FIBA without NBA vets?

The World Cup of Basketball was dominated by countries with players either active or have experienced playing at some National Basketball Association teams.  The world’s number one team, and we know who, is made up entirely of current NBA stars and almost stars.  Spain, the world’s second top team had at least six players with NBA pedigree, led by the brothers Gasol.

Argentina, Lithuania, France, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Brazil and Greece complete the world’s top ten and likewise, their national teams have more than two players with NBA experience.  The results were expected and of course they have dominated the tournament, mocking the opposition with double-digit blowouts.

Recently, there were reports of pulling out NBA veterans from regular FIBA calendared tournaments, with the purpose of at least leveling the field of competition.  With this development, nations will have a fighting chance, no matter how slim, of catching up with the best of the world.

One group would happily welcome this proposal – the NBA team owners.  They wouldn’t dare risk their investments in minimal revenue generating FIBA tournaments.  The Paul George injury was a prime example.  The Indiana Pacers will be shouldering PG-24’s recovery and rehabilitation and that will be considered as a marketing loss on Indiana’s part as their contract player was not supposed to get hurt outside of the NBA regular season.

So do you really think Kevin Durant, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker voluntarily opted out of playing for their respective countries?  These guys play very important roles for their NBA teams and management simply cannot let millions in dollars of investments sit idle for a year because of non-NBA related circumstances.

As long as big name stars are on the tournament, sponsors line up to have their company logos displayed prominently on event venues, equipment and on approved and sanctioned merchandise.  Everything is still all about money and that’s the bottomline.

Personally, with or without NBA stars in FIBA tournaments, the giants of the game will always be the giants, the dwarves will  always be dwarves.  The big will continue to dominate the small.  The world will still be cruel and unfair.

***

As per September 14, 2014 updated FIBA World rankings, we were up 3 notches and the Philippine National Basketball Team is now ranked 31st in the world.  In the FIBA Asia zone, we ranked 5th behind China (14th), Iran (17th), Korea (27th) and Jordan (28th).  Job well done Gilas!