The United States will open Basketball World Cup play towards New Zealand this summer season, with Greece and Jordan additionally awaiting the Americans within the group stage.
And the earliest the US can see France in an Olympic closing rematch is the semifinals.
FIBA held the World Cup attract Manila on Saturday, when the 32 groups that certified for the sphere discovered their preliminary matchups for the match that runs from August 25 via September 10. The Americans — the four-time defending Olympic champions who completed seventh at the latest World Cup in 2019 — play New Zealand on August 26, then face Greece and certain Giannis Antetokounmpo on August 28, and conclude group-stage play August 30 towards Jordan.
US actress Saweetie, middle, performs through the FIBA World Cup 2023 attract Quezon metropolis, Philippines on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: AP
“It’s comforting to kind of know who we’re playing,” USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill mentioned. “The big unknown has been there since we started planning and preparing. And at least now we have an idea of who we’re playing and who we potentially could be playing in the second round.”
The US will play all its group stage video games in Manila, whereas Jakarta, Indonesia, and Okinawa, Japan, may also play host to some group video games. Medal rounds are in Manila, so the US received’t must journey in any respect through the match.
The Americans will play Greece in August at Abu Dhabi in an exhibition. They met within the World Cup at China 4 years in the past. Antetokounmpo is anticipated to play for Greece; his Milwaukee Bucks have been hoping for a deep NBA playoff run however misplaced to Miami Heat in Round 1.
“They were eliminated recently, so Giannis will have maybe a longer offseason than he’s had in recent years,” Hill mentioned. “That’s scary.”
The Americans — who will likely be coached by Golden State’s Steve Kerr within the match — have been drawn into Group C, one among eight four-team teams for the opening spherical. The US is planning to announce its roster in June or July.
“To our friends around the world, join our new ‘Thrilla in Manila,’ the 2023 Basketball World Cup edition,” mentioned Manuel Pangilinan, a FIBA Central Board member from the Philippines — utilizing the phrase coined for the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier battle in Manila in 1975.
Defending World Cup champion Spain is in Group G, with Iran, Ivory Coast and Brazil as its opening opponents.
France — which plans to have Victor Wembanyama on its roster — is in Group H, together with Canada, Latvia and Lebanon.
France beat the Americans within the quarterfinals of the 2019 World Cup, eliminating the US from medal rivalry and beginning the spiral to a seventh-place end at that occasion, the worst end ever for an American workforce that includes NBA gamers.
France topped the US once more on the Tokyo Olympics in group play — however the Americans received the sport that mattered most, topping France 87-82 for the gold medal.
They haven’t performed since Tokyo however are nonetheless going head-to-head. Philadelphia middle Joel Embiid — an MVP finalist this season, and the presumed favourite — mentioned earlier than the season that he’s deciding whether or not to play internationally for the US or France on the Paris Olympics. He grew to become an American citizen final 12 months.
Group Breakdown
All groups in every group play each other within the opening spherical. The prime two groups from every group transfer on to the second spherical; the underside two groups transfer right into a classification match to find out seventeenth via thirty second locations on the occasion.
Teams are listed with their world rating:
Group A, Manila: Angola (41), Dominican Republic (23), Philippines (40), Italy (10).
Group B, Manila: South Sudan (62), Serbia (6), China (27), Puerto Rico (20).
Group C, Manila: United States (2), Jordan (33), Greece (9), New Zealand (26).
Group D, Manila: Egypt (55), Mexico (31), Montenegro (18), Lithuania (8).
Group E, Okinawa: Germany (11), Finland (24), Australia (3), Japan (36).
Group F, Okinawa: Slovenia (7), Cape Verde (64), Georgia (32), Venezuela (17).
Group G, Jakarta: Iran (22), Spain (1), Ivory Coast (42), Brazil (13).
Group H, Jakarta: Canada (15), Latvia (29), Lebanon (43), France (5).
Tournament Format
The two groups that advance from every group will play two different groups within the second spherical in new teams: The prime two finishers in Group A will play the highest two from Group B, the highest two from Group C will play Group D’s two finest and the identical sample follows — Group E performs Group F, Group G performs Group H.
That means, within the second spherical, if the Americans advance they may play two of those 4 groups — Egypt, Mexico, Montenegro and Lithuania.
That second spherical will decide the eight quarterfinalists.
Quarterfinal video games are September 5 and 6. Semifinals are September 8 and the video games for gold and bronze medals are September 10.
At Stake
The World Cup is FIBA’s greatest match, plus it serves as a technique to qualify for subsequent 12 months’s Paris Olympics.
With the expectation that France will likely be added as an computerized qualifier for the Olympics as host — most likely not more than a formality, with FIBA not planning to resolve till June 30 — there will likely be seven groups mechanically qualifying for berths within the 12-team Olympic match.
The prime two World Cup finishers from Europe and the Americas, in addition to one from Africa, Asia and Oceania, will earn berths into Paris 2024.
Venue News
The draw capped a three-day run of news out of Manila — some anticipated, some not.
The unique plan to carry the medal rounds in a 55,000-seat enviornment have been scrapped on Thursday over a number of considerations, together with the dearth of a visitors scheme that might accommodate such a crowd. The Philippines will play its first two group-stage video games in that enviornment with hopes of setting a World Cup attendance file, however the medal rounds will likely be on the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila — the place the US will play its video games within the group stage.
And on Friday, FIBA introduced that the 2027 World Cup was awarded to Qatar.
