The World Championships Wild Card Race Update Vol. II

[by Kris SANTIAGO] - Merhaba once again!

There are more and more rumours floating around the web these days regarding the "precious" wild cards soon to be given out by FIBA.

The Dominican website "Basket Dominicano" recently posted parts of an interview with FIBA Americas Secretary General Alberto Garcia and he gave hints about which countries could be strongly considered by FIBA. Garcia named Uruguay, Nigeria, Korean and Japan as strong contenders for getting a pass for Turkey 2010. Also, the article states, that Baumann met the lobbying Dominican basketball federation officials in Cuba in the month of October and also, that the officials have to secure a TV deal for the World Championships to strengthen their chances of getting an invitation to Turkey next year.

Also, in a separate article by ESPN, Al Horford tells that he would be in, if the Dominicans would make it to Turkey.

Russian newspapers report that FIBA president Patrick Baumann talked about expanding the tournament to 32 teams as a lot of countries are interested in obtaining a wild card right now. This would help FIBA to raise the interest in the World Champs in more countries but the addition of more national-teams would water down the competition as there would be more one-sided games, tells Baumann acording to the article.

The Nigerians are over-confident, which is nothing new, as they were over-confident with their outing in Libya only to witness their failure in the quarter-finals. Regarding their chances of getting one of the four wild cards, their president confirmed to local media outlets, that Nigeria will be getting a wild card if FIBA decides that one will be awarded to the African continent: "Let me be honest with you, we have got words from them that if any African country would be considered, it is Nigeria that would get the slot; the two other contenders (Mali and Cameroon) have no standing against us."

UK National-team guard Flinder Boyd is hoping to play in Turkey next year. I think the British are currently having a fair chance of making it due to their long-term perspective of developing the sport in a proper way on the island.

While other teams are hoping for a second chance, Canada is getting positive feedback by it's NBA-based players and looks determined to excel next year in major competition.

And finally something funny by German basketball magazine "5ive" which recently talked about Germany's chances of getting a wild-card as well: They suggested, since the Turkish organizers have also an influence on the outcome of the wild-card decision, to let Tolga Öngören and Murat Didin (both are Turkish coaches in the German basketball-league) do some promotional work in Turkey as well as point out, that Germany's basketball-league is sponsored by "BEKO" a Turkish company which also should be in favor of Germany once it's decision-time. I doubt this is going to work, neither do the guys from 5ive but it was very amusing to read stuff like that.

I'm out like waiting on a decision.