In the US, college conferences "challenge" one another. I would like to see a Anglo-sphere/European challenge. So it would go something like this: USA vs Lithuanian (in Lithuanian), Spain vs Australia (in Australia. Rematch!), Canada vs France (in France), Serbia versus New Zealand (in New Zealand). But the matchups could be setup in different ways.
I don't think either side would go 4-0 against the other. It's a fair matchup. We would get the excitement of a home crowd, which is always lacking in Olympic competition and, sometimes, in World Cup play. The European teams would have the advantage early on, but it would, hopefully, encourage players like Ben Simmons, Andrew Wiggins and Steven Adams to play for their national teams.
I know it will never happen. I'm just thinking of ways to develop competitive international rivalries that will add excitement and grow the game.
Is this the partial thought behind the new home and home qualifcation system. Maybe it loses its purpose without the best players playing, but the home games will be interesting. We Canadians hardly get a chance to see our national team play meaningful games on home soil...so at least there is that.
From the FIBA website this is there reasoning for the changes:
Benefits
The growth of national team basketball in any country needs to be promoted”
Improved basketball exposure: More than 140 countries playing – 1,250 regular and meaningful games.
New interest for basketball: Regular official national team games in front of their home fans.
Player-friendly system with one free summer: Maximises the chance of having international stars in the flagship FIBA tournaments.
Opportunity for new countries and players to emerge through regular official games.
All-year regular visibility of the national team, not only in summer time – creating synergies with club competitions.
Improved structure of lead-up to flagship national team tournaments: Clear “Road to” the main FIBA competitions.
Enhanced potential for commercial and media partners to be associated with the national teams and the main FIBA competitions.
Development of National Federations, giving them own assets, new tools and more resources.
Increased media exposure and promotion for national team basketball – generating benefits across all FIBA Zones.
Why the Changes?
No visibility of national teams in their home countries.
National team competitions in selected host countries taking place ONLY in the summer.
No easy-to-follow qualification system throughout the 5 continental zones.
No lead-up (“Road to”) to the flagship national team competitions - large gaps without games.
Unlike other team sports, currently no official regular home games for all national teams.
Future participation of the best players to national team flagship tournaments questionable.
No development potential for most of the National Federations - as the same countries play and win the major competitions.
Too much “wear and tear” for the international players competing every summer at the end of the club season.
Economic viability of the current system at risk in a changing environment as other sports are improving their position.
Of course we can argue the real intentions or what the actual results will be, but I am a believer in listen to what your adversary says when trying to figure out what they truly want.
