Back to the Drawing Board ...

While the trials and tribulations of USA Basketball have been documented quite regularly within the US and world press, one story of an epic downfall has failed to gain similar attention.

That is the story of the 2002 World Champions.

As the former Yugoslavian team, Serbia has fallen from the elite of international senior team basketball. Serbia, along with the Czech Republic, Latvia and Poland were eliminated from Eurobasket today. With the elimination, Serbia will have no chance to compete in Beijing at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.

The 2007 disaster follows the disappointing ninth place finish for Serbia in 2006 at the World Championship in Japan and their failure to make it to the medal round in Athens in 2004. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Croatia, on the other hand, took a first place finish in their preliminary round group and will advance to the qualification round of 12 teams. Joining Croatia as first place finishers within each group are: Russia, Lithuania and Slovenia, the latter two the most productive countries per capita in sending players to the NBA.

The Number of Bids ...

A little math to get the discussion started.

For men's basketball at the 2008 Olympics, there are two berths each for the Americas and Europe. The Americas region consists of 28 countries total with 10 competing in the Tournament of the Americas for the two berths. In Europe, there are some 49(+) countries with 16 competing in Eurobasket 2007 to gain the two berths.

Oceania (Australia), Africa (Angola) and Asia (Iran) each send only one rep through the regional qualifiers. Asia, by the fact that China will play host, gets an extra berth and Europe, via reigning world champion Spain, gets its second berth.

Three bids are left to be determined at a tournament to be staged next summer, July 7-13th. That tourney is the brainchild of FIBA as they will seek rights fees, promoter guarantees and lucrative TV and media rights for staging the new (and improved) concept.

The teams that finish as runners-up in their respective regional tourneys will get invites to the FIBA pre-Olympic qualifying tournament, to be held next July at a site to be determined. (A site in Europe seems to make the most sense, as four of the 12 teams will be from Europe and their fans will certainly support the event).

As noted, this is the first time this system is being utilized. In prior years, the number of teams was determined by the success of the entire region at the previous major tourney. So, I remember when China upset Spain in the final preliminary round game at the '94 World Championship in Hamilton, Canada, it cost Europe an extra slot for a team at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Another example was New Zealand's fourth place finish at the 2002 Worlds which helped New Zealand and Australia both qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

The viewpoint; The pre-olympic tourney is a great marketing idea but will take its toll on the teams competing on the basketball side. The three teams that qualify will need to train and prepare, then travel to the site of the pre-Olympic tournament. From there, they will have the decision to return home for a brief break, then fly to Beijing for the Olympics. Logistics will be tough and the three teams will be exhausted. They will, however, have some confidence and momentum leading up to the Olympic Games. The pre-Olympic tournament will be intense preparation, unlike the many 'friendlies' staged prior to big championships.

The drawback will be the time zone issue, which might make FIBA consider staging the tournament in the likes of Seoul and Japan. (Japan, by way of its eighth place finish in the zone qualifier just completed, does not have a chance for the pre-olympic event).

I would consider adding a third qualifying bid to Europe to make up the difference of the number of countries (49+) competing for berths and limit the pre-olympic qualifying tourney to provide for two (not three) berths.