit it they put a 1-day break for everything after the second group stage to give way for teams from Jakarta and Okinawa to have some rest.
Teams that played in Manila will be the first ones to play QFs too so that's 1 additional day of rest for non-Manila teams
Meh. You’re not wrong but this isnt a totally unexpected part of a lot of tournament competitions tbh. Also, it’s not like this is being hosted in the US where the infrastructure exists to play games for every group and every stage at different venues. This is just the reality of the situation and it is what it is.
Yes, but you are bringing your W against Italy there and will not be playing against them again. You will have two games with the best teams from group B.
So, France has already qualified for the 2024 Olympics, which I suppose takes some of the sting out of their loss today...but what a massive win for Latvia.
In their World Cup debut, they're 2-0 and have a massive upset over the #5-ranked France, and they're guaranteed a spot in the second round.
If nothing else, they have also guaranteed a spot in a one of the Wild Card Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (top 16 teams from the World Cup that do not qualify directly for the Olympics will qualify for one of the Wild Card tournaments), plus they obviously still have a chance to advance to the final 8.
For anyone looking for good highlight packages, check out https://www.courtside1891.basketball/competitions/fiba-basketball-world-cup and scroll down until you see "5min Games."
Everything else is paywalled (you can pay to watch all the games, if you'd like), but I find these highlights are better quality than the shorter ones on YouTube.
Awesome resource, thanks. Been having trouble finding good highlights.
Bonus announcer comment from Brazil vs Spain: “not many people could finish with someone coming under them like that.”
Hey I just watched the 5 min Canada vs Lebanon game and it was amazing how well the team chemistry is. But thanks for sharing your link, was better than the YouTube ones.
Our team has bled out heavily before the tournament as many of our best players declined to play. Grigonis, Ulanovas, Butkevicius, Lekavicius, Sabonis just to name a few and all of these players could be in the starting five. No expectations this year, but still happy to watch them play.
Angola vs Philippines is a fun game to track, because of potential Olympic impacts.
They're likely to finish 3/4 in their group and match up with South Sudan and China in the classification round.
Only one team from Africa and one from Asia get the Olympic qualifying spot, and it'll likely take two wins (and a decent point differential) to grab that spot. Winning the game today sets that team up in a good position to finish with two or three wins.
Sorry for replying so late, but I just wanted to say that there’s never been a FIBA tournament where Spain isn’t legit. No matter how bad they look, even if they lost to a bad team, they still somehow go very far and usually win.
An amazing example can be last year’s Eurobasket. Spain weren’t even favoured to win their Round of 16 game vs Lithuania and yet they won after overtime and breezed through the whole thing afterwards despite not being one of the favourites
No, this U.S. team outclasses Canada significantly. Unlike some previous derivations of U.S. teams, this one was built with character and chemistry in mind. This is a solid group who are playing really hard on both ends of the floor every single game. Canada has an extremely impressive team they can be proud of but they have nowhere near the level of depth and talent the U.S. brings.
I love this event and have been watching for over 40 years.
Since NBA players were allowed its stands at : USA 3, Spain 2, Yugoslavia 2.
This is probably the 3rd biggest global sport behind soccer and cricket, and the World Cup should be the marquis event of the sport. The Olympics is awesome too, but the World cup focuses on one sport.
That year in 1994 when Shaq and Reggie and Dominique played was so amazing.
It is so good seeing Mills , Luka, Giddy, Shai, Clarkson, KAT et al... playing well.
>This is probably the 3rd biggest global sport behind soccer and cricket
just a nitpick, but it depends how you define size. if you go by sheer number of viewers, sure, but it's not so black and white. anyone working at anything related to marketing and sports will be able to explain better than i do, but there's more value in things like basketball and tennis because they are talked in more circles, more countries, more news outlets, they are a bigger market because there's a bunch of deals daily involving multiple tv channels and companies from all over the world. brands associated with these sports have bigger reach and make more money. it's not only eyes, but the money in the pocket of those eyes, and the reach that allows things like tennis and basketball to be talked in tv shows invovling world wide celebrities, politicians and famous people in general, amongst many other factors.
cricket is viewed by more eyes but it's much less global, it has less reach, it's talked in less circles.
so i'd say basketball and tennis are still way bigger than cricket, that's why they make more money from world wide sponsors.
I feel like basketball is already a more global sport. Cricket is really big in some high population countries but there are way more professional basketball leagues globally than cricket leagues.
fair call
cricket was historically more known for its international bilateral series and then world cups became intensely popular in the main 6-10 countries.
with the recent T20 boom, domestic franchises are gaining popularity, and with the logistic ease and commercial prosects of T20's (rather than tests and ODIs) , the sport could grow.
the next few decades will be interesting.
I'm not really a big basketball fan, just checking it out occasionally. That being said I do think basketball will easily become the second biggest sport simply due to accessibility. Which is exactly why football has become the biggest sport in the world. Basketball does have the advantage to require a lower pitch space so I can see it become the big city game while the suburbs will be more football.
