Are you looking to watch Greece take on China, or Lithuania vs. New Zealand in the first day of World Championships?

Follow all the group play matches in Interbasket’s World Championships of Basketball forum where we’ve created individual game threads so you find out where to watch the game, comment on the game, and follow along with Greek, Chinese, and basketball fans from around the world.  Check out the individual game threads below:

It’s been a busy week for FIBA as they announced the four wild cards on Saturday, and determined the top four seeds for the World Championships of Basketball on Sunday.

Now the federation that overseas international basketball has announced the draw results that will determine the groupings for the 2010 world basketball event in Istanbul, Turkey.

The 24 participating nations were drawn into four groups of six teams each:

• Group A: Serbia, Argentina, Australia, Jordan, Germany, Angola
• Group B: Croatia, Brazil, Tunisia, Slovenia, Iran, USA
• Group C: China, Turkey, Russia, Puerto Rico, Ivory Coast, Greece
• Group D: Lithuania, Lebanon, France, Spain, Canada, New Zealand

(Discuss the draw results in our forum)

The draw was held at the the Ciragan Palace Kempinski Hotel, Istanbul, on 15th December 15th, 2009 at 11:30AM local time.

The draw was conducted jointly by FIBA and the LOC in the presence of participating nations’ representatives, “National Federation members, prominent public figures and members of the international media.”

The FIBA World Championships are held every four years and determines the world’s top country in basketball.

Two NBA teams re-signed their backup centers.

Yeah, it’s the NBA off-season, so this qualifies as news.

The New Orleans Hornets brought back Kiwi Sean Marks. The 6-foot-10, 250-pound New Zealand native averaged 3.2 points and 3.1 rebounds in 14.1 minutes for the Hornets last season.

The 34-year old Marks is a nine-year NBA veteran journeyman, having spent time with four other teams: Miami, Phoenix, San Antonio and Toronto.  He was the first player from New Zealand to play in the NBA.

Nuggets sign Petro
The Denver Nuggets re-signed Johan Petro of France to a one-year, league-minimum deal for $825,000.

The 23-year old center spent his first three and a half seasons with Oklahoma City/Seattle Sonics before being traded to the Nuggets during the 2008-09 season for backup guard Chucky Atkins.

Petro was recently cut from the French National Team in favor of Ian Mahinmi, another NBA player.

“We decided not to keep (Petro) for more defensive reasons than offense. We believed that Ian Mahinmi had a profile that had more mobility and gives an advantage to the national team.” said France’s head coach Vincent Collet.

The 7-0 Petro has NBA career averages of 5.4 points and 4.3 rebounds in 270 games with the Nuggets and Oklahoma City/Seattle Sonics.  The Parisian native was drafted in the first round of the 2005 NBA draft with the 25th pick overall.

Wellington – Playing at home and needing to win by seven or more points, New Zealand blasted Australia 100-78 to claim the 2009 Oceania Championships.

(discuss the 2009 Oceania Championships)

With the win, New Zealand not only gains a higher seeding in the 2010 World Championships, but takes home the Al Ramsay Shield, the all-important symbol of trans-Tasman mens basketball supremacy.

Supremacy indeed, the Tall Blacks were dominant; the 22-point margin was NZ’s largest win ever over Australia.

After trailing 40-38, New Zealand knew they had to turn up the game, as they must defeat Australia by more than 7 points to win the two-game series. The Tall Blacks used an extraordinary third quarter, fueled by a flagrant foul on Joe Ingles, to firmly take control of the game.

In that decisive third period, the Tall Blacks blitzed the Boomers 36-15, including a 19-2 run that ignited the home crowd as well as the players.  They would go into the final period up 74-55.

Mika Vukona led the Tall Blacks with 25 points and pulled in 12 rebounds, Kirk Penney had 24 points, 10 assists, and 7 rebounds. 7-2 center Alex Pledger tallied 15 points and a game high 13 boards.

This was the first time in a long stretch that another Kiwi led New Zealand in scoring other than Kirk Penney – and you can reason that because Vukona stepped up to the challenge, that is why the Tall Blacks were victorious today.

Brad Newley scored 20 points for Australia. Aborigine big man Nathan Jawai contributed 17 points, Andrew Ogilvy had 14, and Ingles was held to 13 points for the losing side.

