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As the group divisions of both men and women for the 2020 Olympic Qualifying Tournaments were confirmed by FIBA, the chances of Chinese national teams making the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo became clear.
It's actually quite simple: China's women's team only need to win one game to go to Tokyo. However, China's men's team cannot afford even one loss.
According to FIBA's rules, each team will first play the two opponents of their group. Then the top two teams of each group will compete with each other for the single Olympic ticket for each region.
Let's take a look at China's two opponents: Greece and Canada. The two teams share one thing in common – they both failed to meet fans' expectations at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in China. Canada were eliminated at the first group stage; Greece did not make the quarterfinals.
Rick Pitino (L), NCAA champion coach and Giannis Antetokounmpo (R) of Greece. /VCG Photo
Greece's reason for failure was that they did not give Giannis Antetokounmpo, the 2019 NBA MVP, the core role he deserved. Most of the time, the Greek Freak played more like a blue-collar player.
Greece wanted to change that and appointed a new head coach: Rick Pitino, the first coach in history to lead two different universities to win the NCAA championship. Considering the relations between the NBA and the NCAA, it's safe to assume that Greece will follow the NBA way in using Antetokounmpo, who has averaged 31.1 points, 13.9 rebounds, 6.4 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.3 blocks per game so far this season.
Jamal Murray (L) of the Denver Nuggets and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (R) of the Oklahoma City Thunder. /VCG Photo
Canada failed because their NBA players were unwilling to play at the World Cup, but that has already started to change. On Tuesday, Jamal Murray of the NBA's Denver Nuggets and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder both promised to represent Canada at the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments. One thing should be revealed here is that most NBA players attach way more importance to the Olympics than the World Cup.
The above are the two opponents China will meet in Group A in Victoria, Canada. The chance of China defeating looks like "mission impossible."
Du Feng, new head coach of China's men's basketball team. /VCG Photo
Du Feng, China's new head coach, holds a similar opinion and that's why he is considering taking more young players to Canada.
"It (the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments) is much more difficult than the World Cup. I think we should give more opportunities to players who will play for China at the 2023 World Cup and the following Summer Olympics (2024). We need to find more promising young men and show them the true difference between them and European, American players by letting them confront those teams on the court," Du told Xinhua.
Though China's men's team are unlikely to go to Tokyo, Du believes there will be something to achieve at the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments. "I know everyone values the result of the game, but I also hope they can take a look at the process. For example … did our players produce better numbers? Like in free throws and 3-pointers? Is there game smoother than before? Do they refuse to give up even under huge trailing, just like our women's volleyball used to?"
FIBA on Wednesday announced the official draws for the 2020 Olympic Qualifying Tournaments for both men and women at its headquarters, the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball, in Switzerland.
The women's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, taking place from February 6-9, 2020 will be staged in four countries: Belgium, China, France, and Serbia.
The men's FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, taking place from June 23 to 28, 2020, will be played in Canada, Croatia, Lithuania and Serbia.
In the men's games, China from Pot 5 were put in Group A in Victoria, Canada and will meet Greece and Canada, two of the strongest opponents from Pot 1 and Pot 2 respectively.
China women's basketball team is likely to face the unified Korean team at its home court in Foshan, one of the eight Chinese cities that hosted the FIBA Basketball World Cup from August 31 to September 15 this year.
Women's basketball is one of four sports that the ROK and DPRK are hoping to compete in as a unified team at Tokyo 2020, with others including women's hockey, judo (mixed team event) and rowing (women's and men's in the fours, quadruple sculls and eights events).
The men's draw results go as follows:
Belgrade (Serbia)
Group A: Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Serbia
Group B: Puerto Rico, Italy, Senegal
Kaunas (Lithuania)
Group A: Lithuania, South Korea, Venezuela
Group B: Poland, Slovenia, Angola
Split (Croatia)
Group A: Germany, Russia, Mexico
Group B: Tunisia, Croatia, Brazil
Victoria (Canada)
Group A: Greece, Canada, China
Group B: Uruguay, Czech Republic, Turkey
The women's draw results go as follows:
Belgrade (Serbia)
Nigeria, USA, Serbia, Mozambique
Bourges (France)
France, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Australia
Foshan (China)
Korea, China, Great Britain, Spain
Ostend (Belgium)
Canada, Japan, Sweden, Belgium
(With inputs from agencies)