Should Olympic basketball be for the U24 category ?

[JGX]

The only change I would make is merge Oceania and Asia (which is happening after this year anyway

Asia and Oceania will still each get their own spot in the Olympics under the new system though. Agree that it should only be one auto spot for Asia-Oceania combined.

From what I've seen so far this summer, the US ought to send the U18s to the Olympics, they'd still probably beat China and Venezuela and it would be a good warmup for U19 WC next year.

[CHBB]

The only change I would make is merge Oceania and Asia (which is happening after this year anyway), and give the extra spot that went to Oceania to Olympic qualifying. It is a global tournament so one guaranteed spot to Asia-Pacific and Africa is fine.

What's funny is that was an idea I had after 2012 I believe but I figured it would shortchange some Asian teams. But now the way I see it, Africa has stepped up athletically and skill-wise even if thy haven't been able to field complete solid teams, and it's time for Asia to do the same. China and the Philippines are literally the only two teams outside of the Middle Eastern ones that ever make it to either major world event.

[Dtown]

It's funny talking about guaranteed spots for Asia when the next Olympics is in Japan. I wonder if FIBA will give them the same treatment as they did Great Britain or will they just hand them a spot?

[CHBB]

It's funny talking about guaranteed spots for Asia when the next Olympics is in Japan. I wonder if FIBA will give them the same treatment as they did Great Britain or will they just hand them a spot?

I was thinking the exact same thing today! If they stick to their guns, this could get ugly. Can anybody really see Japan doing well enough to earn that? Which would be a crime because it's a great opportunity to grow the sport.

I'm really looking forward to the Korean hockey team though. Talk about being thrown into the fire!

[Steadysoul]

It's funny talking about guaranteed spots for Asia when the next Olympics is in Japan. I wonder if FIBA will give them the same treatment as they did Great Britain or will they just hand them a spot?

Not likely. The Great Britain team only exist because FIBA mandated they actually try before getting a slot. Before that The UK competed as separate teams...when they did compete. Japan has a history of competing.

[SashKX]

I thought this topic was guaranteed to have very polarizing opinions between Americans and the rest, and it did start off that way, but ended up with mixed opinions on both sides.
FIFA World Cup is the biggest sporting event for Europeans, and probably most of the world, except for the USA who couldn't care less about it. I think this event alone makes world cup seem like the logical format for the most prestigious event for us. Americans have for some reason chosen Olympics as the most prestigious basketball tournament, and so most of the world had to follow where the best go. However, FIBA World Cup is still equally important for us here, and I think it would be better to have just one of the two, doesn't make a lot of sense to have two different world title events in the same category, so I'm on board with restricting the Olympics to U24.
It's obviously not an easy thing to do, Olympics are where the original Dream Team has made history, but, without any intention to offend anyone, world shouldn't revolve around the USA. If they are gonna act like "nuh-uh, either it's our way or the highway, not gonna send our best to the world cup so your title means nothing", then screw them, its their loss, there will be plenty of quality basketball without them.

[Victorious]

But without a representative USA team is it really a world championship? It's basically a glorified Eurobasket sprinkled with a couple of South American teams and Australia.

Who said the USA would not be represented in the WC? If I am not mistaken, it was the NBA which first proposed this model of U24 at the Olympics. That way, they only have to assemble their best players once every four years. I am sure that most NBA stars would like to join a unique event. Yes, the original Dream Team has made history at the Olympics. But I don't see why this tradition can not continue at the WCs.

Also, the NBA is all about selling its product. And in a World Championship the USA would also encounter many more countries than at the Olympics. This offers them (and FIBA) a far larger market to sell their product. Potential additional participators at the WCs this year would be: Philippines, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Greece, Cameroon, Israel, Puerto Rico, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Mexico etc. We are talking about an additional market of hundreds of millions to a billion people. That in itself makes the WC a greater event than Olympic basketball tournament.

[usagre]

Who said the USA would not be represented in the WC? If I am not mistaken, it was the NBA which first proposed this model of U24 at the Olympics. That way, they only have to assemble their best players once every four years. I am sure that most NBA stars would like to join a unique event. Yes, the original Dream Team has made history at the Olympics. But I don't see why this tradition can not continue at the WCs.

Also, the NBA is all about selling its product. And in a World Championship the USA would also encounter many more countries than at the Olympics. This offers them (and FIBA) a far larger market to sell their product. Potential additional participators at the WCs this year would be: Philippines, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Greece, Cameroon, Israel, Puerto Rico, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Mexico etc. We are talking about an additional market of hundreds of millions to a billion people. That in itself makes the WC a greater event than Olympic basketball tournament.

By representative I meant in correlation to the ability of the USA. There always have been representation at the world championships but very rarely has it been representative in those terms. And I truly believe that if the Olympics went to an age limit thereby excluding the best possible USA team, you still would not see them in the Worlds. You just can't invent prestige or history, and it has 0 in this country.

[bballcrazy]

No, it shouldn't because then it will suck so much that nobody will even give a damm about watching it.

I know what you mean by saying its not the pinnacle of a sport. Like NBA is clearly at a higher level than the olympic basketball.
But then again, Olympics is a chance for different countries to play each other. It's a chance to see your countries best against
another. It may not be the highest level of basketball, but it sure is fun (At least fighting for silver lol).

