FIBA World Cup: will the hegemony of the USA and Spain, who have shared the last 4 titles, end?

The 19th edition of the FIBA World Cup and will maintain a trend that has been common and occurs with the presence of the United States and Brazil, the only teams that have participated in all the Basketball World Cups since 1950 and this 2023 – which started this Friday, August 25 and will be held to three nations: Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia – will be no exception.

Of course, when talking or writing about basketball, the first thing that comes to mind is the American team, however, it must be noted that their squad for this tournament will not have the brilliance of other teams, as their own coach points out. , Steve Kerr (Stephen Curry’s Warriors guide). There will be no Dream Team, but if you have witnesses like Anthony Edwards, the 22-year-old guard who is a figure in Minnesota and even participated in his first NBA All-Star Game last February. There is also Brandon Ingram, a reference for the Pelicans with an average of 19.2 points, for which he is called to be decisive in the attack of the North Americans.

Someone who is part of the NBA Universe and who is currently one of its mega stars is Luka Doncic, who will be in this competition, making his native Slovenia one of the main candidates to win the crown along with teams like Australia , United States, Spain, Greece, France and Serbia. And precisely in these last three teams we focus on the quality of their absent players, in the case of the Greeks they will not have their maximum reference: Giannis Antetokounmpo, who after conversations with his doctors decided to step aside because he is not at the level to participate in an event of this category. While in the Gauls the call to be the new great star of the NBA: Víctor Wembanyama, chosen first in the last draft by the Spurs and who decided to condition his body for what will be his debut with his new team .

But if the future of the best league in the world will not be there, we will not see the present either, given that the recent champion and MVP of the finals, Nikola Jokic, decided to take a break after a tiring campaign that ended with the first consecration in the history of the Denver Nuggets. To this list of absentees we must add other important players such as the Australian Ben Simmons, the Latvian Kristaps Porzingis, the Canadian Andrew Wiggins, Domantas Sabonis from Lithuania and even a local star like the Japanese Riu Hachimura.

-Our continent, alive-

Latin America will be present with five representatives, as we already mentioned Brazil, which will be accompanied by the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Venezuela. A name to keep in mind among these nations is that of Karl-Anthony Towns, the power forward for the Timberwolves, who is called to be the guide for the Dominicans in the absence of his compatriot Al Horford. Other names that we will miss from our continent are the Mexican Juan Toscano-Anderson and the Puerto Rican José Alvarado. But the most outstanding absence is that of a selected team and we are referring to Argentina, which in the last edition played in China was left with second place after losing to Spain, which will seek to defend its title relying on the experience of players like Rudy Fernández and Sergio Llull, in addition to the talent of the Hernángomez brothers, Santi Aldama and Usman Garuba, with them he will seek to forget what will be the losses of Ricky Rubio and Lorenzo Brown.

A FIBA ​​World Cup is approaching with some absences, but also with peculiarities such as the presence of South Sudan, a country created in 2011 and which still has more than 300,000 refugees or Cape Verde and with barely 550,000 inhabitants will have its premiere in this competition. Questions to be resolved: will the hegemony of the United States and Spain, who have shared the last 4 titles, end? Will a Latin American team be able to return to champion after 60 years? The answers to these and other questions will be known on September 10 when the grand final is played, but while that time arrives, all that remains is to enjoy the greatest basketball party at the national team level.