Chinese cities to host 2019 FIBA World Cup

The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup Host Announcement would be live and would feature first the final bid presentations of the Philippines and China before announcing the official host of the tournament.

If you were asked whether you expected to see former Gilas head coach Chot Reyes, legendary boxer Manny Pacquiao, and actor-director Lou Diamond Phillips in a photo today, you would have likely answered no.

In a report by Latin Post, the Philippines would bid to host the basketball world cup tournament in 2019 for the first time since 1978 and following the successful hosting duties of the FIBA Asia Championships in 2013.

Yao came to Tokyo to promote China’s bid. This, made the Philippines the only third country in the world, at least then, to stage a pair of big global sporting events.

“China is the most populous country in the world and we can make basketball the most popular sport in the world”, Beijing vice-mayor and China 2019 bid chairman Zhang Jiandong said in the report by HostCity.net. China’s bid was anchored on the slogan “More Than Ever” and provided an unprecedented platform of eight host cities in Beijing, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Dongguan, Suzhou, Nanjing and Foshan.

Jimenez met with the Chief Executive last Wednesday to explain the details of the Philippine bid.

The decision will enable FIBA to build on a strong presence for the sport in China.

Last year, the country successfully hosted the Fiba Asia Championship, where Gilas Pilipinas earned qualification for the 2014 Fiba World Cup in Spain.

Basketball fans are about to see how the FIBA World Cup 2019 host country will deliver the games.

The Philippines will be bannered by naturalized center Andray Blatche, who just arrived in the country. It’s Filipinos all over the world.

“We have two great nations fighting for this”, Baumann said.

If this is not enough proof of the Philippines’ and the Filipinos’ qualities to host the 2019 FIBA World Cup, this writer wouldn’t know what is.

Alapag, for his part, said that the Philippines has “proven that giants can be taken down” and that he wants FIBA to feel the “passion that runs deep” in all Filipinos.