JEDDAH (Saudi Arabia) – Players after all are the most important aspect of basketball. Their performances count of course, but their opinions matter too.
An interesting bag of reactions came from the players after the Groups were set following the Draw for the FIBA Asia Cup 2025.
Here’s a quick look at who said what (this is an evolving story. So watch this space for the comment from your favourite player/ team):
I think our group is the toughest amongst all the groups. Australia are a really good team with high level players and are looking to win back-to-back. Korea are also good team and Qatar are getting better by the day. We need to bring our A game to all these games because one misstep and could see us get eliminated. We have to be locked in and ready to go from Day 1.
We have a good chance on making it to the knockouts and further. We will continue to push our team to the limits. We will come with a mindset of being the best defensive team to play for 40 minutes, I think that’s the best way we would want to tackle this group.
I think we have a very competitive group but I am confident that we will prepare as a team to win all three games and make it out of the group stage. Our goal is to win the Asia Cup and I think this will be a great challenge for us to step up as a team. Japan basketball has made great strides in these recent years and we are looking to get even better.
The group we got put in is good, we are very familiar with our opponents. No game will be easy, but we believe we match up well against them. We plan on tackling our opponents by staying true to our identity. We have almost the same team as we did last Asia cup more or less. And if we are able to stay locked in and play how we know we can, then it will give us a great chance to be in the semi-finals once again
I don't think we were placed in a bad group, and with the good thinking of the coaches and the efforts of my teammates, we will definitely be successful. We will try to move forward game by game. I can't say who will win, but I can say that we will do our best to win.
I’m excited that we get to play 2 new teams in Syria and Iran. I’m also excited to have another crack at Japan. We can already get familiar with the personal of these teams and game plan for them. We can watch previous games and see how each team plays.
I'm thrilled to take on the challenge of competing against top-notch teams like Australia, Lebanon, and Korea. We know it won't be easy, but we're hungry for success and eager to showcase our skills on the biggest stage.
Each of the opponent teams, has a strong basketball tradition and talented players. It’s a great challenge for us to test ourselves, grow as a team, and gain valuable experience on the international stage. Strong opponents will definitely push us to elevate our game. I'm looking forward to the competition and the unique learnings!
We got a good group. Have to respect every team that made it to the Asia cup. But we also know who we are and what we can do and this is the perfect stage to show that. Excited to play Japan again and play countries that Guam has never played against like Iran and Syria.
FIBA