32-team World Cup Format

[Dtown]

I guess I'm one of the few that isn't bothered by the blowouts. Mostly because we get an elite 16 team tournament starting Thursday, and a Jr. classification round for the teams that were eliminated (plus a few good teams that got stuck in hard groups.).

Giving regions where the quality is poor something to play for is the key to developing regions as a whole. If it means a couple days of bad basketball, before a week of good basketball I'm okay with it.

[vivo]

It's ridiculous. What prevents then guys like Qatar to buy an NBA All-Star team for the title. You think some dude won't pay 10 NBA players let's say 10 mil each for the summer?

Let's be realistic, even this one naturalized player spot is contraversial.

Ah, seeing a Gazprom vs Aramco final would be interesting

[saras]

Very impressed with the reception of the tournament in China.
Greece vs. Montenegro was completely packed, other games have had decent attendance numbers (specially when compared with group stage games in previous tournaments).
Definitely a winning decision by FIBA.

having 32 teams though is ridiculous. and whats even more ridiculous is that the next world championship will also be hosted in asia,in 3 countries meaning that indonesia (lol),japan and philipinnes will be there no matter what. money talks after all,but i hope these 3 countries get humilited until fiba understands that its not football where latin american and african teams can be competitive. or even asian teams sometimes. right now there are 5 african teams,8 from asia (australia,new zealand compete with them so i count them in). 24 teams (2 from africa,4 from asia,5 from america,8 from europe and the rest for hosts and 4 through qualifiers with african,european,american and asian teams involved) is the best for a competitive tournament. until then fiba guys can enjoy games like serbia against angola or lithuania vs senegal

[fasoulaki]

I guess I'm one of the few that isn't bothered by the blowouts. Mostly because we get an elite 16 team tournament starting Thursday, and a Jr. classification round for the teams that were eliminated (plus a few good teams that got stuck in hard groups.).

Giving regions where the quality is poor something to play for is the key to developing regions as a whole. If it means a couple days of bad basketball, before a week of good basketball I'm okay with it.

I agree completely. Big tournaments are a good way to promote basketball in more regions in the world and sometimes the unexpected happens and we get enertained by upsets which are nice to watch. A good example is the Finish national team which had a very interesting development in the last years.

[Valexander]

I guess I'm one of the few that isn't bothered by the blowouts. Mostly because we get an elite 16 team tournament starting Thursday, and a Jr. classification round for the teams that were eliminated (plus a few good teams that got stuck in hard groups.).

Giving regions where the quality is poor something to play for is the key to developing regions as a whole. If it means a couple days of bad basketball, before a week of good basketball I'm okay with it.

i agree!

i can understand why Djordjevic is complaining about, due to extra games, and possibility of an injury.

But the fans? Really? Is this a problem of aesthetics?

We can pick what we will see until next round, even if we skip watching Serbia-Philippines, there are tens of millions of Philipino who will anticipate with great enthousiasm the last match against angola, no matter a possible +50 blowout by Serbia.

Give some space to people just enjoy what it is, a sport. No need to be elitists. Show some love to Philippinos who are ready to cheer for their team and live the moment even after a humiliating (in terms of western bball judgment) appearance. Sportsmanship.

Imagine in olympics the guy that ends the 100 freestyle last from equatorial guinea, instead of beeing applauded, being critisized for unacceptable technique.

i can still understand critics for bad basketball, but saying throw them out?

[Levenspiel]

i agree!

i can understand why Djordjevic is complaining about, due to extra games, and possibility of an injury.

But the fans? Really? Is this a problem of aesthetics?

We can pick what we will see until next round, even if we skip watching Serbia-Philippines, there are tens of millions of Philipino who will anticipate with great enthousiasm the last match against angola, no matter a possible +50 blowout by Serbia.

Give some space to people just enjoy what it is, a sport. No need to be elitists. Show some love to Philippinos who are ready to cheer for their team and live the moment even after a humiliating (in terms of western bball judgment) appearance. Sportsmanship.

Imagine in olympics the guy that ends the 100 freestyle last from equatorial guinea, instead of beeing applauded, being critisized for unacceptable technique.

i can still understand critics for bad basketball, but saying throw them out?

in any sport (or in most entertainment), it's significantly less fun if you know the result in advance. I can still watch it, some dudes are balling, but the thrill part is gone. Here, that's the main issue if this is what we're looking for.

it's, however, still attractive to watch teams with completely different styles battling each other. I remember for example immensely enjoying Lebanon vs Euro teams in the past, with their rain of threes and showing us something unusual. What we missed here so far is that most games did not even look a game. and that is related to the number of teams, which dilutes it too far.

I admit, a great example on the swimmer. but it was one race, not most of the races.

I wonder what the Philippinos think for example, a nation with amazing bball passion. Would they rather be home watching others, or be there getting blown out?

