FIBA World Basketball Championship 2010

[ZeroAX]

The 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey

http://turkey2010.fiba.com/pages/eng/fe ... index.html

Starts August 28.

The first round groups are:

Group A:

Angola
Argentina
Australia
Germany
Jordan
Serbia

Group B:

Brazil
Croatia
Iran
Slovenia
Tunisia
USA

Group C:

China
Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
Greece
Puerto Rico
Russia
Turkey

Group D:

Canada
France
Lebanon
Lithuania
New Zealand
Spain

The top 4 teams of each group advance to the next round.

I expect

Argentina, Australia, Germany and Serbia to advance from group A.

Brazil, Croatia, Slovenia and USA to advance from group B.

China, Greece, Russia and Turkey to advance from group C.

and finally France, Lithuania, New Zealand and Spain to advance from group D.


The top contenders to win the tournament are imo USA (even with most key players missing they are still the kings of world basketball), Spain, Greece (yay) and even though FIBA might disagree with this, Serbia.


Also teams I don't expect to win, but might cause a big surprise in the tournament by beating one of the top contenders in knockout stages are:
Turkey, Argentina, Croatia and maybe France/Lithuania/Slovenia if they are having an excellent day and the opposing team a crappy one.


Anyone else excited about the tournament?





EDIT

put the word basketball in the title cause something tells me most people don't know what FIBA is. (change the Football in FIFA with Basketball)

[baschlives]

Do you know what network will cover this in the US?

[ZeroAX]

Do you know what network will cover this in the US?

according to wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_bro ... Basketball

ESPN / NBA TV

[dsheinem]

I find it hard to get interested in any int'l tournament that doesn't feature the best players from their respective countries. Sorry.

[ZeroAX]

I find it hard to get interested in any int'l tournament that doesn't feature the best players from their respective countries. Sorry.

most teams send their best players. It's only the NBA teams that are pricks about it and don't let their players play in the tournament.

[dsheinem]

I find it hard to get interested in any int'l tournament that doesn't feature the best players from their respective countries. Sorry.

most teams send their best players. It's only the NBA teams that are pricks about it and don't let their players play in the tournament.

Well then it isn't much of a competition is it? The NBA has the best players from all around the world in it, and if they aren't in it I can't get interested.

[ZeroAX]

Well then it isn't much of a competition is it? The NBA has the best players from all around the world in it, and if they aren't in it I can't get interested.

true. Then again your 2006 team had some of your best players, and you still lost :P:P

[ZeroAX]

Greatest "friendly" (oh the irony) match ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ste4A1v5 ... r_embedded

Greece - Serbia

Serbia wins with a blow on the head of one of our players.

A fight started during a friendly match in Greece, which lead to one of our key players who was actually trying to calm the others, get hit on the head with a chair.


This would have been really funny if not for the fact that both teams will probably be disqualified from the FIBA tournament.