SAN JUAN (William Rosario's Somewhere in the Americas) - The Trophy Tour ended its American leg this past week in Rio de Janeiro and, apart from the fact that the Brazilian city is indeed the party capital of the world, what we can get out of the spotlight basketball was under in the country for the last few days is that they are gearing up for their opportunity to shine.

Both Brazil national team head coach Ruben Magnano and international superstar Anderson Varejao were present at the various events and the message seems to be in unison: they are expecting everybody to go to Spain for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and with something to prove.

And when I say everybody, I think it is important to go back to that disgraceful showing of the Brazilian team in last year's FIBA Americas Championship in which, for the first time ever, they did not even get out of the first round. But, as I said back when the wild card spots were up for grabs, that was not a team representative of the best that Brazil has to offer.

No Nene, Tiago Splitter, Leandro Barbosa, Vitor Faverani, Marquinhos or Varejao, meant that Magnano had to scramble to find a cohesive unit in a short span to play in Caracas. As it showed, it was not an easy feat.

Still, it is no excuse for their poor performance. They should have done better. There is no way that the Brazilian team is the ninth best (10th when you count USA) squad in the Americas.

But the damage was done. And everybody came hard at them. Media, fans, former greats like Oscar Schmidt, all of them were criticizing both Magnano for putting up excuses (he blamed the NBA players for not coming, the food, referees, the transportation… well, he blamed everybody and everything) and the stars for backing down over "lame excuses" as the newspapers put it.

The biggest blow came when the NBA staged a pre-season game in the HSBC Arena, in Rio de Janeiro incidentally, and when Nene went to the free-throw line, the 14,000 in attendance booed him. Then, Barbosa, who was in the crowd, was put up on the big screen in the arena and you guessed it, they booed him too, to the amazement of every US and NBA media in attendance who could not believe that they were booing two of their own.

"They take their national team seriously over here," tweeted one reporter.

But here's where time will tell who was right. Magnano, who was put in the hot seat, with people wanting him to be fired, stayed. The Brazilian Basketball Confederation (CBB) held their ground and left him as head coach. And who could fault them? They had fought so hard to get him, an Olympic gold medal winning coach in 2004 and a silver medal winning at the 2002 FIBA World Championship with Argentina… Magnano certainly knows more basketball than all of us. And he really wants to stay.

"Everybody is committed to playing in Spain for the FIBA Basketball World Cup. I'm going to push for us to have the best preparation possible before arriving in Granada for Group A and I'm confident this is the moment we've been waiting for as a team," Magnano said when I asked him about the coming months.

He is not crazy to say that. The complete national team finished fifth at the last Olympic Games after losing by five points in a thriller against their eternal rivals Argentina.

That same team is now, as Varejao told me "ready to go. I have spoken to Leandro Barbosa, Nene, Splitter, (Marcelinho) Huertas, and all of us are healthy. We all want to be there in Spain and give everything we've got to win. We have the personnel to compete with everybody. It's time for us to win it."

Now, after getting one of the wild card spots for this year's championship, Brazil may be poised to make one of those runs that Lithuania had in 2010 (finishing third) and Turkey had in 2006 (6th place) after being invited… only better.

And I hope so, because international basketball needs a strong Brazilian team to elevate the game back to the place it once occupied in the country with a population of 200 million.

There is a passion here waiting to explode once again for "basquete" (as it's called in Portuguese) and this team, with every player healthy and at the peak of their talents this year, along with an all-time coach that is once again hungry to prove everybody wrong, can do right by the country with a great performance in Spain.

Here in the Americas, we are rooting for their success. 

William Rosario

FIBA Americas

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