2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup pre-qualification & qualification for Europe

[The Armenian]

I'm a bit late on this, but I only just recently joined.

The pre-qualifiers for the FIBA Europe World Cup qualification are currently underway. The 24 national teams that participated in Eurobasket 2017 are waiting in the qualification phase for 8 of 13 other national teams currently playing in the pre-qualifiers, which started on August 2nd and will finish on the 19th. The top 2 teams in each group advance to the qualifiers.

Group A: Armenia, Bosnia, Slovakia, Sweden
Group B: Albania, Austria, Netherlands
Group C: Estonia, Kosovo, Macedonia
Group D: Belarus, Bulgaria, Portugal

-Rosters-

Armenia - 13 players (9 Armenians, 3 white Americans with Armenian roots, 1 black American)
Bosnia - 14 players (13 Bosnians & 1 black American)
Slovakia - 12 players (11 Slovakians & 1 black American)
Sweden - 12 players (9 Swedes, 1 unknown origin mulatto, 1 Congolese, 1 Bosnian)
Albania - 14 players (13 Albanians & 1 black American)
Austria - 12 players (8 Austrians, 1 Serb, 1 Slovenian, 1 Bosnian, 1 mulatto Nigerian)
Netherlands - 12 players (5 Dutch, 5 Surinamese/other West Indies blacks, 2 mulatto Surinamese blacks)
Estonia - 13 players (13 Estonians)
Kosovo - 14 players (14 Kosovar Albanians)
Macedonia - 13 players (10 Bulgarians, 1 Serb, 1 Albanian, 1 black American)
Belarus - 12 players (11 Belarusians & 1 Armenian)
Bulgaria - 12 players (11 Bulgarians & 1 black American)
Portugal - 12 players (9 Portuguese, 1 black African from a former Portuguese colony, 1 black American & Spaniard mulatto, 1 Serb)

More information about the pre-qualifiers here:
http://www.fiba.com/basketballworldcup/2019/european-pre-qualifiers

 

[icsept]

Nice work. I guess Estonia and Kosovo didn't get the memo about keeping at least one random black on their national teams.

 

[Jack Lambert]

Welcome to the forum, and great work on your first post. I absolutely hate FIBA's rules that allow players to keep a certain number of "naturalized" players on their team, even if they've got no connection to said country! It's more of a travesty than FIFA's rules, and that's really saying something. I hate seeing all these American players littering the rosters of these countries. I'd wager many of those American players likely wouldn't know where those countries are, and had never heard of them before gaining "eligibility" to represent those countries.

That is interesting about Armenia. I wasn't aware Luke Fischer (Marquette), Andrew Chrabascz (Butler) , and AJ Hess had Armenian roots. Obviously, UConn's Ryan Boatright has no such claim.

Nearly every single country in Europe (besides the basketball powers like Spain, France, Lithuania, Croatia, Serbia, Russia, Germany, etc.) have a black American player on them. Armenia is definitely the exception to that.

 

[Vanilla_Sky]

Honestly, I don't think any of those four Americans have Armenian roots lol....it looks more like they're taking a page from the Arab state's book of filling up a roster with international players.

 

[The Armenian]

Honestly, I don't think any of those four Americans have Armenian roots lol....it looks more like they're taking a page from the Arab state's book of filling up a roster with international players.

FIBA rules state that only one "naturalized foreigner" can represent a national team. That would, of course, be Boatright for Armenia. My source for saying Hess, Fischer & Chrabascz have Armenian roots comes from the guy who manages the Twitter account for Armenia's basketball federation and Chrabascz gave an interview somewhere talking about how he visited Armenia when he was 8 and essentially admitting his roots in the process.

Basketball is nonexistent in Armenia, so the youth and senior teams of the past several years have had a few blacks, Russians, Ukrainians and 2 black Armenians. The rosters will become more and more Armenian as time goes on and investment in basketball grows.

