Pippen, Gaze, Kirilenko and Yi bring star power to Official Draw Ceremony of FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers

HONG KONG - Four basketball stars will lend a hand at Sunday's Official Draw Ceremony for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers taking place at the landmark Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China.

Former USA and NBA superstar Scottie Pippen, Australian scoring machine Andrew Gaze, Russian great Andrei Kirilenko and China national team stalwart Yi Jianlian will help determine the fate of the 80 teams competing in four regional qualifiers played across 6 qualifying windows between November 2017 and February 2019.

The national sides will do battle to be among the 31 joining hosts China at the first-ever 32-team edition of FIBA's flagship event, taking place from August 31-September 15 2019.

Pippen is a 2-time Olympic gold medallist, a member of the USA's famed Dream Team and also helped the Chicago Bulls win 6 NBA championships in the 1990s.

Gaze, is a FIBA Hall of Fame Inductee (Class of 2013) who played for Australia's Boomers at 4 FIBA Basketball World Cups and 5 Olympic Games and also won an NBA championship.

Kirilenko is a European champion and Olympic bronze medalist who enjoyed a 14-year NBA career.

Yi, one of China's favourite sons, is a 3-time FIBA Asia Champion, who also has 4 Olympic Games appearances and will look to line out at his third FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2019.

The Official Draw Ceremony begins at 20:00 local time (GMT+8) and consists of four separate draws - one for each region.

The order and times of these draws is as follows (all times local/GMT+8):
Europe (20:25)
Africa (20:50)
Americas (21:10)
Asia (21:35)

Here are the principles for each draw

Europe

Africa

Americas

Asia

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About FIBA
FIBA (fiba.com) - the world governing body for basketball - is an independent association formed by 213 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognised as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

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