FIBA-Asia confirms ‘pure’ draw

MANILA, Philippines - It will be a “pure” draw marking the lottery of 15 teams, excluding host Philippines, as the Samahang Basketbol Ng Pilipinas (SBP) hosts the sweepstakes for the FIBA-Asia Championships at the Centennial Ballroom of the Manila Hotel tomorrow afternoon.

Local organizing committee deputy chief executive officer Moying Martelino said yesterday he has received definitive instructions from FIBA-Asia secretary-general Hagop Khajirian of Lebanon to prepare for a “pure” draw, meaning 15 teams will be involved in the selection process of which four groups to join in the elimination round of the tournament scheduled here on Aug. 1-11. A “modified” draw was the practice in previous FIBA-Asia Championships where the top four seeds were picked to head each of the four groups to avoid an early clash of favorites.

Martelino said he has arranged to provide for 15 miniature Molten “mascot” rubber basketballs to represent 15 countries and four other Molten “mascot” basketballs to represent the four groups for the draw. As host country, the Philippines is exempted from the draw and will choose its group with the 13th pick or after 12 teams will have been selected in the four brackets.

“We’ll bring out two boxes marked by the FIBA-Asia Championships logo,” said Martelino. “One box will contain 15 balls for the countries and the other box, four balls for the groups. There will be a hole on top of each box covered by a rubber shield. The person designated to pick out of each box will insert his hand through the rubber shield opening and bring out the ball. We will match the ball drawn from the box of countries with the ball drawn from the box of groups.”

Sonia Trading president Kay Sham and managing director Anil Buxani supplied the Molten “mascot” basketballs for the draw. Sonia Trading is the official distributor of Molten balls in the country. It’s the first time that the FIBA-Asia Championships draw will feature Molten “mascot” basketballs. “We’re honored to be a part of this exciting process,” said Buxani. “FIBA has used Molten basketballs since 1982 and made the revolutionary 12-panel, two-tone model its official basketball in 2004.”

Khajirian said there will be no pre-classification of favored teams. “We’ll have a pure draw for all the 15 teams, keeping the Philippines out of the draw process,” he told Martelino in an e-mail. “No categorizing of the other teams. After having the draw of 12 teams, that is three teams per group, I’ll ask the Philippine representative to choose the group that he or she wants the Philippine national team to be in. Then, we continue the draw to complete the tables. The draw process will proceed by choosing one ball from each bowl or box and placing the drawn country in the drawn group.”

So far, 13 of the 16 teams playing in the FIBA-Asia Championships are known. The South Asia qualifier was determined in the India-Afghanistan game at the Thyagaraj Stadium in New Delhi yesterday. India was expected to win after whipping Nepal, 109-26, in the first eliminator last Sunday. Afghanistan made it to the finals by crushing Nepal, 78-20, the next day. Two tickets are still unsettled in Southeast Asia and Khajirian said for the draw, there will be one ball marked Southeast Asia 1 and another, Southeast Asia 2. Expected to dispute the two slots are Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The 13 countries confirmed to play in the 27th edition of the biennial competition are Kazakhstan from Central Asia, South Korea, China, Japan, Hong Kong and Chinese-Taipei from East Asia, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia from the Gulf, Iran, Lebanon and Jordan from West Asia and host Philippines.

SBP executive director Sonny Barrios said so far, representatives from the basketball associations of Bahrain, Qatar and Japan are confirmed to attend the draw which starts at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow. If no representatives from the basketball associations of the other countries attend, Barrios said officials from their embassies will be invited to witness the proceedings.

To be honored as special guests during the draw program are players from the Philippine team that won the FIBA-Asia, then known as the Asian Basketball Confederation, title in Manila in 1973. The players are Ramon Fernandez, Manny Paner, Rosalio (Yoyoy) Martirez and Jimmy Mariano. Also invited are the 1973 team manager Dante Silverio and trainer Juan Cutillas. Caloy Loyzaga, considered the greatest Filipino cager ever, was also invited as a special guest but his son Chito said yesterday the King Bedan may not be able to attend.

With the “pure” draw system, it becomes possible for top favorites to play in the same bracket in the first round of eliminations, creating what is often called the Group of Death. The Philippines will not be affected by this system because of its prerogative to choose 13th in the lottery. After each team plays groupmates once in the preliminaries, the last placer is struck out, leaving 12 survivors who will be reclassified into two groups of six. Teams will carry over their win-loss records into the second round, except for their records against the eliminated teams, and play only contenders not from their original groups. The top four from each group then move on to play in the eight-team crossover knockout quarterfinals with the four winners advancing to play in the knockout semifinals. A battle for third will precede the championship game on the last day of the tournament.