Australia has taken the Oceania Championship 16 of the 19 times, and 2009 marks just the third time that New Zealand has won the Oceania Championships, having taken home the trophy previously in 1999 and 2001.

Sydney, Australia- Playing in a home-and-away series, Australia defeated New Zealand 74-67 in the first game of the 2009 Oceania Championships.

Australia went into the fourth quarter trailing by three points, but Joe Ingles would catch fire and score ten straight points in 90 seconds to help the Aussies take control of the game.

The Boomers would go from the three-point deficit to a nine-point lead outscoring their rivals 23-13 in the final period and take the first match of the two-game series.

Ingles would end up with 26 points to lead the Aussies.  Brad Newley added 13 points and Nathan Jawai of the Dallas Mavericks, was big underneath for the Aussies putting up 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Kirk Penney led the Tall Blacks of New Zealand with 23 points, and Alex Pledger added 16.

(discuss the 2009 Oceania Championships)

With the win, New Zealand must now defeat the Boomers in the next game by seven or more points in order to claim the Ramsey Shield. Obviously a loss would give the title to the Aussies, but also a NZ win of seven points or less would end with the same result.

If New Zealand ends up defeating Australia by seven points, the same as Australia defeated them, a tie breaker would have to go into effect. According to FIBA Oceania’s website:

“an extra period of five minutes will be played until the points difference is more or less than 7 points. If the Tall Blacks are in the lead at the end of the extra period, but by more than 7 points, they take the series, but ff the Tall Blacks are still leading at the end of extra time by less than 7 points, all prizes go the Boomers.”

The next, and final, game will be played in Wellington, New Zealand on Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

Both the Boomers and Tall Blacks have already qualified for the 2010 World Championships, so  this year’s Oceania Championships are more about the Trans-Tasman bragging rights, and higher seeding in next year’s World Championships.

Title: FIBA Oceania Championships 2009
Location: Canberra, Australia and Wellington, New Zealand
Discuss: Oceania Championships
Description: The Oceania championships features major players Australia and New Zealand, and very rarely smaller, island countries such as Guam, French Polynesia, American Samoa, and New Caledonia.

This year, Australia and New Zealand will once again be the only countries that are sending teams.

The 2009 championships also marks a change in tournament format.  The Oceania Basketball Federation switched from a best-of-three playoffs, to a two game, home-and-away playoff between the Boomers and Tall Blacks, with total scores as the tiebreaker should the teams split the series.

Generally, the Pacific Island countries that dot Oceania do not have the financial support to maintain their national basketball teams.

Collectively, these other countries have only participated in only five tournaments in the history of the Oceania Championships, the last time being 1999 when Guam brought home the silver (Australia did not participate in 1999 as they automatically qualified for the 2000 Olympics as the hosts of the tournament).

This is the fifth straight tournament in which only Australia and New Zealand have competed in the regional qualifier.

The Boomer squad features Brad Newley, Joe Ingles, Nathan Jawai, Luke Nevill, Mark Worthington, and Aron Baynes.  The Tall Blacks of New Zealand will be lead by Kirk Penney with support from Lindsay Tait, Rob Loe, Alex Pledger, and Tom Abercrombie.

Since both teams have already qualified for the World Basketball Championships next year, this year’s tournament is more about the Trans-Tasman rivalry and bragging rights.

Australia has won in all but two Oceania Championships since the inception of the tournament in 1971. New Zealand took gold medals in the 1999 and 2001 championships.

In preparation for the FIBA Oceania Championships, the Tall Blacks of New Zealand set out on a eight-game European tour.

Unfortunately, they ended the stint with more questions than answers as the Tall Blacks dropped six of the eight games.

Their six losses came at the hands of Estonia (2), Canada, Italy, Belgium, and Finland respectively.

The Tall Blacks were able to pull out two wins; one over Portugal in the inital game of the Tretino Cup held in Tretino, Italy.  Their second win came in their second game against DJ Mbenga and Belgium on a buzzer beating layup by center Alex Pledger to give the Tall Blacks an 83-81 win.

1. Estonia – 58-49  (L)
2. Estonia – 57-54  (L)
3. Portugal – 98-91 (W)
4. Canada – 90-68 (L)
5. Italy – 88-70 (L)
6. Belgium – 98-76 (L)
7. Belgium – 83-81 (W)
8. Finland – 102-91 (L)

The Kiwis’ eight games in twelve days were unsuccessful for a variety of reasons.  Outside of their two matches against Estonia, they allowed their opponents to score 80 or more points in each game.  The Tall Blacks also lacked consistent offense.  Besides Kirk Penney. a former University of Wisconsin shooting guard and last year’s NBL MVP, no other player could be counted on for offensive productivity.