[Valexander]

in any sport (or in most entertainment), it's significantly less fun if you know the result in advance. I can still watch it, some dudes are balling, but the thrill part is gone. Here, that's the main issue if this is what we're looking for.

it's, however, still attractive to watch teams with completely different styles battling each other. I remember for example immensely enjoying Lebanon vs Euro teams in the past, with their rain of threes and showing us something unusual. What we missed here so far is that most games did not even look a game. and that is related to the number of teams, which dilutes it too far.

I admit, a great example on the swimmer. but it was one race, not most of the races.

I wonder what the Philippinos think for example, a nation with amazing bball passion. Would they rather be home watching others, or be there getting blown out?

I will answer with a story.

Back in 1997, it was a lazy summer afternoon, a high school student back then, and once again waiting for a medal for Greece in that eurobasket. First game against turkey sounded boring but the anticipation was huge.
The commentator says more or less: Nothing to analyze here just a warm up game for Greece, just keep an eye to their biggest talent, Ufuk Sarica. Of course it wasn't just him, i remember the one who later was loved from greeks, Ibo. And a few years later, history was written.
I am not saying one of those teams are about to write history, but isn't the point to dream about it? even if you are a fan.
I am not a saint, i admit i laughed watching Phili, but that's in the game too.
i bet here, most of us, we end up as mediocre athletes, who still dream, even our age is arround Scola's , a big what if.

[ja.he]

in any sport (or in most entertainment), it's significantly less fun if you know the result in advance. I can still watch it, some dudes are balling, but the thrill part is gone. Here, that's the main issue if this is what we're looking for.

it's, however, still attractive to watch teams with completely different styles battling each other. I remember for example immensely enjoying Lebanon vs Euro teams in the past, with their rain of threes and showing us something unusual. What we missed here so far is that most games did not even look a game. and that is related to the number of teams, which dilutes it too far.

I admit, a great example on the swimmer. but it was one race, not most of the races.

I wonder what the Philippinos think for example, a nation with amazing bball passion. Would they rather be home watching others, or be there getting blown out?

as a filipino, i will tell you that the loss to italy was not welcomed here in my country. we actually don't want this coach and our league itself. we could have had a good 3 month preparation but the league, where most of our national team players are playing, gave us a 1 month prep with an incomplete line up (because most almost of them are playing for the semifinals of their respective ballclubs) and only 12 day full training before the world cup with a complete line up, only 6 tune up matches against ivory coast, congo and adelaide - these tune up games were actually trash. no quality opposition whtsoever. you know the reason why we have that kind of ugly preparation? because our domestic league is still running and this domestic league runs the whole year - no offseason, it starts at january and ends up in december. the players are tired physically and mentally.

our coach, who has little to none experience in international basketball, really has no idea about fiba brand of game. he is our own version of larry brown and chuck daly (very poor version). also, his professional team was beaten by college team by 30 points. tells you what kind of coach he is.

it's just frustrating for an ordinary filipino fan like me that our performance are this bad right now. our domestic league only cares for the money not on the country and welfare of the players.

[Picek]

watching Venezuela - Ivory Coast (while in the office) and instead of thinking about business obligations I'm thinking about different things basketball related.
seeing in the last two days and today how african, asian and even south american teams are coping against european teams + Australia + USA.
what do you guys think, if the continents would put their all star teams would they have any chance against let's say Spain, France, Greece, Serbia etc. won't even mention team US here.
I mean, what would be the best team Africa could provide?
same goes for team Asia and team South America.
would it at least be competitive enough and could they reach medal phase with it?
I guess a combined team South America would be pretty competitive or even more then that.
but who would be in it?
how about Africa and Asia?

[Katastroika]

To me it makes absolutely no sense even out of a tactical standpoint not to speak about competitiveness. Best players are playing 15-20min and and the second half is showboating and simply doing the work with 50%. No sense for the favourite, no sense for the underdog as the favourite isn't playing full gas.

Personally I'd like a tournament with 16 teams and 4 groups per 4. 2 go up directly in the quarters. 10 Europe, 3 Americas (i know that Brazil or Argentina would hang out but anyway in Europe would big teams stay at home, too), 1 Africa, 1 Oceania, 1 Asia. Perfect. Just 5 games and shorter preparation, more participation of NBA players, higher quality.