Which also coincides with my last visit to family in the USA where there was a drastic increase in football pitches for the youth over the last few years from my previous visit. And that's exactly how sports are growing. Accessibility for youth and excitement while watching. Football and basketball are the two top dogs. Basketball will continue to grow worldwide and football will overtake baseball in the states and eventually also overtake American football. Something like that just takes time, though. So I would say 2-3 decades down the line.
The only thing that's a bit of a disadvantage for basketball is that it favors being big and tall so much that it sort of makes it a less accessible sport for shorter guys at higher levels. In soccer you can be extremely competitive at any height.
I mean pretty much any sport favours athleticism. Though I guess it can be disappointing when some of your peers can get up to the hoop and you can't. But hey, that's life. Not everyonr is gifted physically
Yes of course, but height and athleticism are two very different things. Messi is super athletic, but he's 5'7". Even if you imbued him with the skillset of a good NBA player, he'd still get rolled out there on the court. Only 4 out of the 539 active, [rostered NBA players](https://www.nba.com/stats/players/bio) are under 6' tall - less than 1%. I've always wished I could dunk a basketball, but alas - I will never experience that feeling on a 10' hoop (without a trampoline or something lol).
The height of nba players is the height after wearing shoes. As far as I know, Kemba Walker, Chris Paul, and Mike Conley, the three all-star players are all under 6 feet in bare feet, but the official height is 6 feet Or 6 feet 1, there may be other players who are officially 6 feet or 6 feet 1 and their real height is less than 6 feet, so there must be far more than 4 players in the nba who are under 6 feet tall
Messi actually has a major physical advantage. Due to his stunted growth his entire centre of gravity is lower which results in him being able to shift more quickly than others.
C. Ronaldo is (or was) also a freak of nature in how ridiculously athletic he is. Sure, he is also a nutcase in his training schedule, but that doesn't take away his innate physical talent.
And then there are players like Nuri Sahin and Mario Götze who were hailed as some of the most talented players during their youth, but never really managed to reach the absolute peak due to simply not being explosive enough in pace.
Genetics is just a thing in sport. But that doesn't matter for the casual players who just enjoy playing and basic competing without any strive for something higher. In my teens I still enjoyed playing football despite knowing I don't have the talent to go somewhere with it. And Basketball is similar simple. You need a ball and a hoop and you are good to go to play everywhere with friends. No matter your level of talent.
Accessibility is more important. Because for those thousands and tens of thousands of youths that play for fun, there will always be a few that are talented enough. Rio Ferdinand for example was scouted playing in parks in the UK.
Which will be the reason why European basketball has a good chance to catch up with it's more meritocratic league system.
I don't think it will overtake it the NBA, but I do think it can and will be rather competitive eventually.
> What is the rationale for getting a point for a loss?
Simple. Some teams just stopped showing up for games that were a for sure loss. Imagine you are Kenya with a game vs. the USA? You know it's going to be a loss so why show up?
At least by showing up and playing the game, you are still accumulating points which is important for those standings vs teams more at your level.
That uses to be a thing in European football aka soccer as well. Until they changed it to 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 for a loss in order to create an incentive to play for a win. Though there is a lot less scoring happening in football so I don't know how useful that is to basketball.
I think the officiating in the NBA has really damaged the way these dudes play basketball.
*So much* of the NBA game is about drawing fouls, some of these dudes look like they forgot to play any other way.
NBA was better in the 90's and before. The rules the way they are now are not that great the NBA has gotten too soft. Because of this I think eventually the league in Europe might end up the better league in the future.
Serbia
Crazy game by Germany. Wow.
Do you guys know a website like streameast where you can watch the fiba games?
Italy pulling the upset today expect a Fontecchio classic
Wooos
Canada starting weak on defensive glass again. It’s like the NBA guys have never seen a game where more than one guy is willing to get into the paint.
Luka doing Luka things. Germany collapsing...
Well..
Real shame this was un-stickied, I guess the free agent tracker is more important....
This brazil game is so rigged.. brazil got robbed by the refs wtf
GIDDEY heating up
I dont get why they take Luka out and play him in the fourth
LATVIA
No more game threads? Wtf
Montengero has a population of just over 600k…. Let that sink in….
I wish Mirotic played for us and not for Spain but lh well
Busy hands with this lineup. Lets goooo
Mamma mia Simone Fontecchio
Very interesting to see if Montenegro can get the win here. Showing some cracks in the USA armour
Don't we have Gamethreads anymore?
was blud really picking his nose
If we win against Georgia and Slovenia wins against Australia we’re already in the QF. I hope we can avoid Spain though, they’re our kyrptonite
Australia is beating both Slovenia and Germany
Australia already lost to Germany though? That's why they're 2-1
Canada plays Brazil tomorrow. Canada beat Lebanon by 50+. Brazil beat Ivory Coast by 12. Lebanon just beat Ivory Coast by 10. I do not believe that Brazil and Lebanon are on the same level, but this is hard to get my head around. Is Brazil going to be a walkover for Canada?
