FIBA World Cup 2019

Remember the historic ride that the Philippines took to the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain? This was possible after an emotional FIBA Asia Cup 2013 where we beat South Korea in the semifinals to qualify for the World Cup. This was when the chant “Laban Pilipinas: Puso” became a loud and unifying cheer that glued all Pinoys together from Appari to Jolo; from those who cheered their lungs out for Gilas Pilipinas at the MOA Arena, to those who watched the games on TV. It seemed as if the entire country was watching the crucial Philippines vs. South Korea semifinal game where Jimmy Alapag rose to the occasion to deliver a clutch triple from downtown Colon, and had the entire team crying in jubilation after realizing they had made it to the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain. Sure there was still a gold medal game to be played (which we lost to Iran), but it was mission accomplished. Pinoys were headed back to the World Cup of basketball. That was the goal and the rest is history. Yes, we would win only one game in the World Cup, but making it that far was already a championship in its own right. Gilas Pilipinas also showed what “puso” was all about, proving that height wasn’t an obstacle to being competitive on the court. The team’s losses in Spain were

close and we went down fighting every single game against teams featuring NBA-level talent. How can one forget Gabe Norwood’s “in your face” dunk over Luis Scola of Argentina? How can we forget how Jayson Castro (Jayson William on his jersey) matched up against the likes of JJ Barrea?

We were among the world’s best in 2014. Now wouldn’t it be great to go back for another run? Fasten your seat belts and prepare for a longer ride to the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China. The FIBA Asia tournament which we hosted in 2013 is a thing of the past. Gone is the two-week tournament where the best of Asia (and the other FIBA zones) gathered to determine who makes it to the big dance. To make it to the 2019 World Cup, it’ll take around a year and a half to get there and we start next week when Gilas Pilipinas plays Japan in Tokyo on November 24, and then hosts Chinese Taipei on November 27 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament is adopting a FIFA-style series of qualifier games in all FIBA zones: Asia, Americas, Europe and Africa. For the first round of games for FIBA Asia, the Philippines is grouped with Japan, Chinese-Taipei and early favorite Australia in Group B. The group will play a double round robin classification phase with each country hosting a game against the other and then playing in that country’s home in a home-andway set-up. For the first group stage, three FIBA windows are spread over the year: November 2017, February 2018 and June 2018. Each team plays two games per window, one home and one away game each.

At the end of the group stage, the top three teams of each group will move on to the next round where they will play another series of games against the top three teams from another FIBA Asia group. This next set of FIBA windows will be in September 2018, November 2018 and February 2019. From this next round, the top seven FIBA Asia teams qualify for the FIBA World Cup that will be played in in China in August 2019. Australia and New Zealand have been lumped together with the rest of Asia, and since they’re favored to make it to the FIBA World Cup, the fight