400 days to go before Turkey

ISTANBUL (2010 FIBA World Championship) - Olympic champions Team USA are headed to the 2010 FIBA World Championship and Turkey will be there as hosts.

Now, with 400 days to go before the start of the glamorous event, it’s time to start your engines!

The races for the other places that are up for grabs in Turkey are about to begin.

A total of 18 teams will qualify from the five continental championships to be held this summer and autumn.

National sides from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and Oceania will make it to next year's basketball extravaganza.

Basketball's world governing body FIBA will then award four wild cards to complete the 24-team field.

Fans in Turkey and all over are salivating at the prospects of watching their favorite teams, and players run onto the court.

The United States edged reigning world champions Spain in a battle of star-studded sides at the Beijing Games and both teams will be among the favorites in Turkey.

With Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony all indicating they want to remain in the national team, the Americans will be favorites for gold.

Turkey is buzzing about their national team and Hedo Turkoglu is a big reason why.

Turkoglu helped the Orlando Magic reach the NBA Finals this year with some dynamic performances and he figures to be one of the leading personalities at the FIBA World Championship.

At the EuroBasket, Turkey will play in Group D with Lithuania, Bulgaria and hosts Poland.

Even though they have qualified, Turkey coach Bogdan Tanjevic will be looking for signs that his team is going to mean business when they host the important event in 2010.

Turkoglu fully understands what is at stake.

"The next two years are very important for Turkish basketball," Turkoglu said.

"This year, the European Championship will be held in Poland and in 2010, to be held in our country, the World Basketball Championship is very important."

At the FIBA World Championship, there will be four six-team groups in the Preliminary Round with games played in Ankara, Kayseri, Istanbul and Izmir.

The top four sides in each pool will then advance to the Eight-Finals.

Winners of those games will progress to the Quarter-Finals, and the winners of those reach the last four before the medal round.

While most people expect Spain to be in Turkey, they have some work to do before they can try and defend the crown they won in 2006.

They will compete at the 16-team EuroBasket in Poland from September 7-21 where the top six sides will earn trips to Turkey.

Should the Turks finish in the top six, then a top seven finish would do for European teams.

With Pau Gasol confirming his presence in Poland after playing a leading role in the Los Angeles Lakers’ NBA title triumph over Orlando, Spain will love their chances of making it.

Spain do not have Jose Calderon, arguably their best player two years ago in Madrid, yet they are so deep and talented that they will be clear favorites in Group C against Slovenia, Serbia and Great Britain.

Rudy Fernandez, who had the incredible Olympics last year, will be a big personality in Turkey if they do make it, as well as Ricky Rubio and new national team star Victor Claver.

The EuroBasket 2007 champions Russia, along with Lithuania, Germany and Croatia – all teams that played at last year’s Olympics – will also be in Poland looking to qualify for Turkey.

There are important questions that need to be answered.

Greece, who upset the United States 101-95 in the Semi-Finals three years ago in Saitama before falling to Spain in the title game, have learned that national team stalwarts Dimitris Diamantidis and Theo Papaloukas will take this summer off.

Diamantidis is recovering laparoscopic surgery while Papaloukas wants to rest.
 
Greece also do not have the valuable power forward/center Konstantinos Tsartsaris, who announced after last year’s Olympics that he would not play in 2009.

Jonas Kazlauskas, the former Lithuania and China coach, is trying to maintain Greece’s elite standing after the departure of national team boss Panagiotis Yannakis.

Kostas Koufos and recent Panathinaikos signing and NBA draft pick Nick Calathes are youngsters who could make this year’s team and then have prominent roles next year in Turkey if Greece qualify.

Vassilis Spanoulis will be the leader in the Greece backcourt while Nikos Zisis will be desperate to get back to the FIBA World Championship after suffering serious facial injuries in a group game against Brazil that knocked him out of the tournament in 2006.

Germany are in a rebuilding mode with several players having retired and coach Dirk Bauermann uncertain if talisman Dirk Nowitzki and his fellow NBA star Chris Kaman will be play.

Bauermann has tried to temper expectations.

"It needs to be clear that even with Dirk and/or Chris, it is going to be extremely difficult to be one of the best eight teams at the European Championship in Poland," he said.
 