[saras]

watching Venezuela - Ivory Coast (while in the office) and instead of thinking about business obligations I'm thinking about different things basketball related.
seeing in the last two days and today how african, asian and even south american teams are coping against european teams + Australia + USA.
what do you guys think, if the continents would put their all star teams would they have any chance against let's say Spain, France, Greece, Serbia etc. won't even mention team US here.
I mean, what would be the best team Africa could provide?
same goes for team Asia and team South America.
would it at least be competitive enough and could they reach medal phase with it?
I guess a combined team South America would be pretty competitive or even more then that.
but who would be in it?
how about Africa and Asia?

africa can actually make an athletic all star team able to cope with america as well in terms of atheletism. oladipo,siakam,embiid are all stars for example.
add mudiay,aminu,biyombo,dieng,cheick diallo,okogie and there you go you have 10 guys that can be competitive.
even antetokunbo is originally nigerian.

problem is that each country has 1 or 2 of them and the rest might not even be euroleague level players. having 5 african and 8 asian teams is ridiculous. how many asian teams will compete in 2023 with 3 asian already be there due to hosting the tournament, one of which is indonesia (ffs)? 10?

[saras]

To me it makes absolutely no sense even out of a tactical standpoint not to speak about competitiveness. Best players are playing 15-20min and and the second half is showboating and simply doing the work with 50%. No sense for the favourite, no sense for the underdog as the favourite isn't playing full gas.

Personally I'd like a tournament with 16 teams and 4 groups per 4. 2 go up directly in the quarters. 10 Europe, 3 Americas (i know that Brazil or Argentina would hang out but anyway in Europe would big teams stay at home, too), 1 Africa, 1 Oceania, 1 Asia. Perfect. Just 5 games and shorter preparation, more participation of NBA players, higher quality.

24 with same number of games is the best i think
4 groups of 6 teams to avoid second group stage. 5 games each team (same amount of games with 2 rounds like this season) and after that same as now with 4 teams qualifying. round of 16,qf,sf and finals.
2 from africa,4 from asia,5 from america,8 from europe and the rest for hosts and 4 through qualifiers with african,european,american and asian teams involved

[Picek]

africa can actually make an athletic all star team able to cope with america as well in terms of atheletism. oladipo,siakam,embiid are all stars for example.
add mudiay,aminu,biyombo,dieng,cheick diallo,okogie and there you go you have 10 guys that can be competitive.
even antetokunbo is originally nigerian.

those guys never played for any of it's countries.
Embiid was close but at the end didn't show up for Cameroon.
but even with them Africa would still be hurting with it's backcourt.
and with players out of those who have played so far, they surely can't hurt US.

[iskoch]

as a filipino, i will tell you that the loss to italy was not welcomed here in my country. we actually don't want this coach and our league itself. we could have had a good 3 month preparation but the league, where most of our national team players are playing, gave us a 1 month prep with an incomplete line up (because most almost of them are playing for the semifinals of their respective ballclubs) and only 12 day full training before the world cup with a complete line up, only 6 tune up matches against ivory coast, congo and adelaide - these tune up games were actually trash. no quality opposition whtsoever. you know the reason why we have that kind of ugly preparation? because our domestic league is still running and this domestic league runs the whole year - no offseason, it starts at january and ends up in december. the players are tired physically and mentally.

our coach, who has little to none experience in international basketball, really has no idea about fiba brand of game. he is our own version of larry brown and chuck daly (very poor version). also, his professional team was beaten by college team by 30 points. tells you what kind of coach he is.

it's just frustrating for an ordinary filipino fan like me that our performance are this bad right now. our domestic league only cares for the money not on the country and welfare of the players.

Bro don't take offence but if you have 4 years of preparation period for the tournament, u will still get beaten by any european team at least by 30. If they wanna do it by 60-70 also possible...

Don't be so frustrated, just accept the fact that ur league is completely useless and basketball level is not better than u15 level in europe.

I have a funny memory with the Filipinos from the last WC btw. I used to manage a basketball blog that time, had to write something about Philippines. Asked the guys in forum who are the important players etc. Idiots talked between each other that I am a scout, wanna know secrets of their NT, and noone told me anything. LOL

[ja.he]

Bro don't take offence but if you have 4 years of preparation period for the tournament, u will still get beaten by any european team at least by 30. If they wanna do it by 60-70 also possible...

Don't be so frustrated, just accept the fact that ur league is completely useless and basketball level is not better than u15 level in europe.

I have a funny memory with the Filipinos from the last WC btw. I used to manage a basketball blog that time, had to write something about Philippines. Asked the guys in forum who are the important players etc. Idiots talked between each other that I am a scout, wanna know secrets of their NT, and noone me anything. LOL

2014:

france won by 7
ukraine by 50
croatia by 4
greece by 12

2015:

netherlands by 27
estonia by 10
iceland by 10

2016:

italy by 35
turkey by 35
turkey by 8
france by 8

you are totally wrong. this year's version of our team is the worst we have ever had in this gilas program. but in a good preparation and good system, we can atleast put up a fight with european teams.

losing by 50 is embarassing but losing by 8 is not bad against a quality european team.

regardless, it just an honor to be part of world cup. it just embarassing that we are losing this bad.