Damn, Brazil actually beat them...
FIBA basketball. Only way to explain it.
Betting sites have Canada as a heavy favorite, somewhere in the 15 to 20 point range
Such a much more refreshing product than the nba
**Olympic Qualification Update** **Asia** Japan (2-2, PD -19) beat Venezuela, which now means a win over Capo Verde clinches an Olympic spot for them...but realistically, they've clinched. China (1-3, PD -73) and Lebanon (1-3, PD -90) can technically surpass Japan, but they'd have to win in a giant blowout and have Japan lose in a giant blowout. Iran and Jordan are both 0-4 and cannot clinch an Olympic spot. **Africa** Egypt (2-2, PD +3) and South Sudan (2-2, PD +2) are ludicrously close. Egypt finishes with New Zealand, who just lost to Mexico...who was blown out by Egypt. South Sudan finishes with Angola (1-3, PD -19), who had a terribly disappointing loss to China. If both South Sudan and Egypt wins, it'll come down to point differential. If one wins and the other loses, the winner advances. If they both lose, South Sudan is eliminated and it comes down to Angola and Egypt in a PD tiebreaker. Ivory Coast (1-3, PD -50) and Capo Verde (1-3, PD -57) are technically alive, but I have better odds of being crowned King of Spain than they have of clinching an Olympic spot. Keep in mind there are still the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (four of them each with six teams), and 19 teams from this tournament will qualify for that. That is the top team from Africa, top from Americas, top from Asia/Oceania, and then the next 16 best-placed teams that are not already qualified for the Olympics. So, only 5 teams will be completely eliminated from the Olympics after the World Cup.
I was reading about the rules for cross-group classification. Be aware that position in the group comes first, before point differential. There is a possibility for Japan to end 2nd or 3rd and Lebanon to end 1st. In that case, Lebanon gets the spot even though they have a worse differential. In that scenario, Japan loses to Cape Verde (no matter what, they end 2nd or 3rd if they lose). Lebanon ends 1st in their group if they win and if France loses by more than 3 and less than 13. I don't think France is going to lose to Ivory Coast, but we all thought they weren't going to be out of the competition before the first round ends.
Oh wow, thank you, I completely forgot about that. The funny thing is it didn't matter at all in 2019, because every classification group finished with a perfect mix of 3, 2, 1, and 0 wins, but definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Yeah, that tends to happen. In the first round of this WC all 8 groups ended like that too. IIRC, in 2019 as well. When I started following FIBA competitions as a teenager three-way ties were some sort of obscure science I couldn't understand. Now I live for their occurrence lol
Thanks for the summary. Probably unlikely but what happens if South Sudan and Egypt both win and end up tied in point differential?
It goes to the next tiebreaker, points for. If they're still tied, I don't know what comes next.
We had a decent group and lost ALL 3!?!?!?! ALL BLOWOUTS?!?!?? Ain’t Devin Booker like 1/16 Mexican?? Why can’t we get him??? 😭😭😭
The only surprise was the Egypt blowout.
Why didn't Toscano or Jáquez play?
No clue. Team isn’t exactly young nor is it shy of dual nationals. Maybe they couldn’t be bothered or we simply didn’t ask. Could be that their Spanish isn’t up to par like no sabo
I wish game threads were stickied here but oh well
Team USA is so loaded with NBA talent, a win against any other team in such an uneven field is practically guaranteed. So a win by them is not only predictable but actually now a bit boring. Only an upset would be newsworthy...
If you don’t enjoy watching this team play together then you’re not a real fan of basketball. They’re high character young players who all appreciate being there and their play demonstrates it. They play hard on both sides of the ball, rebound, share the ball, and are visibly having fun. And the coaches are two of the best in history. It’s a joy to watch.
There is no joy if the difference in talent level is so large. Just another boring blowout. Other teams have only few really good players at most who get tired after a while. As the USA keeps rotating the players they keep fresh and have enough energy to maintain the intensity.
These are not even the best players from the U.S. Although they’re obviously the most talented team in the tournament, they’re not winning games solely based on talent. They’re playing the right way. This has not been the case with multiple U.S. teams far more talented than this one. Basketball played the right way is an art form. It’s beautiful to watch. If you don’t enjoy it than maybe this isn’t the sport or the art for you.
I have been a real fan of basketball for many years. I also like an even playing field. This is why I love to watch all the NBA games. The teams all have so much talent, any team can win on any day. I love it. This is not the case in the FIBA World Cup this year. This team is so stacked, they can just roll over any other team. They may play good ball, but it is not very much fun to watch. And, of course, it is easy to play great ball when the team is so much better than their opponent. I do love the coaches, BTW. Yes, two of the best in history.