In Poland, Russia won’t have point guard JR Holden, the man who hit the title-clinching shot in Spain two years ago, while EuroBasket 2007 MVP Andrei Kirilenko is a doubt.

Lithuania have yet to announce if veteran Sarunas Jasikevicius will play this summer but the Baltic country is always in the reckoning for honors no matter who shows up to play.

France and Italy are hoping to snatch the one remaining place on offer at the EuroBasket by winning the six-team Additional Qualifying Round.

If France make it, Tony Parker will take center stage in Poland where he will try to lead the French to Turkey.

Should the Italians make it, they too would have a strong chance of advancing to Turkey.

Their Andrea Bargnani, a seven-footer with the Toronto Raptors who is on the verge of superstardom, would have a huge presence in Turkey.

It’s not just teams from Europe trying to reach the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

The 10-team FIBA Americas Championship will be played from August 26 to September 6 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and four teams will book their 2010 places.

Argentina will not have Manu Ginobili while he recovers from the foot injury that brought a premature end to his NBA season with San Antonio, but they will boast bona fide NBA superstar Luis Scola of the Houston Rockets.

Scola was the MVP of the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship and then had a very strong Olympics in China.

Don’t be surprised if he not only leads Argentina back to the FIBA World Championship but also contends for MVP honors in Turkey.

Brazil coach Moncho Lopez looks set to have most of his players this summer with Anderson Varejao and Leandro Barbosa willing and able to play for the first time since 2006.

The lynchpins in the team are Tiago Splitter, Marcelinho and Marcelo Huertas and all three will be in San Juan and, Brazil fans hope, in Turkey.

One setback is the unavailability of Denver Nuggets center Nene in San Juan after he suffered a broken arm in the NBA play-offs. If Brazil do make it to Turkey, Nene should be a powerful force down low for them.

Puerto Rico, led by JJ Barea and Carlos Arroyo, narrowly missed out on a place at the Beijing Games when they lost to Germany at the 2008 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The flashy point guards will give Puerto Rico plenty of firepower this summer. A very talented Puerto Rico will also have home-court advantage and that should be enough to see them reach the FIBA World Championship where Barea and Arroyo will be able to shine.

Much has been said about the Dominican Republic and the expected inclusion of NBA players Charlie Villanueva, Al Horford and Francisco García in their squad but Canada, Mexico, Venezuela and Panama – a late replacement for Cuba - will also be looking to make their mark.

Panama stunned everyone four years ago by qualifying for the 2006 FIBA World Championship.

Angola will be the favorites yet again when the AfroBasket is played from August 5-15. High-fliers Olimpio Cipriano and Joaquim Gomes have represented the country in recent years and will be looking to guide Angola back to the Eight-Finals for the second straight time.

The coaching carrousel in Nigeria has ended up with the reins being handed to John Lucas, the former NBA point guard who later coached in the league.

While Cape Verde won the hearts of all neutrals at the last AfroBasket in Angola, a more realistic bet to earn a trip to the FIBA World Championship is Cameroon.

Silver-medal winners two years ago, Cameroon impressed at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament and could cause a real stir with adequate preparation and support from their federation.

Harding Nana was outstanding for Cameroon in Athens and would be a headline-grabber in Turkey if the team makes it.

Three teams will make it to Turkey from the FIBA Asia Championship, which gets underway on August 6 in Tianjin, China.

Iran will be hoping to build on their gold-medal triumph in Japan two years ago.

The Iranians, with Hamed Ehadadi, have one of the best low post players in Asia.

As the host nation, China will have the advantage at the FIBA Asia Championship and if they reach Turkey there will be a huge buzz about Yi Jianlian with Yao Ming unlikely to play following foot surgery.

Lebanon are always in the reckoning while both Korea and Japan will be teams looking to spring an upset and make it to Turkey.

The Oceania Championship will be played August 23 and August 25.

As that FIBA zone has two teams headed to Turkey, both Australia and New Zealand will be there.

Pat Mills, one of the Australia stars at last year’s Olympics, will once again have a big stage to show off his lightning-quickness and long-range shooting.

If there is as much drama as in Japan where there were some unbelievable games, including the Greek drama that saw the Yannakis’ team knock the USA out of gold-medal contention, expect the unexpected in Turkey.

One certainty is the 24 teams that ultimately travel to Turkey will give international basketball another magnificent competition.

FIBA