FIBA decided to go with World Cup’s extended version with 32 teams, such as football. Basketball World Cup in China showed us lack of quality, especially in the group phase. Fans can’t neglect the fact that there were only a few games worth mentioning…
Underdeveloped teams
We witnessed a lot of underdeveloped teams at World Cup, especially coming from Asia & Africa. Group Phase standings preview shows us that Asian and African teams failed to reach the next phase, all of them. American teams looked like “space shuttle” beside Asian teams.
European teams were “sacrificed” this time – a lot of good teams missed the chance to qualify due to WC qualifiers system. Location & income may be the only good thing but basketball and it’s quality presented in the first phase dissapointed fans. Serbia & Australia demonstrated a lot of power, Lithuania proved once again why they called them “Basketball country” but on the other hand Team USA showed vulnerability. Couple of teams also could be labeled as potential Dark Horse and that’s complete abstract.
Hopefully, knockout phase would prove us wrong…Especially with the quality…