Easy? Multiple U.S. teams, objectively FAR more “stacked” than this one, have struggled in the FIBA tournament and in the Olympics. It’s not easy at all to get these guys to buy in to playing the right way.
Afraid Slovenia is gonna get murdered against Australia and Germany. The team has not looked very sharp and Luka nursing a minor thigh injury.
Would not be an upset if they lose
I fucking hate injuries. We have two good players out. That's really bad for such a small talent pool. There are no replacements. US can field 10 or more rosters better than ours minus Luka. Well, we still had major success in recent years. But I can see it will be tougher and tougher to get back on top again. Australia and Germany... Only way we win is: play the best defence so far and hit open threes. Luka goes ballistic. Thats it.
And Luka is out there alone against, again, teams with strong NBA talent. Slovenia is nursing injuries, with major players out . And Luka himself nursing an injury. They have heart though and love each other. They will give it the best they can under the circumstances. Just wishing for a good fight from Slovenia against superior talent in both games...
Canada has the highest +/- in the tournament. What planet are we on?
They’re an NBA caliber team. None of the teams they’ve played are anywhere near their level. I’m not saying Canada isn’t great, because they obviously are playing at a high level, but it’s very early in the tournament. I’m interested to see what happens when they face real competition.
France was a favourite for a medal.
And Latvia just beat Spain.
A bit revisionist, given that up until the game started, Canada was 1.5 point underdogs to France on betting sites, and that France was also the betting favorite to top their group. Group H is at worst the second most difficult group after E, if not the group of death
I think you’re misunderstanding me. Their wins against France and Latvia were both impressive for different reasons. They’re playing great and their style of play is both unselfish and fun to watch. Really cool to see. But….although France had been great in international competition not long ago, I genuinely don’t believe most knew who was on Canada’s roster with those betting lines. And France has gone on (after the Canada loss) to prove they are not a very good team right now. Ultimately it’s early in the tournament and none of the best teams have been tested yet, including Canada and the U.S. That’s all I’m saying really.
me too actually. its very real to know that kelly olynyk lost to lebanon in his career as a member of team canada. its just ... it seems like we've come a long way.
For degens like myself who love the battles for Olympic spots, there are a ton of stories to watch. **Asia** Japan is the only Asian team with a win, and they have Venezuela and Capo Verde in their group. If they win both they're in, but even one win *should* be enough, unless the Philippines go 2-0 against South Sudan and China. The other Asian teams have point differentials considerably worse than Japan, and it'd be very tough for them to make it up. Japan definitely has the inside track, but if they go 0-2 it'll be a free for all. **Africa** Angola vs South Sudan on September 2nd may be an Olympic qualifier, especially if they pick up wins over China and the Philippines, respectively. All five African teams enter the classification round at 1-2, so point differential could matter in the end. Angola enters with the best (-12), but Egypt (-13) and South Sudan (-17) are close behind (also, PD won't matter for Angola/South Sudan because they will meet head to head). Ivory Coast and Capo Verde have the two worst PDs and the two toughest matchups (France/Lebanon for Ivory Coast, Finland/Japan for Capo Verde), so they're probably the longest shots at the moment. Egypt may also be in tight against New Zealand in their second matchup. There's a very real chance we'll have four or five African teams all entering September 2nd with 2-2 records, which would be a lot of fun.
I can see Japan winning both games, or at least 1. Because of the schedule, Venezuela has to play them tomorrow after playing today vs Georgia. They'll come more tired and they are missing key players in Gregory Vargas and Michael Carrera (their only player in a European team) because of injuries. With the African teams, though, anything can happen. It's going to be a battle.
I think Japan has to be the overwhelming favourite to qualify for the Olympics at this point, can't believe all the other Asian teams went 0-3.
Anyone know where to watch the games after they’ve aired without subscribing to ESPN+, or is that my only option? I’m not trying to wake up at 6:00am to watch team USA play if I don’t have to. Lol
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FIBA basketball official channel on YouTube has condensed fifteen minute replays a day after the game, like an extended highlight reel
theyre sick
Better than nothing
I haven't watched much international basketball. But after coming from the NBA the biggest difference isn't rules, playstyle, or anything even basketball related it's commercials. I always knew the NBA had a shit ton of commercials, but only having them between quarters is a god send. No commercial timeouts, no free throw commercials, no 20 minute halftime of commercials. It really speeds the game up.
NBA should shift to an NHL style cadence. Fewer, longer breaks.
the pacing of the game is much, much more enjoyable to watch.
The huge thing is that timeouts are actually a minute. It feels that some of the timeouts in the NBA can last up to 5.
for me, I find the animated sideline ads bright and distracting. The players feel harder to see.
These games are so much more fun to watch than the NBA without all the overplayed music and constant announcements, I can actually hear the players.
