2015 FIBA Americas Basketball Preview: Road to Rio
By Jay Rosales
With two Olympic qualifying spots on the line, the 2015 FIBA Americas is scheduled to kick off Monday
The 2016 Summer Olympics are fast-approaching. It felt like yesterday that LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and the rest of Team USA were handing Spain their second consecutive silver medal. Yet, here we are, in the thick of qualifying for the world’s best.
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Currently, three of the 12 spots have already been decided – Brazil (host), U.S.A. (World Cup Champs), Australia (Oceania Champs). There are two spots guaranteed at the FIBA Americas tournament, which starts in Mexico on Monday and wraps up on September 12.
Re-read those last two sentences.
The Americans and their collection of Monstars have already qualified, thus, exempt from this tournament. The Brazilians, who recently captured Gold at the Pan-Am Games, have already qualified. While they are still taking part in the tournament, the pressure to succeed is far less than any other country (more on this below). After all is said and done, one-third of the qualified countries will hail from the Americas (with a 5th taking part in next year’s Olympic Qualifying tournament).
The door is absolutely wide open for a couple of teams to achieve unprecedented success and national pride for their respective countries. Without further ado, let’s take a deeper look.
Next: Schedule And Format