The 2019 Basketball World Cup will serve as a qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and players from the NBA’s Developmental League will comprise most of the early Team USA men’s basketball roster leading up to that tournament, according to Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press.
The American team announced a six-member committee on Tuesday to select players — mostly from the D-League — to suit up for the USA team that will fight to qualify for the 2019 Basketball World Cup. If the roster of minor leaguers can get Team USA past that round, a Gregg Popovich-led roster of NBA talent will resume the action in the actual 2019 World Cup.
“This will be an excellent opportunity for NBA D-League players to showcase their talent and experience meaningful and important international competition while representing the United States,” USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley said in a statement.
In the past, qualifiers and international events have been held during the NBA offseason, but some of the qualifying games for the World Cup in China will take place during the NBA season, Mahoney notes. With NBA players unavailable during that time, USA Basketball will look to become one of the 32 clubs that qualifies for the World Cup, even without its A-Team.
The new system enables teams to qualify for the 32-team World Cup in China, but since some qualifiers will occur during the NBA season, NBA players will not be available. While one representative on the six-person committee is yet to be named, the other five people will consist of several NBA D-League executives (Trajan Langdon, Adam Simon, and Tony Bollier) and USA Basketball men’s national team director Sean Ford (committee chairman).
Team USA would likely enjoy homecourt advantage at several NBA D-League arenas starting this November. As the AP report describes, “nations will be drawn into four-team groups and play home-and-away games within their zone.” The first round is scheduled for late November through July 2018 whereas the second round will start in late August 2018 and carry on through late February of 2019.
If they run out of D-Leaguers they can just use players from the Knicks.
I’d like to c a USA roster of young guys. No1 older then 22. I think that would b so much fun to watch. Led by Devin Booker..