Turnovers were also an issue as the Tall Blacks turnovered the ball more than twice their opponents number in several of the games, and reached 20+ turnovers in at least half their games.

There were bright spots to highlight.  New Zealand does have a very promising future with young frontline players Alex Pledger (22 year old) and Westlake high school phenom Rob Loe (17), as well as 22-year old guard Tom Abercrombie.

As expected, the 28-year old Penney averaged 25 points per game in the eight game tour, and regularly looked spectacular.  The 6-5 guard is at his basketball peak, accumulating two games in which he scored over 30 points and four games in which he scored over 20 points.

New Zealand will partake in the 2009 FIBA Oceania Championships beginning on August 23, 2009.

With Hedo Türkoğlu ready to sign on the dotted line with the Toronto Raptors tomorrow, there aren’t too many international NBA free agents left to be had.

Interbasket scanned the list of remaining foreign-born free agents and came up with our top ten international free agents, both restricted and unrestricted, still swimming about in free agent waters.

1. Linas Kleiza, Lithuania (r) – With Denver trying to re-sign the Birdman, Chris Andersen, the Nuggets may not have enough money in the tank to keep the restricted Kleiza from walking away without going into the luxury tax.  Kleiza’s ability to run the floor, attack the basket, and finish with momentum and strength reminds you of a Baltic Karl Malone.  On top of that, Kleiza is a reliable three-point shooter and can take other power forwards off the dribble in the half-court.  In the right situation (see: more minutes), Kleiza can have (another) breakout year.

2. Anderson Varejão, Brazil (un) – Varejao opted out of his contract last week and is testing free agent waters.  Varejao is obviously looking for more than the $6 million that the Cavs were going to pay him this coming season. Cleveland signed the 35-year old Shaquille O’Neal and still has Zydrunas Ilguaskas in tow, so will they go after Varejao?  Do the Cavs want to deal with another Varejao holdout as they did in 2007 when the Brazilian backup missed an entire month of games.

3. Marcin Gortat, Poland (r) – Gortat is a restricted free agent, despite being courted by the Houston Rockets, and reportedly offered a huge offer sheet by the Dallas Mavericks, the Magic can have the option to match the offer and keep the 7-0, 240lb Polish center.   With Turkoğlu likely out of the picture and if the Magic aren’t aiming for another free agent this year (or the next), Orlando has the money to match and keep Gortat.  Whether Gortat is worth the reportedly $5.6 million/year that Dallas is willing to give him is the real question.

4. Wálter Herrmann, Argentina (un) – Anyone need a three-point specialist with a long, silky, blond ponytail only seen on covers of romance novels?   The Detroit Pistons are reportedly letting the Argentine shooter walk without an offer. If Herrmann doesn’t get a NBA contract, he’ll be welcomed back, with open arms, in Europe where the 6-9 forward started his career.

5. Zaza Pachulia, Georgia (un) – The Hawks are close to signing David Andersen, a big man from down under and Euroleague star, as insurance in case Pachulia goes elsewhere. It will be a huge shock if the Hawks look anything like the team of this past season. With Mike Bibby, Flip Murray, Marvin Williams also free agents this summer and with Andersen possibly coming onboard, Zaza may not get the attention from the Atlanta Hawks he expects.

6. Pops Mensah-Bonsu, England (un) – The Toronto Raptors were happy with their late-season pickup, and extended Mensah-Bonsu a qualifying offer in late June. The high-energy journeyman averaged 5.1 points and 5.4 rebounds and 13.8 minutes in 19 games with the Raps.   As a restricted free agent, Pops can sign an offer sheet with another team, but Toronto now owns the right to match the offer.

7. Rasho Nesterović, Slovenia (un) – The once baby-faced center has moved into the category of “great veteran and locker room guy.” At 33 years old, Rasho’s basketball peak are several years behind him, but the 7-0 center has at least a couple years left in him as a solid backup for a team looking for a veteran with playoff experience, and uh…  a locker room guy.  Nesterović’s career averages are around 7 points on 50% FG shooting, 5 rebounds and one blocked shot a game.