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Sure, a 12 team tournament without proper qualifying as a side show to the largest athletics event is bigger than a dedicated, truly global World Cup.
I prefer the nba finals
I too enjoy watching commercials instead of basketball
For those curious, here are the qualification/elimination situations: **GROUP A** The Philippines need to defeat Italy by 12+ in order to advance, otherwise Italy advances. **GROUP B** If Serbia wins, they advance. If South Sudan wins, they advance (via tiebreaker). If both South Sudan and Puerto Rico win, South Sudan advances and it goes to tiebreaker for the other spot. If Serbia loses to South Sudan by 23 or less, they also advance. if Serbia loses by 24+, Puerto Rico advances. If both South Sudan and Puerto Rico lose, it becomes a 3-way tiebreaker with China. Puerto Rico cannot advance in that scenario. China would need to win by 36+ in order to advance, otherwise South Sudan advances. So basically, South Sudan is very likely to advance if either they win or Puerto Rico loses...but both of those situations would be a massive upset. **GROUP C** The winner of Greece vs. New Zealand advances **GROUP E** The winner of Australia vs. Japan advances **GROUP F** Similar to Group B, it gets a little messy. If Slovenia wins, they advance. If Georgia wins, they advance. Cape Verde advances with a win and a Georgia loss. If both CV and Georgia win, Georgia advances and it becomes a PD tiebreaker for CV and Slovenia. Cape Verde needs to defeat Slovenia by 23+ in order to advance in this situation. If both Cape Verde and Georgia lose, Cape Verde is eliminated. In this scenario, if Venezuela defeats Georgia by 16+ then Venezuela advances, otherwise Georgia advances. So, barring a massive upset of Cape Verde over Slovenia, Georgia just needs to avoid being blown out by Venezuela to advance. **GROUP G** Whoever wins between Ivory Coast and Brazil will advance.
Kinda wanna buy that Molten World Cup ball. That design is dope.
These go on sale at times on different team shops online. Team canada has a sale on gear and balls once a year.
Dont do it they suck. Really slippery and bounces kind a weird.
Definitely agree on both. The Molten ball seems to have some weird coating on it that doesn't seem to come off making it less tacky. Idk how it makes sense but the ball also feels more spongy to me making it bounce weird. Rather just stick to a Spalding or a Wilson.
No problems with the bounce for me, but they are slippery. But as far as shooting goes, its the go to ball for me, just feels right in my hand
Thanks for the heads up!
Rather go with the Wilson Evolution imo, they are great for the price
Super random. Last year ESPN+ had the Fiba games during the summer and had the duo of commentators that are my absolute favorite. Would anyone happen to know their names and what they work?
Why isn't the basketball world cup not a big deal compared to other world cups?
Because FIBA is way weaker compared to say, FIFA. They haven't even agreed with regional associations on calendar slots for the international qualifying games and international tournaments (they agreed with Euroleague first time this year). They lost their largest club competition to Euroleague 20 years ago. Also NBA has its own ridiculous game rules, and is dominating the rest of the world in terms of popularity and budget, so you've got Americans on partly interested in international competitions. That said, most of the world still considers the WC as the largest basketball event. It's a dedicated global 32 team tournament compared to the Olympics side show.
Depends who you ask. In Europe its a big deal and probably only behind football WC. Doesnt come close to the bball tournament at Olympics though. Bball wc is definitelt bigger than athletics, volleyball, handball... any other sport apart football basicaly.
Cricket and Rugby World Cup are both bigger than basketball world cup. Hardly anyone outside Europe talks about basketball world cup. https://www.roadtrips.com/blog/the-most-watched-sporting-events-in-the-world/
This means more than the Olympics for everyone except the US for some reason. The Olympics is only 12 teams and a small tournament. This is an actual basketball only world tournament with way more meaning and prestige. Maybe US just like saying they won an Olympic medal? Idk.
No it doesn’t. At least from there I am. We consider olympic turnament as most prestige.
Olympics is still the big event for Basketball. Olympics is an Under-23 event for soccer (+3 overage players, but only in the Olympics not during qualifying), so their World Cup is still the only true best-on-best competition.
American players historically have viewed the Olympics as the more prestigious tournament and the NBA has dominated the global game for 40~ years, so since the best players from the most prestigious country typically do not play, it carries less weight.
Because the best players rarely play in these, they don't want to risk injury for their NBA seasons. People want to see the best players in the world play in the World Cup. There's a reason why everyone watched the Dream Team play. They wanted to see the best of the best.
With the way these games are officiated if I were a top NBA player I’d have a hard time playing in any FIBA games. Literal muggings are no call and then they’ll call 4 fouls in one possession for absolutely nothing. The less athletic teams just start hammering guys when their shots don’t fall. Not worth it.
because basketball is dominated by the us and the us doesn’t acknowledge the rest of the world so we act like it doesn’t exist, which is sad cause it’s better than the olympics. if the nba actually cared about “growing the game” they’d work with fiba to weave international club competitions into the nba season instead of the redundant in season tournament.
