Serbia grabs the last spot in Basketball World Cup field

TheBasketball World Cup field is now filled, with Serbia grabbing thelast spot in this summer’s 32-team tournament.

Serbiaclinched the berth with a 101-83 win over Great Britain on Monday.The win means two-time reigning NBA MVP Nikola Jokic of the DenverNuggets will have the chance to play for a World Cup this summer,when the tournament gets held in the Philippines, Japan andIndonesia.

Serbia’swin in Belgrade eliminated Belgium, the last team that still had achance to qualify.

Most teamsat the World Cup will use NBA players when they can. The U.S. usedG League and internationally based players almost exclusively inits qualifying games, but it will go to a roster of NBA players forthe tournament this summer.

“We’relooking forward to competing for another gold medal,” USABasketball men’s coach Steve Kerrsaid in a video releasedby the federationMonday night. Kerr also lauded the workof U.S. qualifying team coach Jim Boylen, who led the Americans inall 12 of their games in those cycles.

Spain isthe defending champion. The U.S. finished seventh at the last WorldCup in 2019.

THEFIELD

Serbiaqualifying means 10 of the top 11 teams in the world rankingsreached the World Cup. The exception was No. 4 Argentina, thesilver medalist in 2019.

No. 1Spain, No. 2 United States, No. 3 Australia, No. 5 France, No. 6Serbia, No. 7 Slovenia, No. 8 Lithuania, No. 9 Greece, No. 10 Italyand No. 11 Germany have qualified. There will be two first-roundgroups that include two of those teams. And none of the four teamsinvolved in that scenario will be thrilled when they see thatdraw.

Thelowest-ranked teams in the field are four of the five Africanqualifiers: No. 43 Ivory Coast, No. 55 Egypt, No. 63 South Sudanand No. 66 Cape Verde.

HELLO

Cape Verde,South Sudan, Georgia and Latvia are in the tournament for the firsttime.

THEY’RE BACK

There are23 teams that were in the 2019 World Cup and have qualified againfor this year’s event, a list led by the United States and Brazil —the only nations to appear in all 19 editions of thetournament.

Spain hasbeen to each of the last 11 World Cups. Puerto Rico has been toeach of the last 10.

The other19 nations that are back from 2019: Angola, New Zealand, France,Greece, Australia, Lithuania, Serbia, Iran, Dominican Republic,Philippines, Montenegro, Jordan, Venezuela, Japan, Ivory Coast,Germany, China, Italy and Canada.

Finland,Slovenia, Egypt and Mexico are back in the field after lastreaching the World Cup in 2014. Lebanon is back, after its mostrecent appearance was in 2010.

THEY’RE NOT BACK

These ninenations appeared in the 2019 tournament and won’t be back thissummer: Argentina, South Korea, Turkey, Senegal, Nigeria, Tunisia,Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia.

FIBA bannedRussia’s teams and officials from its competitions last year inresponse to that country’s invasion of Ukraine.

THETOURNAMENT

The groupphase — eight groups of four teams — runs from Aug. 25 through Aug.30. The second round is Aug. 31 through Sept. 4.

Quarterfinal games will be played on Sept. 5 and 6. The semifinalsare Sept. 8, and the championship and third-place game in Manilaare Sept. 10.

That’sabout two weeks before NBA training camps are scheduled to open,barring a lockout this summer.

THEDRAW

Each nationwill be assigned to a four-team opening-round group on April 29.The top two teams from each of those groups will make the secondround.

The U.S.will play its group-stage games in the Philippines, and will staythere for the entirety of its stay in the tournament — as will thePhilippines.

Sloveniaand Japan will play group-stage games in Okinawa, Japan. Canadawill play its group-stage games in Jakarta, Indonesia.

All teamswill find out their opponents, and all the other teams that don’talready know their group-stage destinations, at the April 29draw.

ATSTAKE

The WorldCup will be a way for seven teams to qualify for the 2024 ParisOlympics. Of those, two will come from the Americas Region, twofrom Europe, one from Africa, one from Asia and one fromOceania.

The otherfive Olympic berths will be decided by qualifying tournaments thissummer, with 40 nations set to be invited to play for thosespots.

There are39 nations that now have confirmed invitations: Argentina, Bahamas,Bahrain, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cameroon, Chile, ChineseTaipei, Colombia, Congo, Cuba, Czech Republic, Estonia, GreatBritain, Guinea, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel,Kazakhstan, Korea, Mali, Netherlands, Nigeria, North Macedonia,Panama, Poland, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sweden, Syria,Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay and the VirginIslands.

The 40thspot is likely to go to Croatia, a decision that FIBA is set tofinalize on April 28.