The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Robert Andaya
The FIBA World Cup 2023 will be remembered as the biggest and most memorable sports competition in the country in recent years.
With the world’s top 32 basketball-playing countries in attendance and the entire basketball universe watching, the two-week long competition is already being hailed as the biggest in FIBA history.
NBA superstars LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid may not be in the country, but Filipino fans have been treated to world-class action from five-time champions United States, 2019 titlist Spain and 30 other countries vying for the coveted James Naismith Trophy.
And after the first full week of competition in the FIBA World Cup 2023, here are the things what we know so far:
— Despite fielding a young and untested team led by Anthony Edwards and fan favorite Austin Reaves, the United States is still the country to beat.
The Americans have swept their first four assignments so far, with their most recent victory coming against Nikola Vucevic-led Montenegro, 85-73.
The Steve Kerr-mentored Americans also won over New Zealand, 99-72; Greece, 109-81; and Jordan, 110-62.
— Spain, which defeated Argentina to win the 2019 edition in Beijing, is not as unbeatable anymore.
Without 2019 MVP Ricky Rubio, Spain won its first three games against Ivory Coast (94-64), Brazil ( 94-68) and Iran
(85-65) but lost to Latvia ( 69-74).
Depending on the outcome of its game against Canada at the Jakarta Arena, Spain will either go home or travel to Manila to play in the quarterfinal round.
— Slovenia and NBA superstar Luka Doncic have already booked a place in the quarterfinal round in Manila after eliminating Tokyo Olympics bronze medalists Australia, 91-80, in their match played at the Okinawa Arena in Japan.
— It was sweet revenge for the Slovenia, who lost to the Australians, 93-107 in the battle for the bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics.
Despite being eliminated from further contention in the World Cup, Australia is assured of a slot in the 2024 Paris Olympics for being the lone Oceania country to advance to the second round.
— Japan, which is co-hosting the event with the Philippines and Indonesia, is the top-performing Asian country with two victories in four games so far.
Led by 6-8 Yuta Watanabe of the Phoenix Suns, the Japanese booted their chances of a Paris ticket by beating Venezuela.
Based on FIBA rules, seven Olympic places are still up for grabs at the tournament.
The highest-placed finishers from each of Asia, Africa and Oceania will all qualify for Paris, along with the top two teams from both Europe and the Americas.
Japan is the only one of the six Asian teams to take a win into the classification round. The Japanese added another victory after coming back to beat Venezuela 86-77 in Okinawa.
— Host Philippines failed to advance to the second round of the 32-team competition after losing all its three assignments against No. 23 Dominican Republic (81-87), world No. 42 Angola (70-80) and world No. 10 Italy (83-90) in the group phase; and another one to World Cup debutant South Sudan, (68-87) in the classification round.
Except in the game against South Sudan, the Jordan Clarkson-led Filipinos played extremely well and came tantalizingly close to pulling of monumental upset victories in front of a wildly-cheering home crowd.
Against Italy and its NBA superstar Simone Fontecchio, the Filipinos battled hard before losing to their European opponents who have not lost a single game against Asian rivals.
The loss, however, was not as embarrassing as the last time the two teams crossed paths when the Italians gave the Filipinos a 46-point beating in the 2019 World Cup in China.
With half of the FIBA World Cup’s 32 teams already eliminated from title contention and another eight teams set to return home at the conclusion of the second round, the quarterfinal phase will begin on Sept. 5 at the SM Mall of Asia Area in Pasay City..
The championship as well as the battle for third place will be played on Sept. 10
The fun and excitement of world-class games will be there.