FIBA AmeriCup 2022 groups are set after Draw

MIAMI (United States) – The draw for the FIBA AmeriCup 2022 tournament’s 19th edition has been set, as the most prestigious competition for senior men’s basketball in the Americas will take place from September 2-11, 2022 in multiple cities in Brazil.

Teams qualified through the FIBA AmeriCup 2022 Qualifiers, with teams ranked and sorted into pots in accordance with the Nike FIBA World Rankings.

The teams were drawn out of four pots, with Pot 1 consisting of USA, Argentina and Brazil, Pot 2 containing Venezuela, Canada and Puerto Rico, Pot 3 made up of Dominican Republic, Mexico and Uruguay, and finally Pot 4 holding Panama, Virgin Islands and Colombia.

Picking the names to appear in three groups, they were also drawn their position in each group from three pots with four spots ranging from 1-4 labelled for Groups A, B and C.

The two best finishers in each group as well as the two best third-place teams in the competition will move on to the quarterfinals.

Hosted by Arielle Chambers and Antonietta Collins, the draw opened with remarks from FIBA regional office president Carol Callan as the tournament returns to Brazil for the first time since 1984, when it was held in Sao Paulo and the FIBA Hall of Famer, Oscar Schmidt led the hosts to gold.

“The 2022 edition of the Americas’ highest-level championship is a celebration of basketball, bringing our elite teams back to Brazil, to the unique and beautiful cities of Recife and Brasilia. We at FIBA are enthusiastic and eagerly await the 2022 FIBA AmeriCup, which will showcase our region’s top tier athletes, both legends of the game and emerging young stars.”

Leandro Barbosa, former Brazilian national team member and NBA player, was named as the AmeriCup 2022 ambassador, who will be on location at the tournament in September.

Barbosa, a two-time AmeriCup gold medal winner, is also a NBA champion, NBA Sixth Man of the Year and FIBA AmeriCup Top Scorer in his lengthy career between the NBA and Brazil’s national team among other leagues.

“As you start playing basketball, you always wanted to go a good job and be successful and bring a gold medal for your country, and it was a dream come true,” said Barbosa.

“Basketball is not that big in Brazil, but we thought that doing those type of tournaments, bringing the medal would be hope that we can make it bigger in Brazil, and that was the beginning of my experience playing with the national team in FIBA.”

Tiago Splitter, a teammate of Barbosa’s for Brazil and a two-time AmeriCup champion, also spoke about just how important the competition returning to Brazil means to the federation and growth of the game.

“Brazil is surging with a lot of basketball in the media and it’s helping with the NBA, EuroLeague, all those leagues, but having your country, your national team playing at home, that’s different,” said Splitter.

“I hope we can keep doing that for more years because that’s when you bring little kids to become fans, those little fans become players, and then they become pros.”

Anderson Varejao, Carlos Arroyo, Francisco Garcia and Gustavo Ayon joined the hosts to talk about their time representing their national teams as well as helping to select names and positions at random.

Out of Pot 1 Argentina landed in the fourth position in Group B, Brazil landed in the first position in Group A, and defending champion USA landed in Group C’s fourth position.

Pot 2’s Canada landed in Group A in fourth, Puerto Rico landed in Group B’s second position, and Venezuela ended up in Group C’s second position.

Uruguay was seeded second in Group A from Pot 3, Dominican Republic was selected for the third spot in Group B, and Mexico landed in Group C’s first position.

Rounding out the pots, Colombia was selected third in Group A, Virgin Islands first in group B and Panama was selected in third for Group C.

The final groups, in order of position as selected at random, are Group A consisting of Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia and Canada, Group B consisting of Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Argentina, and Group C rounding out with Mexico, Venezuela, Panama and USA.

FIBA