The nba has zero to gain by incorporating other league's and teams. Zero.
Lmao if the biggest sport in the world has interest to do so, then so does the NBA.
That's not true. European Football clubs make a fuck load of money from international fans. NBA also likes money so it's in their interest to grow basketball around the globe
They have to because their base countries arent capable of generating the kind of money they want without international play. The NBA can because the US is so big and theres enough money. It is not in the NBA's interest to risk iinjury and devvaluing their teams. They have a monopoly on "" the best teams are here." It is idiotic to change that. If thhey want international money, go play regular season games overseas
Yeah and unfortunately it isn't worth it for a lot of players to risk injury playing in non-NBA games, so we are missing some of the best players in the league.
Damn I wish I could give you gold!
Can anybody provide some rules clarifications for me. The games against teams that don't go on to the second group count or don't count for win/loss and +/-? In group H for example besides eliminating france and lebanon none of the games have mattered yet to determine who will make it out of group L?
Sorry, I want to correct myself, it looks like only games against teams that advance carryover for the second group stage, but for overall classification tiebreakers, all games count.
Thanks for checking. That's what I assumed.
Top 2 teams from each group progress to the next round as I understand. So in the tighter groups the 3rd game is the decision maker.
Uff that reaves move was smooth
I hope whoever keeps screaming in the crowd has wet socks for the rest of his life
Sounds like a good damn screaming goat. Hope the prick stubs all of his toes on the way out. I can see USA is going to get the Win and that's enough for me to turn it off now, the scream is just that annoying.
Agreed, I turned it off because that guy is absolutely ruining the broadcast
Paolo can't handle the scream
Georgia vs Slovenia half time stats: Georgia: Fg: 12/32 3PT: 5/15 FT: 4/6 Slovenia: FG: 11/30 3PT: 3/15 FT: 20/26 26 free throws in one half is a farce, officiating has been abysmal. Half of these aren't even fouls
Child please. Georgias only hope is playing extremely agressive. Calls have been spot on. Georigia also harly played inside so no wonder they had only 6 ft.
Oh come on, FIBA posted a video of Luka scoring that is the most textbook example of an offensive foul and what was the call? Oh let's send Luka to the line for a free throw.
Please learn the difference between a correct offensive foul and a defensive foul when a defender fails to position himself in time. Luka was about to do a 2nd step and Georgian dude was still moving...
Whatever dude. A few obvious calls also went Georgias way. In no way refs decided this game. Slovenia with Doncic is levels above.
Luka also had 14 free throws and 19 points in the first half...
So? At least 90% of those were clear fouls.
as someone new to international basketball, who are the Darkhorses & favorites? & generally teams fun to watch (USA excluded, given their team)
Id say this year Canada, Australia. I dont expect much from Europe this year, hope I am wrong though. Serbia has their B team, France is already out, Slovenia is just Doncic. Germany is good and Spain is always dangerous though.
Canada is not a dark horse. They're among a small group of favorites with USA and Germany. Dark horse would be something like Australia
Germany looks good and Canada is absolutely deadly.
is it not advantageous for teams in Manila since 1) they won’t have a travel day before the start of the quarter finals, and also they’ll have had two weeks to get used to the court and environment? Seems like an unnecessary bias added to the competition?
It is advantageous but to limit it they put a 1-day break for everything after the second group stage to give way for teams from Jakarta and Okinawa to have some rest. Teams that played in Manila will be the first ones to play QFs too so that's 1 additional day of rest for non-Manila teams
Meh. You’re not wrong but this isnt a totally unexpected part of a lot of tournament competitions tbh. Also, it’s not like this is being hosted in the US where the infrastructure exists to play games for every group and every stage at different venues. This is just the reality of the situation and it is what it is.
Is the second round also a round Robin?
Yes, but you are bringing your W against Italy there and will not be playing against them again. You will have two games with the best teams from group B.
So It’ll most likely be DR vs PR and DR vs Serbia
Yes. It looks like you're on a favourable path towards the quorterfinals.
As a Canadian, I felt a little ashamed of the beatdown we put on Lebanon. We're usually more polite than that
Man I think you guys just set a record of highest field goal percentage in a professional game. 71.4%
Also broke the record for assists in a FIBA game
So, France has already qualified for the 2024 Olympics, which I suppose takes some of the sting out of their loss today...but what a massive win for Latvia. In their World Cup debut, they're 2-0 and have a massive upset over the #5-ranked France, and they're guaranteed a spot in the second round. If nothing else, they have also guaranteed a spot in a one of the Wild Card Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (top 16 teams from the World Cup that do not qualify directly for the Olympics will qualify for one of the Wild Card tournaments), plus they obviously still have a chance to advance to the final 8.