[usagre]

I thought this topic was guaranteed to have very polarizing opinions between Americans and the rest, and it did start off that way, but ended up with mixed opinions on both sides.
FIFA World Cup is the biggest sporting event for Europeans, and probably most of the world, except for the USA who couldn't care less about it. I think this event alone makes world cup seem like the logical format for the most prestigious event for us. Americans have for some reason chosen Olympics as the most prestigious basketball tournament, and so most of the world had to follow where the best go. However, FIBA World Cup is still equally important for us here, and I think it would be better to have just one of the two, doesn't make a lot of sense to have two different world title events in the same category, so I'm on board with restricting the Olympics to U24.
It's obviously not an easy thing to do, Olympics are where the original Dream Team has made history, but, without any intention to offend anyone, world shouldn't revolve around the USA. If they are gonna act like "nuh-uh, either it's our way or the highway, not gonna send our best to the world cup so your title means nothing", then screw them, its their loss, there will be plenty of quality basketball without them.

The problem with the football comparison is that when the FIFA World Cup was created in 1950 it didn't truly replace another event as the true best vs best. The fiba World Cup was and still is a secondary event from the beginning. It was only starting in 1986 that it kind of blossomed somewhat. Not to be disrespectful but I think many Serbians wish to elevate it to such status because of their great history in it as opposed to the Olympics. I would bet that the old Soviet Union understood that back in the day these world championships were not the equivalent of the Olympics when they battled the USA in the 60's, 70's and 80's. And although I agree that it might suck that the USA could kind of dictate which tournament is more important, that cat has been out of the bag for a long time. And finally any tournament title is great but if the best team fields very low quality teams is it truly a world title? Can you imagine if Brazil didn't participate in the World Cup for the first 20 years? Would the winner really have the same standing and prestige ?

[CoachZ]

The problem with the football comparison is that when the FIFA World Cup was created in 1950 it didn't truly replace another event as the true best vs best. The fiba World Cup was and still is a secondary event from the beginning. It was only starting in 1986 that it kind of blossomed somewhat. Not to be disrespectful but I think many Serbians wish to elevate it to such status because of their great history in it as opposed to the Olympics. I would bet that the old Soviet Union understood that back in the day these world championships were not the equivalent of the Olympics when they battled the USA in the 60's, 70's and 80's. And although I agree that it might suck that the USA could kind of dictate which tournament is more important, that cat has been out of the bag for a long time. And finally any tournament title is great but if the best team fields very low quality teams is it truly a world title? Can you imagine if Brazil didn't participate in the World Cup for the first 20 years? Would the winner really have the same standing and prestige ?

I am Serbian and I don't think it is that relevant. It's actually 3rd by quality, after Olympic and Eurobasket (for national teams).

[Dirtyh]

Guys. You are looking this situation from countries where basketball is popular. There's lot of countries where people watch basketball only when it's played in Olympics. If you take the best players out of the competition you're gonna lose lot of TV-time and then lot of attention. Best thing to happen for basketball (IMO) is that someone is going to beat team USA in Olympics. Because of it US players would be motivated to represent their country and other people could get more faith that it is possible to beat team US.

[SashKX]

I am Serbian and I don't think it is that relevant. It's actually 3rd by quality, after Olympic and Eurobasket (for national teams).

Yea, so you know there's a problem with the World Cup when Eurobasket surpasses it in quality, and its gonna get even worse when the former gets expanded to 32 teams. Also with that new qualifying format, maybe this issue will be solved when everyone starts sending U24 teams to qualifiers and World Cup turns into U24 instead of the Olympics.

[usagre]

Watch the USA get knocked off now and we can throw this under 24 talk out the window. I still give it a 10% chance of happening.

[Mindozas]

Guys. You are looking this situation from countries where basketball is popular. There's lot of countries where people watch basketball only when it's played in Olympics. If you take the best players out of the competition you're gonna lose lot of TV-time and then lot of attention

I agree with this part of your post. That's exactly what lot of people are missing. It's win-win situation now, for both Olympics and international basketball. Former gets ones of the most popular sport, latter lot of worldwide attention. Doesn't matter if your team participates or not, you still watch it, it's Olympics, you can watch freaking diving and have fun, sport you would never watch under different circumstances. Exactly that huge prestige of the event, longevity are what atracts top stars to participate too. It's naive to think that if some age restrictions would appear, World Cup would suddenly gain the same attention like Olympic basketball tournament. It won't. Especially in these times we are living, when huge money takes over patriotic feelings, generations changes, when employer which pays you millions, asks players to skip NT and etc. lot of players agrees. We already lost prior WC Eurobasket some 10-15 years ago, some 10 years ago WC prestige started to drop heavily. It never was close to Olympics anyway, but now it's even below continental Olympic qualifiers. Olympics and it's prestige are basically the only things left to gather all the star players together to play for their respective NTs. Add age restrictions and who knows what will happen, maybe we'll lose only top notch tournament we have as with new system continental tournaments are useless. FIBA made lot of stupid things , but thnx god or whatever that controls their minds that they atleast realizes that too, so they made World Cup as Olympic qualifier to increase it's prestige as in FIBA circles they are well aware what top players preffers and that WC can't match Olympics in any way.
That comparison with football is out of place. FIFA (football) is miles ahead in every aspect (money, development, popularity, history and etc.). Just a fun fact that FIFA World Cup was held 6 years before basketball was even added to Olympics as before no one really took it seriously, while football started it's compaigne against IOC already in early 1900s, but cause of mess in the world it took a while to start own tournament. For basketball to catch it or even come close is simply impossible, not in our lifetime. Football can easily live without Olympics, for international basketball it would be really tough, especially nowadays