Giving the 2nd Olympic Slot for Asia Now: yes or no?

[thegreekmeister]

Every non asian voting YES is nuts.
he only teams that should be awarded is European teams in order to make competition stronger and not weaker. Who needs a team that will not make to playoffs 99%if you can get medal contender team instead.

[donmar]

Olympics shouldn't be training ground. It's where the best athletes compete. At this point Asia hasn't shown to be on par with Euro teams.

Thats true.. it should be competed to the highest level... and it just sad that only one Asian country (China) is capable to do that at the moment..

It wouldn't hurt giving another FIBA Asia country a chance though but I doubt it will happen...

[auris1]

Asia should be happy with one slot as it is.

[sinobball]

Yes they went win-less in 2008 but their experience in the Olympics help them win the last two William Jones Cup and last year's Asian Championship...

Olympics shouldn't be training ground. It's where the best athletes compete. At this point Asia hasn't shown to be on par with Euro teams.

[mohsena2631]

NO ! The current qualifying format is fine.

Not mentioning that these 4 countries representing Asia in the world champs are beatable by other countries on the region during Asian tournaments (i.e. Japan, Philippines, Qatar, S. Korea).

even if I ignore the current Asian Champion, can you tell me whan was the last time China lost to an Asian team ? I think 2002 Asian Games final when they lost to referees (aka South Korea)

ok if these teams are beatable, beat them and qualify as the Asian Champion ! why asking for an extra spot ?

[reamily]

I think correct me if Im wrong this is the supposed qualification for olympics

Direct qualify 2(in a circle of 12 and such a sport such as basketball host should not be a direct qualifier)

Europe 2
Americas 2

Asia 1
Oceania 1 (yeah quite considerable but realistically it is fought by two teams yeah two teams)
Africa 1

fiba olympic qualifier 3

total 12

but if we subtract the olympic qualifier from 3 to 2 (usually it went to a european powerhouse)

tehn the one slot would be given to
a special fiba asia pacific wild card


since Australia is a power in basketball and it will take time for asian countries to take step merge isn't feasible as the motive of asian teams will be "Oplan iwas Aus"

the format

same tourney asia has one oceania has one

the top 4 asian countries aside from the qualifier will join the loser of the series of nz aus

they will have a round robin and champion will get another asian slot

but it is important because the next 2 of the field of 5(2nd and 3rd) will get the olympic qualifier slot

negatives

Aus may tank the series against nz knowing they can win the wildcard tournament

but if we play to the level new zealand will earn their way to qualifying in olympics same time they will not lose they have high chance of getting the olympic qualifier slot

I do not agree in 16 team thing

the 4 would be left behingd are really "saling pusa"

[donmar]

Those who voted YES must all be Filipinos. Seriously.

Look at 2008; the 2nd Asian team (Iran) went winless. Enough said.

I do agree with the expansion to 16 though.

Yes they went win-less in 2008 but their experience in the Olympics help them win the last two William Jones Cup and last year's Asian Championship...

[leb-basket]

Those who voted YES must all be Filipinos. Seriously.

Look at 2008; the 2nd Asian team (Iran) went winless. Enough said.

I do agree with the expansion to 16 though.

china is having the chance to participate in big tournaments gaining experience and being recognized as a strong competitive team an by that being invited to friendly tournaments. However because of that we are not having any chance of competing with stronger teams.

[sinobball]

Those who voted YES must all be Filipinos. Seriously.

Look at 2008; the 2nd Asian team (Iran) went winless. Enough said.

I do agree with the expansion to 16 though.

[samer_1_2]

Before talking about Olympic, we should eliminate the concept of wild cards in the WC..

Later you can discuss how many teams each continent deserves

[M Sindo]

I think FIBA and IOC should increase berths to 16 teams. With 12 teams, I think one berth for Asia is pretty fair. The problem for IOC it's that 4 more teams mean 48 more athletes, and they dont' want to increase too much the number of total athletes.
Anyway if some Asian team deserve it and in the olympic year they are very strong, they could qualify through the olympic qualification tournament, where they had two berths in 2008.

[donmar]

If FIBA Oceania merge with FIBA Asia.. then there should be three Olympic slots for the new "FIBA Asia-Pacific".. not just two... the first one is guaranteed to the Aussies with China not far behind.. so the third spot is pretty much back to square one - one slot for the rest of the field: New Zealand, the rest of the traditional Asian powers (Japan, SoKor, Taiwan, Philippines), and the Middle Eastern powers (Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Afri-Qatar)...

That means, FIBA need to expand the number of participating countries in the Olympic basketball tournament with Europe and the Americas getting extra Olympic slots as well...

But thats just my opinion...

Another one that I like to consider is to degrade Olympic basketball and make the Olympic tourney for the Under-20s like what FIFA did.. thus, just like the FIFA World Cup (where more teams can participate) is more important than Olympic football.. then the FIBA World Championship (where more teams can participate) can be more important than Olympic basketball... qualifications for major FIBA tournaments can become a "home-and-away" basis.. making regional championships (e.g. Asian Championship) a tournament of its own.. not a qualifier for the World Championships...

That way.. more games for fans.. more home games for everyone as well...

Of course, degrading Olympic basketball is pretty much against basketball tradition and quite radical..

Thats my two cents...

[Lewis]

I'm all for two bids!

...if Australia and New Zealand join Asia.

me too but not for Asia, but for the Americas.

and yes Australia and New Zealand should join FIBA ASIA, Also Canada shouldn't qualify automatically for the FIBA AMERICAS' championships, they should play in the CentroBasket tourney.

Puerto Rico for example just went toe-to-toe with Greece, but lost pretty convincingly to a team like Trinidad and Tobago a couple of months ago, which obviously shows the depth of quality teams in that region.

there should be more than just 12 countries at the Olympics but I don't think neither Asia nor Africa deserve those additional spots.

but maybe they could make some sort of round robin among the best teams of each zone that aren't among the 12 teams a ready qualified in order to determine the other 4 spots (if they ever expand the tournament to 16 teams that it)

[dxjayrock2008]

3 to 4 slots for Asia will be good.

[leb-basket]

lebanon jordan china and iran are better than NZ for sure. Fiba ranking is nothing. Jordan is something around thr 30s or 40s and were about to win over australia easily (it was just luck)

Jordan has already beat NZ so oceania level is same as asia.

Asia should be given a second card. And if australia and NZ were merged in asia a 3rd spot should be provided.

Imagine : china, lebanon, south korea, jordan, australia, NZ and philippines fighting over 3 cards.

definitely Asian championship that qualifies to the WBC must be provided 4 cards
(4 cards tougher games and more competition but some asian talents wasted 5 cards less competition )