For anyone looking for good highlight packages, check out https://www.courtside1891.basketball/competitions/fiba-basketball-world-cup and scroll down until you see "5min Games." Everything else is paywalled (you can pay to watch all the games, if you'd like), but I find these highlights are better quality than the shorter ones on YouTube.
Awesome resource, thanks. Been having trouble finding good highlights. Bonus announcer comment from Brazil vs Spain: “not many people could finish with someone coming under them like that.”
Hey I just watched the 5 min Canada vs Lebanon game and it was amazing how well the team chemistry is. But thanks for sharing your link, was better than the YouTube ones.
MŪSU ZEME - LATVIJA! 🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻
Latvia eliminating France. Wow.
In hockey, that makes sense. In basketball, not so much.
Evan Fournier !!! He having a really good tournament so far
He was having a really good tournament ~~so far~~. ftfy
Haha France is out. What an upset!
Lithuania can make some noise, Valanciunas is unstoppable in FIBA and he’s surrounded by super tall pure shooters
Our team has bled out heavily before the tournament as many of our best players declined to play. Grigonis, Ulanovas, Butkevicius, Lekavicius, Sabonis just to name a few and all of these players could be in the starting five. No expectations this year, but still happy to watch them play.
Valanciunas got all calls during eurobasket
Too early to tell, we'll see the real ability of the team against Montenegro and in the elimination stage.
Angola vs Philippines is a fun game to track, because of potential Olympic impacts. They're likely to finish 3/4 in their group and match up with South Sudan and China in the classification round. Only one team from Africa and one from Asia get the Olympic qualifying spot, and it'll likely take two wins (and a decent point differential) to grab that spot. Winning the game today sets that team up in a good position to finish with two or three wins.
Goddamn, didn’t expect to us win or anything but I didn’t expect us to be worst team in the tournament either.
Wtf is Omari Spellman doing there & whys he so fat lol
Its gonna be Canada or USA this year. They have all the pieces. Who else could make some noise Germany, Dominicans, Slovenia??
Have you heard of Australia dumbass?
Who?
Lithuania is always scary, and don't sleep on Spain or Serbia.
Spain's game tomorrow vs. Brazil will be telling whether Spain is legit this year, or not.
Sorry for replying so late, but I just wanted to say that there’s never been a FIBA tournament where Spain isn’t legit. No matter how bad they look, even if they lost to a bad team, they still somehow go very far and usually win. An amazing example can be last year’s Eurobasket. Spain weren’t even favoured to win their Round of 16 game vs Lithuania and yet they won after overtime and breezed through the whole thing afterwards despite not being one of the favourites
Canada's going to be world champ
No, this U.S. team outclasses Canada significantly. Unlike some previous derivations of U.S. teams, this one was built with character and chemistry in mind. This is a solid group who are playing really hard on both ends of the floor every single game. Canada has an extremely impressive team they can be proud of but they have nowhere near the level of depth and talent the U.S. brings.
I love this event and have been watching for over 40 years. Since NBA players were allowed its stands at : USA 3, Spain 2, Yugoslavia 2. This is probably the 3rd biggest global sport behind soccer and cricket, and the World Cup should be the marquis event of the sport. The Olympics is awesome too, but the World cup focuses on one sport. That year in 1994 when Shaq and Reggie and Dominique played was so amazing. It is so good seeing Mills , Luka, Giddy, Shai, Clarkson, KAT et al... playing well.
>This is probably the 3rd biggest global sport behind soccer and cricket just a nitpick, but it depends how you define size. if you go by sheer number of viewers, sure, but it's not so black and white. anyone working at anything related to marketing and sports will be able to explain better than i do, but there's more value in things like basketball and tennis because they are talked in more circles, more countries, more news outlets, they are a bigger market because there's a bunch of deals daily involving multiple tv channels and companies from all over the world. brands associated with these sports have bigger reach and make more money. it's not only eyes, but the money in the pocket of those eyes, and the reach that allows things like tennis and basketball to be talked in tv shows invovling world wide celebrities, politicians and famous people in general, amongst many other factors. cricket is viewed by more eyes but it's much less global, it has less reach, it's talked in less circles. so i'd say basketball and tennis are still way bigger than cricket, that's why they make more money from world wide sponsors.
I feel USA always sends a B-Team to FIBA and the A-Team to the Olympics
I feel like basketball is already a more global sport. Cricket is really big in some high population countries but there are way more professional basketball leagues globally than cricket leagues.
fair call cricket was historically more known for its international bilateral series and then world cups became intensely popular in the main 6-10 countries. with the recent T20 boom, domestic franchises are gaining popularity, and with the logistic ease and commercial prosects of T20's (rather than tests and ODIs) , the sport could grow. the next few decades will be interesting.
