SHENZHEN. The stage is set for the 18th FIBA World Cup as China hosts the first round of eliminations in eight different cities starting Aug. 31 with the Philippines bracketed in Group D with Serbia, Italy and Angola, each hoping to survive at the 14,700-seat Foshan International Sports and Cultural Center.
SBP chairman emeritus and FIBA Central Board member Manny V. Pangilinan witnessed the draw proceedings Saturday night in a special VIP section at the floor level of the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center. With MVP was SBP president Al Panlilio. Also at the floor level were SBP executive director Sonny Barrios, SBP special assistant to the president Ryan Gregorio, Cito Martelino, John Lucas, Dr. Raffy Bejar and Abet Dungo.
Watching from a VIP box on the third level were PBA chairman Ricky Vargas, PBA vice chairman Dickie Bachmann, PBA governors Rod Franco, Atty. Mamerto Mondragon, Alfrancis Chua, Rene Pardo, Robert Non, Erick Arejola, Bobby Rosales and Silliman Sy, PBA commissioner Willie Marcial, PBA corporate secretary Atty. Melvin Mendoza and PBA marketing head Gelo Serrano.
In a draw supervised by FIBA sport and competitions director Predrag Bogosavljev with NBA legend Kobe Bryant lending a hand, the 32 participating countries were distributed to eight groups of four each to play a round-robin in the first round. The top two of each group advance to the second round while the last two are relegated to a classification round.
The Philippines will face Italy on Aug. 31, Serbia on Sept. 2 and Angola on Sept. 4. The top two finishers will move on to play the top two finishers of Group C which is made up of Spain, Iran, Puerto Rico and Tunisia. The last two will continue to meet the last two of Group C for classification purposes from No. 17 to No. 32. Each team is guaranteed to play at least six contests.
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In the latest FIBA world rankings, Serbia is No. 4, Italy No. 13, the Philippines No. 31 and Angola No. 39. Panlilio said the Philippines is in a tough bracket but he's counting on Gilas' fighting spirit to claim at least two wins in the first round to advance to the second. "Laban lang," he said. "Anything can happen.
Two wins will bring us to the next round. But it's also possible that Serbia will win three in a row with the Philippines, Italy and Angola finishing with the same 1-2 records so that the quotient system will break the tie for second. Every game counts, especially since if we wind up as the top Asian finisher in the World Cup, it will mean an automatic ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics."
Panlilio said the recent World Cup Qualifiers may not be a gauge of the strength of the teams in the World Cup. "I think 75 percent of the NBA players in different national teams didn't play in the Qualifiers but we're expecting them all to show up at the World Cup," he said.
"I was told Russia and Argentina are in transition so South Korea was lucky to draw them in the same group. It's the same with China. The countries in China's bracket are the Ivory Coast, Poland and Venezuela. It would've been the luck of the draw if we made it to South Korea's group instead but you'll never really know which players will show up in the end. Russia and Argentina might be just as strong or stronger than before."
Vargas said the draw could've been worse for the Philippines. "We know Italy isn't as strong as Serbia and Italy and Angola aren't in the top 10 in the world rankings," he said. "We met with FIBA treasurer Ingo Weiss before the draw and I asked him if the US is beatable and if the other teams are just playing for the silver medal. Ingo told me the US can be beaten, that it can happen with teams like Spain and Serbia."
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Bryant, the World Cup global ambassador, said he expects the tournament to be competitive. He added that it's a "great honor to be part of a national team" and playing for the country is "extremely special, different from playing for a club." Aside from Bryant and Yao Ming, NBA veterans Arvydas Sabonis, Andrei Kirilenko and Stephon Marbury attended the draw.
