Chot not surprised China wasn’t picked as wild card

BARCELONA – Gilas coach Chot Reyes said yesterday it was almost expected that despite its mass market clout, China wouldn’t be awarded one of four wildcard tickets to the FIBA World Cup to be played in six Spanish venues on Aug. 30-Sept. 14.

There were 15 countries that applied for wildcard slots and paid the corresponding donation, reportedly 500,000 Euros or about P30 Million, to the FIBA coffers. London Olympic third placer Russia, 2016 Olympic host Brazil, Turkey (the Turkish appliance and consumer electronics company Beko is a major sponsor) and China were early favorites to join the 20 outright qualifiers. But last Saturday, the FIBA Central Board met here and chose No. 7 Turkey, No. 10 Brazil, No. 5 Greece and No. 39 Finland to play in the World Cup. Aside from Russia and China, left out were Germany, Italy, Canada, Venezuela, Israel, Poland, Nigeria, Qatar and Bosnia-Herzogovina.

China lost all of its five games at the London Olympics to finish as the doormat and ended the semifinals in fifth place at the last FIBA-Asia Championships. The fifth place wind-up was China’s worst in FIBA-Asia since dropping to 10th in 2007. In the Olympics, China was eighth at the 1996, 2004 and 2008 editions then went down to 12th and last in London.

Before the announcement, the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) committed to send its best players to Spain if China is awarded a wildcard ticket and promised to take a series of strong measures “to re-establish the best coaching team and select the most outstanding players from the league to rebuild a national team which would best represent the country at the World Cup.” The talk is China withdrew its application because of the uncertainty of retaining coach Panagiotis Giannakis who was sued by his former team Limoges in the French league for breaking his existing contract to sign with China. But China’s woeful showing at the FIBA-Asia Championships was a disappointment and fans calling for Giannakis’ ouster. The lack of a forward program to anticipate the departure of aging stars like Ji Yianliang and Wang Zhizhi has led to a hiccup in the transition process. The consensus is the next generation of Chinese coaches and players isn’t ready to ascend the global stage.

Russia didn’t pursue its application even as the country is ranked No. 6 by FIBA, leaving out NBA veterans Andrei Kirilenko, Sergey Karasev and Alexey Shved. Reyes said he thought Russia had the edge over Finland whose biggest stars are Finn-American Gerald Lee and Chicago Bulls reserve Erik Murphy.

Reyes, who arrived here with team manager Aboy Castro and logistics director Andrew Teh last Friday on the inaugural AirBus 380, 500-seat, double-deck Emirates flight from Dubai, pointed out that Finland was No. 9 in the European Championships last year.  Greece was No. 11 tied with Latvia while Russia was No. 21.

Reyes flew in on the same flight as newly appointed Australian head coach Andrej Lemanis. The Filipinos logged about 17 hours in traveling from Manila. Lemanis, 44, said he came from Canberra to Melbourne to Dubai and finally, here and the trip took over 30 hours.

Lemanis, who took over the Boomers’ reins from Brett Brown now with the Philadelphia 76ers, said he’s been assured that Golden State Warriors center Andrew Bogut will play for Australia in the World Cup if he isn’t exhausted after the NBA season. San Antonio Spurs Aron Baynes and Patty Mills are others in the pool. Sensational guard Dante Exum, 20, will play his first international competition with the national senior team. Joining Lemanis’ staff is former NBA center Luc Longley.

“We’re putting together a 24-man lineup and it will include 6-11 A. J. Ogilvy and Ben Medgen, two of our NBL stars with the Sydney Kings,” he said. “We’re headed to China for the FIBA Asia Cup and might decide whom to keep for the final 12 before leaving.”

Australia and the Philippines were invited to participate in a three-day, four-team tournament in France in mid-July but because the PBA will end its season anywhere between July 15 to 23, Reyes had to back out. Lemanis said he’s bringing the Boomers over to China, Lithuania and France for training and scrimmaging.

Lemanis got the job after leading the New Zealand Breakers to three straight NBL titles. He played on the South Coast Melbourne Magic squad that took the NBL crown in 1992. Lemanis, 44, was an assistant coach with Australia at the London Olympics and 2010 World Championships in Turkey.

Both Reyes and Lemanis knew that in the two-year qualifying process for the 2019 FIBA World Cup, Asia and Oceania will be merged with the top seven finishers representing the zone in the next event which expands from 24 to 32 teams. The six home-and-away windows that make up the stepladder two-year qualifying process will be discussed during the FIBA program highlighted by the World Cup draw tonight (tomorrow morning, Manila).