 

[The Armenian]

Game day 4 has wrapped up.

Austria have advanced after beating Albania 97-63 thanks to Jakob Poltl's 18 & 6 and Rasid Mahalbasic's 25/9/6. Bulgaria have advanced after beating Portugal 91-65 thanks to Aleksandar Vezenkov leading the way with 21 & 8. Armenia beat Slovakia 92-78 and had 4 players (Hess, Boatright, Mkrtychyan, Fischer) in double figures. Sweden beat Bosnia 88-72. NBA prospect Dzanan Musa tallied his lowest point total thus far in the pre-qualifiers at just 12 in a losing effort while Sweden's black Thomas Massamba led the way with a game high 20. Macedonia beat Kosovo 87-74, led by the black Jordan Theodore with 24 & 9. Kosovo had a player named Scott Bamforth make his debut for them, scoring 15 points. He appears to be mixed race, possibly some Mexican heritage given he's from New Mexico.

Next round of games is on the 16th.

 

[AboutSweden]

About the Swedish team:

The "unknown origin mulatto" I presume is Jonathan Person. Born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and American father, both basketball players. Qualifies as a Swede for me.

Both the Congolese (Massamba) and the Bosnian (Pita) player moved to Sweden at an early age and was brought up and got their basketball education in Sweden. The same is half true for Nick Spires, who is listed as Swedish above despite being born in Tunbrigde Wells, England (half true, because I think at least on of his parents are Swedish).

 

[celticdb15]

About the Swedish team:

The "unknown origin mulatto" I presume is Jonathan Person. Born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and American father, both basketball players. Qualifies as a Swede for me.

Both the Congolese (Massamba) and the Bosnian (Pita) player moved to Sweden at an early age and was brought up and got their basketball education in Sweden. The same is half true for Nick Spires, who is listed as Swedish above despite being born in Tunbrigde Wells, England (half true, because I think at least on of his parents are Swedish).

Sad what qualifies as a Swede these days.

 

[AboutSweden]

I found this thread Google searching Armenia and Guess I missed the context of the thread and purpose of this forum.

My remark about what qualifies as a Swede, although true in my personal opinion, was obviously misplaced. The purpose of my post, however, was to illustrate that the Swedish team has not imported any basketball players, and that the team is all Made in Sweden basketball wise.

 

[The Armenian]

I found this thread Google searching Armenia and Guess I missed the context of the thread and purpose of this forum.

My remark about what qualifies as a Swede, although true in my personal opinion, was obviously misplaced. The purpose of my post, however, was to illustrate that the Swedish team has not imported any basketball players, and that the team is all Made in Sweden basketball wise.

Doesn't change the fact that Sweden's team isn't entirely Swedish. Armenia is a special case as I explained above, but the ripple effects of (((multiculturalism))) have started plaguing Sweden sports-wise.

 

[The Armenian]

Game day 5 has ended. Estonia beat Macedonia 74-65 thanks to Kristjan Kangur getting a double double with 11 points & 12 rebounds, along with a team high 15 points from Sten Sokk. Bosnia beat Slovakia 92-74 as Dzanan Musa netted 27 points. Bulgaria beat Belarus 84-70 as Aleksandar Vezenkov had 18 & 7. Sweden comfortably beat Armenia 93-70 as Viktor Gaddefors had 15/8/5 and Tobias Borg had a team high 16 points. Ryan Boatright had a game high 32 points for Armenia. Austria beat the Netherlands 78-71 with Jakob Poltl netting a game high 16 points in what was an all-around team effort for the Austrians.

Currently...Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, the Netherlands and Sweden have booked their tickets to the qualifiers, leaving 3 remaining spots. Armenia and Bosnia face off on the final game day to determine who gets the second spot in Group A, Group B is already determined, Kosovo can advance if they beat Estonia in Group C and Belarus and Portugal will face off to see who gets the second spot in Group D. The 6th and final game day will be on Saturday.