8. Jamaal Magloire, Canada (un) – The long-armed Magloire played spot minutes as backup center for the Miami Heat last season and did a serviceable job. The 7-0 former all-star center from Canada has said that he would like to return to the Miami Heat, so much so that he would re-sign at a discounted price.  Whether or not that will happen for the 31-year old Magloire will play out over the summer. The Heat selected 6-9 Robert Dozier, who is may play a little center, but is definitely under-sized.

9. Sean Marks, New Zealand (un) – With Tyson Chandler injured, the 6-10 Kiwi played in more games in 2008-09 than in any other season of his 9-year career. Marks’ one-year contract with the Hornets, worth 1.1 million last season has expired and no word on whether the Hornets are looking to bring back the 33-year old (34 when the season starts). The 2009 NBA Draft yielded backcourt players, Darren Collison and Marcus Thorton, so unless the Hornets make a move to obtain another big man, Marks may be in New Orleans at least another year.

10. Johan Petro, France (un) – The 7-0 French center has played for two teams in three NBA season since being drafted by the Seattle Sonics in the first round of 2005.  It looks like the 23-year old will be looking to move onto his third team as the Nuggets aren’t expected to make a qualifying offer.  Without an offer, Petro becomes an unrestricted free agent.  My guess? Petro will be headed to Europe.

There are also international free agents that have left the NBA, but are free-agents in the eyes of the NBA nonetheless.  That list includes Carlos Delfino, Juan Carlos Navarro, and Ersan Ilyasova.

Many teams have already agreed in principle with some free agents (Turkoglu with Toronto, Gortat with Dallas), but cannot be announced or become official until tomorrow, Wednesday, July 8th, 2009.

* (r) = restricted (un) = unrestricted

The 2009 FIBA Under-19 World Championship for Men are going on right now in Auckland, New Zealand.

The tournament runs from July 02, 2009 – July 12, 2009.

Discuss the 2009 U19 World Championships

The 9th annual World Championships for U19 Men features 16 U19 national teams from around the world.

The coutries participating in the 2009 FIBA-sanctioned tournament are Angola, Argentina, Australia, Canada, Croatia, Egypt, France, Greece, Iran, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Spain, Syria, and the United States of America.

Just as with the World Championships, U19 teams need to do well in a regional tournament to qualify to play.  Angola (2nd Place-Africa), Argentina (Champion-Americas), Australia (Champion-Oceania), Canada (3rd Place-Americas), Croatia (3rd Place-Europe), Egypt (Champion-Africa), France (4th Place-Europe), Greece (Champion-Europe), Iran (Champion-Asia), Kazakhstan (2nd Place-Asia), Lithuania (2nd Placer-Europe), New Zealand (Host Country), Puerto Rico (4th Place-Americas), Spain (5th Place-Europe), Syria (3rd Place-Asia) and the United States (2nd Place-Americas).

Link: Official Website for the U19 World Championships

Kirk Penney became the first New Zealander ever to win the ANBL MVP.

The shooting guard for the New Zealand Breakers was honored with the award in the tightest MVP vote in NBL history, with only 6 votes separating the top five vote-getters.

Penney narrowly beat out Matthew Knight of the Sydney Spirit, by just two votes, 92-90.  The Melbourne Tigers’ Nigerian import Ebi Ere placed third with 89 votes, Mark Worthington of the South Dragons received 87 votes, and Shawn Redhage of the Perth Wildcats (86) rounded out the top five.

“This is just such a great honour and a humbling moment, something I never thought would happen,” said Penney at the awards ceremony.

“This is a team award though, it is thanks to my team-mates for giving me the open looks, for their work in the team offense that can often lead to me shooting the ball, I am often just the guy on the end of a play.”

“I will accept this award on behalf of the club. It is a huge personal honor, all the more so being a proud Kiwi playing for a New Zealand team in an Australian league.” Penny finished,  in a heartfelt speech.

Playing for his hometown team, Penney led his club to their best season ever with an 18-10 record, helping the Breakers to the Semi-Finals for the first time in team history. Penney averaged 24.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 28 regular season games. He shot 45.6% from the field, 37.3% from three, and 80.4% from the free-throw line.

Penney also won the Breakers’ team awards for Club MVP and MVP’s MVP (as voted by season-ticket holders).

