I’d like to keep abreast of how the Asian teams fare in the ongoing FIBA-World Championship in Turkey. Four out of twenty four entries come from Asia namely Iran, China, Jordan and Lebanon. The performances of the Asian teams in this competition are crucial to their request to add one more slot for Asia in the 12-team 2012 London Olympics.

On the first day of the tournament, Jordan, China and Iran ended up losing their opening matches against Australia, Greece and Brazil respectively. Jordan was narrowly defeated by Australia,75-76; China bowed to medal contender Greece, 81-89; Iran was crushed by highly fancied Brazil 65-81. Lebanon saved the day for the Asians as it upset 2009 FIBA-Americas  4^th placer Canada, 81-71.

Photo Courtesy: Highschoolhoop.com

The 2010 FIBA-World Championship starts on the 28^th of August in Turkey and this early I could see Team USA heading for another shameful exit. It’s not because I’m subjective but realistically speaking, the current US squad is not at par with the best teams out there at this point in time. Gone are the days when the Americans yawned watching the game clock ticking for the final score.

Before I go through, let’s take a quick look at how Team USA fared last decade in major international competitions. By the way, NBA players comprised all these teams.

Tournament                                                  Final Ranking

2000 Olympics                                                   1^st

2002 FIBA-World Championship                          6^th

2004 Olympics                                                   3^rd

2006 FIBA-World Championship                          3^rd

2008 Olympics                                                   1^st

The team’s vulnerability was actually showed as early as the 2000 Olympics. Even though they won the gold medal, they had been through a rough sailing. In the semifinal game, Team USA barely escaped an 85-83 near upset by Lithuania . In the gold medal game against France, the final margin was a measly 10 points.

Two years later, pretending to be unwary of the rise of the other teams, Team USA sent their ‘B’ team in the tournament played right before the very eyes of their hometown fans. To make the long story short, they finished 6^th place among 24 teams with Yugoslavia emerging as champion.

In the 2004 Olympics, this squad featured the then upcoming superstars LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwayne Wade joining other big names such as Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson, Stephon Marbury. Its Bronze medal finish including a devastating opening game against Puerto Rico proves that NBA’s marquee players in the team are of no assurance of winning a championship.

Fast forward to the upcoming World Championship in Turkey, the current squad looks weak in the shaded lane. With it, they face an uphill climb against Central America’s powerhouse teams Brazil, Argentina and Puerto Rico. Europe’s best teams Spain, Serbia and Greece add to their woes.

The way I see it, Team USA survives a quarterfinal game via a close margin before bowing out of the race in the semifinals en route to a 4^th place finish.

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Thailand’s Natthaphong Samana and Sinthaweechai Hathairattanakool are both suspended after they picked up yellow cards in their game last Saturday. Both of them will miss the match against Singapore in the qualifying tournament of the Asian Cup on Wednesday.

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Argentine football icon Diego Maradona was banned from all football by FIFA for two months. The sanction came in response to Maradona’s sexually-explicit rant after Argentina’s game against Uruguay in the World Cup qualifiers last October.

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Christiano Ronaldo has rejoined Real Madrid’s training and may play against FC Zurich in the Champions League on November 25.  The Portuguese star had been suffering from an ankle injury for almost two months.

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Mexico’s Antonio De Nigris who played for Larissa in Greece died last Monday, November 16.  The cause of death was still unconfirmed but was suspected to be of a heart attack. The 31-year old striker is survived by his wife Sonia and his five-year old daughter Miranda.