FIBA UPSET

On August 31st is first day of FIBA World Cup 2019, and since beginning of the month, national teams are having practice round as exhibition match.  In this round each team is trying to find out best roster and how to fit the team.  But still those games are exciting since all of them are national team which means best of the best.  In these games there are 2 big upsets which people didn’t expect it to happen.  Here is the list of those games.

1: Australia(11) vs USA(1)
Since USA is No.1 country of the basketball and all members in the team are NBA player.  Even though there are only 2 All-Star players in the team, there are future All-Stars such as Jason Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, and Myles Turner.  For their 1st game, USA won as expected, but for 2nd game Australia won over USA.  Yes, there are 6 NBA players in the Team Australia, but there is no All-Star or All-Star potential players in the team. (Ben Simmons did not join)  Yet still Australia was strong from beginning till the end.  NBA players led the team win over USA.

2: Japan(48) vs Germany(22)
Japan is one of the best sports countries in the world, but in terms of basketball, Japan is not doing as well as other sports.  However Japan was one of those countries that were not able to remain as qualifier for World Cup or Olympics, players’ level is becoming higher and higher each year.  In 2019 NBA draft, Rui Hachimura was drafted as No.9 pick.  Even before Hachimura, Yuta Watanabe had made 2-way contract with Memphis, so there are 2 NBA players in Team Japan.  Hachimura and Watanabe led the team to win over Germany which has 4 NBA players.  Actually Japan has won over Australia in Division match.  The another upset might happen in the actual tornament.

We never know what will happen in the Tournament.  There are many times that team USA could not win the tournament even if the team had All-Stars.  This will make tournament more exciting.  It’s starting 31st of August!!