MANILA, Philippines – For the first time since 1978, the FIBA World Cup returns to the Philippines – a country famous for its unabashed love of basketball.

Sharing the hosting rights with Indonesia and Japan, the Philippines will see a basketball spectacle featuring the best of the best players and teams around the world.

Each country has its own objectives, some more ambitious than others. With 32 teams, the World Cup will certainly offer a vast array of basketball cultures in the quadrennial extravaganza.

What’s at stake?

The competition serves as a qualifying event for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Seven teams will make it to Paris depending on their ranking at the World Cup: two from the Americas, two from Europe, and one from each of the continents of Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

A separate Olympic Qualifying Tournament will determine the remaining four slots. Only host team France’s position in the 12-team bracket has been guaranteed.

Who will take the stage?

Group phase games will be played in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan before the top two teams of each group fly to Manila for the quarterfinals, semifinals, and the championship game.

The Philippines hosts Groups A, B, C, and D. Japan gets Groups E and F, while Indonesia has Groups G and H in the two-week long tournament.

• Group A: Philippines, Angola, Dominican Republic, Italy
• Group B: Serbia, South Sudan, China, Puerto Rico
• Group C: United States, Greece, Jordan, New Zealand
• Group D: Lithuania, Montenegro, Mexico, Egypt
• Group E: Japan, Germany, Finland, Australia
• Group F: Slovenia, Venezuela, Georgia, Cape Verde
• Group G: Spain, Brazil, Iran, Ivory Coast
• Group H: Canada, France, Lebanon, Latvia

Where are the games?

The festivities will kick off at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan on August 25, pitting Angola and Italy in the opening game at 4 pm and the Philippines and Dominican Republic in the 8 pm main game.

Other group phase games will also be played simultaneously at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Okinawa Arena in Japan, and the Indonesia Arena in Jakarta.

The second round and classification games will also be scattered throughout the three countries, before the final phase gets going on September 5 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The championship game is slated on September 10, also at the MOA Arena.

What is the format?

Each team will play each other in the first round, where the top two teams of each group will advance to the second round. The bottom two teams will play classification games for rankings 17 to 32, which may still be pivotal to some countries’ Olympic hopes.

The results from the first round will be carried over to the second round, where the advancing teams will play against the other group’s top two teams.

The top two teams of each group in the second round will move on to the final phase in Manila, while the rest will be ranked from 9th to 16th.

The final phase of the competition will look like this:

Meanwhile, the losers of the quarterfinal games will play for places 5th to 8th. – Rob Andrew Dongiapon/Rappler.com