The ANBL MVP trophy has been awarded to either an Australian-born or an American-born  player since it’s inception in 1979 – that is thirty straight years of awards before Penney was honored with the award this year.  The trophy was named after Melbourne Tigers great and Australian basketball legend Andrew Gaze, whom won the award for an unprecedented five consecutive seasons (and a grand total of six).

Penney played at American college, the University of Wisconsin from 1999-2003, and would go on to play sparingly for the Miami Heat and the Los Angeles Clippers in the NBA.   He returned to the 10-team National Basketball League of Australia in June of 2007 after spending time with Maccabi Rishon LeZion and German club ALBA Berlin.

Links and Resources: Penney wins Andrew Gaze Trophy (ANBL) (Interbasket), Penney makes history with MVP Award (TVNZ)

Today, the FIBA World Qualifying Tournament begins with 12 national teams from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania trying to grab one of the three remaining spots for the 2008 Beijing Olympics next month.

Follow the intense action of every game, the heated battles, and all the upsets in our 2008 Olympic Qualifier Forum.

So, with three teams coming out of Athens, will these three wildcards have an advantage because they’ll already be battle-tested for Beijing next month?

Will Greece, the tournament favorites led by star-guards Theo Papaloukas and Dmitrios Diamantidis, meet everyone’s expectations as one of those three teams going to the Olympics?

Daniel Santiago rejoins the national team, along with mainstays Carlos Arroyo and Larry Ayuso, to make an always-dangerous and proud Puerto Rican National team.

Brazil will have Tiago Splitter, Marcelinho Machado, and Alex Garcia, but will be without their leading scorer Leandro Barbosa, as well as without NBA big men Nene and Anderson Varejao.  It’s going to be a tough run for the Brazilians.

Speaking of big men, Germany has added NBA star-center Chris Kaman to their already strong front line that includes all-world player Dirk Nowitzki, as well as the solid Ademola Okulaja and Patrick Femerling.

Without key player Matej Smodis, Slovenia is still a strong, well-rounded team that features captain Rasho Nesterovic, Jaka Lakovic, Uros Slokar, and Erazem Lorbek.  The Slovenians will want to send Nesterovic out on a high note, as Nesterovic will retire from international competition in 2008.

One can never expect an easy game against the Tall Blacks from New Zealand, whom are led by national team veterans Kirk Penney and Pero Cameron.

And can Lebanon do it again despite losing center Joe Vogel and on the heels of Fadi El-Khatib‘s proclamation that they have no chance of defeating Greece?

The rest of the Qualifying Tournament field includes the national teams from Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Croatia, and Korea.  Check out the rosters, follow the matches, and discuss everything in our forum dedicated the 2008 Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Sources and Links: FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Interbasket), Olympic Qualifying Tournament Message Board (Interbasket Forum), FIBA Official Pre-Olympic Qualifying Tournament Site (FIBA), Can Lebanon beat the odds? (Interbasket), Fadi El-Khatib: Lebanon has no chance against Greece (Forum), Croatian NT for Olympic qualies 2008, Slovenian NT, 2008 Greek NT, Lebanon NT 2008, 2008 Cameroon NT, Canada National Team, Germany NT, Puerto Rico National Team ’08, 2008 New Zealand Tall Blacks, 2008 Korea NT for Olympics Qualifier, Cape Verde National Team, Brazil NT 2008

I know this is coming a few days late, but I definitely think this needs a mention:

After 14 years of representing New Zealand in international play, star shooting-guard Phil Jones has decided to retire, but the left-handed, 34-year old Tall Black will continue to play in the local NBL (NZ’s professional league) for the Nelson Giants as well as for the New Zealand Breakers in the Aussie League.

It’s not that Jones feels as he cannot compete any longer, but he would like to spend more time with his young family; his wife Kat (who also played professionally) and daughter Maia, “I think I’m still playing reasonably well and can compete at that level, but family comes first. Definitely the big motivation is family.” Jones said.

Jones debuted in 1994 for the Tall Blacks, and has since participated in two Olympics, two World Championships, and over one-hundred games for the Kiwis. He also was named an all-star in the 2006 EuroCup.

Phil Jones had been instrumental in New Zealand’s success over the last decade including New Zealand’s fourth-place finish at the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis.  However, Jones ranks the 2004 Athens Olympics more highly in terms of the team’s performance.