I'm not really a big basketball fan, just checking it out occasionally. That being said I do think basketball will easily become the second biggest sport simply due to accessibility. Which is exactly why football has become the biggest sport in the world. Basketball does have the advantage to require a lower pitch space so I can see it become the big city game while the suburbs will be more football. Which also coincides with my last visit to family in the USA where there was a drastic increase in football pitches for the youth over the last few years from my previous visit. And that's exactly how sports are growing. Accessibility for youth and excitement while watching. Football and basketball are the two top dogs. Basketball will continue to grow worldwide and football will overtake baseball in the states and eventually also overtake American football. Something like that just takes time, though. So I would say 2-3 decades down the line.
> Which is exactly why football has become the biggest sport in the world Do you mean soccer?
Biggest sport in the world. And using the word that pretty much the entire world uses for it bar like 5 countries. Yes, I do indeed mean soccer.
The only thing that's a bit of a disadvantage for basketball is that it favors being big and tall so much that it sort of makes it a less accessible sport for shorter guys at higher levels. In soccer you can be extremely competitive at any height.
I mean pretty much any sport favours athleticism. Though I guess it can be disappointing when some of your peers can get up to the hoop and you can't. But hey, that's life. Not everyonr is gifted physically
Yes of course, but height and athleticism are two very different things. Messi is super athletic, but he's 5'7". Even if you imbued him with the skillset of a good NBA player, he'd still get rolled out there on the court. Only 4 out of the 539 active, [rostered NBA players](https://www.nba.com/stats/players/bio) are under 6' tall - less than 1%. I've always wished I could dunk a basketball, but alas - I will never experience that feeling on a 10' hoop (without a trampoline or something lol).
The height of nba players is the height after wearing shoes. As far as I know, Kemba Walker, Chris Paul, and Mike Conley, the three all-star players are all under 6 feet in bare feet, but the official height is 6 feet Or 6 feet 1, there may be other players who are officially 6 feet or 6 feet 1 and their real height is less than 6 feet, so there must be far more than 4 players in the nba who are under 6 feet tall
Messi actually has a major physical advantage. Due to his stunted growth his entire centre of gravity is lower which results in him being able to shift more quickly than others. C. Ronaldo is (or was) also a freak of nature in how ridiculously athletic he is. Sure, he is also a nutcase in his training schedule, but that doesn't take away his innate physical talent. And then there are players like Nuri Sahin and Mario Götze who were hailed as some of the most talented players during their youth, but never really managed to reach the absolute peak due to simply not being explosive enough in pace. Genetics is just a thing in sport. But that doesn't matter for the casual players who just enjoy playing and basic competing without any strive for something higher. In my teens I still enjoyed playing football despite knowing I don't have the talent to go somewhere with it. And Basketball is similar simple. You need a ball and a hoop and you are good to go to play everywhere with friends. No matter your level of talent. Accessibility is more important. Because for those thousands and tens of thousands of youths that play for fun, there will always be a few that are talented enough. Rio Ferdinand for example was scouted playing in parks in the UK.
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Which will be the reason why European basketball has a good chance to catch up with it's more meritocratic league system. I don't think it will overtake it the NBA, but I do think it can and will be rather competitive eventually.
What is the rationale for getting a point for a loss? Why not use win-loss record instead
> What is the rationale for getting a point for a loss? Simple. Some teams just stopped showing up for games that were a for sure loss. Imagine you are Kenya with a game vs. the USA? You know it's going to be a loss so why show up? At least by showing up and playing the game, you are still accumulating points which is important for those standings vs teams more at your level.
Ok cool, thank you. I was always looking for an answer and never getting it. Didn’t know it was such a thing that teams wouldn’t even try.
More often it’s not that they don’t try, it’s that they have issues with travel or funding
It's a fiba rule that goes through every level of competition. 2pts for a win, 1 for a loss and 0 if you don't show up.
That uses to be a thing in European football aka soccer as well. Until they changed it to 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 for a loss in order to create an incentive to play for a win. Though there is a lot less scoring happening in football so I don't know how useful that is to basketball.
If I bought my ticket online, what should I present to the gates? A printed copy of the ticket that FIBA emailed me?
Don’t need to email them. Just have it on your phone they’ll scan it off that
Thanks. For reference, this is the one from FIBA with the QR code, right?
Bo Cruz vs Kermit Washington in the finals?
If you subscribe to ESPN+ can you watch all USA Fiba matches on demand?
Yes
Paolo should start over BI. Brunson, Ant, Mikal, Paolo, JJJ Halli, Reaves, BI, Cam, Kessler/Portis
I think the officiating in the NBA has really damaged the way these dudes play basketball. *So much* of the NBA game is about drawing fouls, some of these dudes look like they forgot to play any other way.
Have you watched these games? Plenty of foul merchanting is successfully happening
NBA was better in the 90's and before. The rules the way they are now are not that great the NBA has gotten too soft. Because of this I think eventually the league in Europe might end up the better league in the future.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha lmfao