FIBA basketball world Cup, What is it? why the buzz?


What is the buzz about FIBA changing its schedule and format?

FIBA announced its quadrennial World Championship will be change starting 2014, they will also be skipping the 2018 event and will be moving it the next year 2019, so basketball can get out of the shadow of FIFA football World Cup. great move right!  

FIBA also announce that FIBA World Championship will now be known as FIBA Basketball World Cup, oh wait a minute, I thought they want to be out of the shadow of football, so why do they change the name to World Cup which is synonymous to football or soccer however you want to call it, that is fishy.

As part of the changes, FIBA says the World Cup slots is expanding from 24 teams to a record 32 countries and that seven of the 12 nations in the 2020 Olympics will qualify -- along with the host nation of '20 Games -- based on World Cup results. Wow this gives the Philippines a chance to enter the World Cup, something to cheer about however don't expect us to win yet against the heavy weights of basketball. 

I forgot to mention that although this could be a good move for FIBA, it is bad news for NBA and PBA managements. The six planned qualifying windows for the 2019 World Cup will be on November 2017, February 2018, June 2018, September 2018, November 2018 and February 2019. some of those six windows will take place at the same time some pro leagues around the world including the NBA schedule their games, a conflict obviously  .

While its still a few years from now, basketball  nation is already wondering how would these change affects the relationships of FIBA to pro leagues and what kind of adjustments need to be made in order to make it happen. 

What do you think about these changes?

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