By Aris Barkas / barkas@eurohoops.net
The Olympics are over with basketball stealing the show once again and the national teams’ obligations resume immediately in November with the first window of the World Cup qualifiers.
The teams that will fight for the 12 open European places of the World Cup were finalized yesterday and the federations must immediately move to present competitive teams.
Given the absences during the season from the NBA and Euroleague players, after consultation with the national federations and several discussions that took place in the context of their facilitation, it was decided to hold the fourth window between August 22 and 30, despite the Eurobasket, which was transferred due to the pandemic from 2021 to 2022, starting on September 1st.
The decision was common and conscious, since especially the teams that will be preparing for Eurobasket at that time, will have the opportunity to present a roster as complete as possible with most, if not all, of their stars available.
This means that the process of the windows will give the opportunity to the teams, which anyway would give prep games at that time, to prepare even more properly with contests that will have the competition level of an official match. Plus local fans will be able to watch their national teams live with the strongest possible roster. And that is the main goal for all parties involved in the FIBA Windows.