The Wild Cards - Winners & Losers

[by Kris SANTIAGO] - Merhaba!

I returned from Christmas shopping last Saturday and checked the web to get the news about the important decision of who will be in Turkey and who not. Not surprisingly, Russia, Lithuania, Germany and Lebanon received an invitation to the World Championships 2010.
If you remember my predictions, then you know that I got four out of four.
Okay, it was not that difficult to pick the right ones, especially if you were following the news and rumors about the wild cards in recent days.

Let's go down to the winners and the losers of the past weekend:

Winners

Lebanese Fans - They fully stood behind their country and promoted their national-team whenever they could on the web or elsewhere.
Collecting over 60.000 signatures is not an easy thing to do, and they made it aware even to people who are lacking the knowledge regarding Lebanese hoops, that basketball is the number one sport in their country. Of course, they spammed FIBA.com , Interbasket.com and other well known websites with their reasons why Lebanon should be in (sometimes with reasons, which were ...well lets say not so on point), but there was little support by other fans and wondered why there were only a few Lithuanians and no Russians or Germans promoting their countries' bids on the web? So, to me, the biggest winners are the Lebanese fans due to their commitment.

Lithuania - Although their basketball-president did everything to displease a lot of people with his comments about the registration fee and about the FIBA central board, the Lithuanians made it to Turkey 2010 and will be hopefully fielding a better team than in Poland this year. They got the support by their fans through a petition which in the end was even signed by its countries' political heads and their more than successful basketball tradition was a major factor for their success last Saturday. I'm looking forward to watch Saras&Co. in Turkey next year where they will be bouncing back to the top.

Russia and Germany - Two nations who have a well working lobby within FIBA. Basketball fans in Germany did not care about the wild-cards as there was only little interest on Germany's major basketball-website "Schoenen Dunk" about it, but thanks to the very professional acting basketball federation, Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Kaman may get the chance to play together once more and Dirk Bauermann's emerging young guns like Robin Benzing, Heiko Schaffartzik and Elias Harris will be around too, to form a talented core of players ready to challenge the very top teams of the World.
Sergei Chernov, the Russian basketball president was totally right about securing the wild card. Now Kirilenko, Holden and Khryapa have to prove that Russia's European title was not just an accident by getting back to the basketball elite next year.

Turkey - The Turkish will be getting a lot of extra fans due to the decisions made last Saturday. Russians love to travel to Turkey and I guess Lithuania and Lebanon will be sending probably the biggest group of fans of all countries that are qualified for the World Champs. That means more tickets sold and a boost for the local economy in the four cities that are hosting the event.


Losers

Great Britain - It seems like it's not enough to have the backing of NBA-boss David Stern and to have the money to spend. Yes, it would have boosted Great Britain's basketball development by letting them play in Turkey and yes it would have been good to grow more interest on the island, but traditional basketball countries got the edge over the British who can prove that they belong to the best by qualifying for Eurobasket 2011 next year. With a good outing in the next Euro Champs, they should be having no trouble to make it to the Olympics 2012 in London.

Africa - The African countries that showed interest have been snubbed by FIBA central board. Another chance to develop the game further on the continent has been passed on in favor of countries were no significant development will be made by adding them. Nigeria and Cameroon did their best to be part of the World Championships but I guess the money part was one of the negative factors that played against them, as well the missing lobby within FIBA. It's sad to have only three countries out of 24 from Africa where the sport needs desperately more attention by the governments and of course more funding. Nigeria and Cameroon would have been able to get their best foreign-based talent together to compete with a lot of nations. This won't happen in 2010, but hopefully in the coming years if FIBA decides to raise the participating teams to 32.

Dominican Republic - Strange things are happening. The Dominicans, who were one of the favorites to make it to Turkey, were not even under the last eight countries to be chosen from.

The reasons?
We don't know, but apparently, the federation did not have the money for both, the registration fee and for the hosting of the coming Centrobasket.
Local basketball president Frank Herasme was clearly upset about the decisions that have been made in Istanbul but hope to get the go by FIBA Americas to host the Centrobasket 2010, which serves as a qualifier for the Pre-Olympics/ FIBA Americas Tournament 2011.

With this last blog, I'm closing the chapter on the wild cards. I will be right back after the draw on Wednesday with more on the World Championships, so stick around here on Fiba.com for more updates!

I'm out like Christmas shopping.