“That run in 2002 will never be forgotten in basketball circles but we were very strong in Athens.  We had Italy, Spain and Argentina in our group and took them all within four points.  We beat Serbia-Montenegro, which was a world power. The downer was Yao Ming having a career night, something like 40 points and 20 rebounds, against us for China, but otherwise I think 2004 was as good as that core group had ever played.” said Jones, whom was the tournament’s second leading scorer after Yao Ming, with 21.0 ppg.

Jones believes it was the right time to move on, in addition to spending more quality time with his family, he can’t help but to savor his final game, a win against their neighbor and rivals Australia, “It looks like my last international game was a win over Australia and, in hindsight, that’s absolutely the best way to finish it.”

Sources and Links: New Zealand “Tall Blacks” Phil Jones retires after 14 years (Interbasket Message Board), Phil Jones hangs up Tall Blacks jersey (Stuff.co.nz), Basketball: Jones quits for family reasons (Otago Daily Times), Jones calls end to Tall Black career (Nelson Mail), Jones Excited for All-Star Appearance (Fiba)

Athens beat out San Juan, Puerto Rico and will be the hosts for the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament that will be held July 14-20, 2008. The participating teams are the also-rans from this year’s regional championships. The final three Olympic spots will be determined by the three teams that win first, second and third place.

The tournament will feature teams from all around the world that performed well in their regional championships, but did not place high enough. The twelve teams that will be competing for the final three berths are Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Lebanon, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Slovenia, and South Korea.

Source: FIBA

Who will host the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament?

With all the regional championships completed and nine teams set for next year’s Olympic games, three berths remain for teams vying for Beijing. And those three remaining spots will be determined by the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men that will be held July 7-13th, 2008 in a location that has yet to be determined.

According to FIBA, the bidding process to determine who will organize and host the event will begin as early as next week with a decision to where the tournament will be held to be decided in early December (8-9), 2007. And it sounds as if they will only accept submissions from the teams that are participating, which makes sense as far as filling up a stadium, but gives obvious advantage to the hosts which doesn’t seem very fair.

Already there are rumors that Greece, Korea and Puerto Rico are the early-favorites to host the event according to Alberto Garcia, one of the top ranked officials of FIBAAmericas. How is it possible to have favorites when the official bidding process hasn’t even started? If true, it doesn’t sound like a very even starting line for all the other countries looking to host the event.

The second-chance tournament will feature twelve teams that didn’t qualify in their own regional championships, but placed high-enough to qualify for this tournament. The first, second and third place finishers of this tournament will not only receive medals but will guarantee them a spot in Olympics, which is the actual prize. The twelve teams set to participate (in alphabetical order) are: Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Korea, Lebanon, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, and Slovenia.

The three teams that qualify through this tournament will join Angola, Argentina, Australia, China, Iran, Lithuania, Russia, Spain and the USA in the Beijing Olympics, and will have roughly a month to practice and prepare as the games run August 9-24th of 2008.

Related thread: Fiba Qualifying Tournament for Olympic Basketball 2008, Source: Fiba, Primerahora (Spanish)

With the wins by Argentina (over Brazil) and the United States (over Puerto Rico) in the 2007 Tournament of the Americas, two more berths to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing have now been determined.

Argentina and the United States have joined Afrobasket Champions Angola, Oceania Champions Australia, host nation China, surprising Asian-Champions Iran, and 2006 World Champions Spain. So far, there has been no real surprises other than Iran defeating Lebanon in the Asia Championships (China did not field their A-Team as they were the host team and earned an automatic berth).

Seven of the twelve teams have been determined for the 2008 Olympic tournament. With the upcoming EuroBasket to determine two more national teams to represent Europe.

So how does FIBA detemine which twelve teams qualify for the Olympics? I have the following breakdown:

- Host Country (1): China
- 2006 World Champions (1): Spain
- Asia Championship (1): Iran
- Afrobasket (1): Angola
- Oceania Championship (1): Australia
- Americas Championship (2): USA and Argentina
- Eurobasket (2): TBD
- World Olympic Qualifying (3): TBD

After Eurobasket 2007, there will three remaining wild card spots that need to be determined by another qualifying tournament to be held in July 2008. This qualifier will include twelve teams from around the world that placed in varying positions (2-5th place) from each regional championships.

Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Korea, Lebanon, New Zealand, and Puerto Rico have already qualified for this tournament, with the final four spots to be determined by the Eurobasket runners-up that place 3-6, unless Spain places in the top-two, then it will be the teams that finish in places 4-7.