Croatia's Dino Radja and Hungary's Robert Gulyas to perform Draw of the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup

 
MIES (Switzerland) - Croatia's Hall of Fame member Dino Radja and former Hungary center Robert Gulyas are to perform the draw for the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup, which is being staged in Debrecen, Hungary, from June 24 to July 2.

The draw gets underway on March 14 at 14:00 local time at the Debrecen Reformed Theological University, after which the 16 teams in the tournament field will know which groups they are taking part in.

Watch the Draw live

Viewers can tune into the live stream of the draw via the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup website.

The participating countries in the 16th edition are Egypt and Madagascar from Africa; Argentina, Brazil, Canada and USA from the Americas; China, Japan, Korea and Lebanon from Asia and Oceania; France, Hungary (Hosts), Serbia, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey from Europe.

Draw Principles

The participating teams have been distributed in four pots, based on the quality and geographical principles.

 Therefore, the pots are as follows:

Pot 1: USA, Brazil, Spain, Hungary Pot 2: Turkey, Serbia, Slovenia, France Pot 3: Korea, Japan, China, Lebanon Pot 4: Canada, Argentina, Egypt, Madagascar [/unordered]

Before the draw commences, the teams from each pot will be distributed in four groups and at the same time they will be assigned competition numbers.

Teams from the same continent/region should be equally distributed across the groups.

A maximum of two European Teams can be drawn in the same group.

A straight draw will be applied, except in the case of Pot 4 where the teams from the Americas cannot be drawn in the groups which already have a team from the continent.

Legends on stage

Five years before Radja competed in the 1992 Olympic Final, he won the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup

Dino Radja was a towering figure in basketball for Croatia, a powerful yet skillful power forward/center who played for some of the best teams in Europe and also in the NBA.

His prowess on the court earned Radja selection to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018.

A member of the all-conquering  Jugoplastika Split team from 1985-90, which included an MVP performance at the EuroLeague Final Four in 1989, Radja then suited up for Virtus Roma and after that, for the Boston Celtics in the NBA.

Some of his most memorable games came in international basketball. As a junior, he was among the most celebrated players in Yugoslavia after helping the country win the third edition of the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup in 1987.

Staged in Bormio, Italy, Radja averaged almost 15 points per game as Yugoslavia marched to the title with seven wins in as many games.

In the title game, Rajda had 20 points as Yugoslavia beat the USA, 86-76. Among the American players were Gary Payton, Larry Johnson and Stacy Augmon.

Later with Croatia, Radja's star continued to shine bright as he helped his country reach the 1992 Olympic Final, where they took on the USA Dream Team.

Robert Gulyas had a professional career that lasted a decade a half.

Gulyas was one of Hungary's leading players for several years

A potent force inside, Gulyas was a lot to handle for any opponent because of his 2.13m (7.0ft) height and deft shooting touch.

He helped Hungary qualify for FIBA EuroBasket for the first time in three decades when they made it to the tournament in1999. While at the tournament in France, Gulyas averaged 17.3 points and 6.7 rebounds.

As a pro, he played in Hungary, France, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Spain and Ukraine.

FIBA