The first EuroBasket tournament in five years kicks off in two weeks and there are currently 34 NBA players on track to take part in the event, representing 17 different countries, according to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops.net.
EuroBasket is an international basketball competition involving 24 teams, also known as the European Basketball Championship. Historically, it took place every two years, but this gap was recently adjusted to four years, mimicking the FIBA World Cup schedule.
The last EuroBasket tournament took place in 2017 – the next was scheduled for 2021, but was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics. As a result, having been played every two years since 1947, it has now been five years since the last EuroBasket tournament, by far the longest layoff since World War II.
It is possible that some NBA players will be removed from their teams’ rosters or will have to drop out due to injury or personal reasons before the event begins on September 1, but in general the enthusiasm to participate in the long-awaited event seems high.
Here is the list of NBAers currently set to play in EuroBasket, per Eurohoops:
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Israel
- Italy
- Lithuania
- Montenegro
- Serbia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Turkey
- Ukraine
There are also several NBA free agents on EuroBasket rosters, including the French swingman Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot and German guard Dennis Schroder.
A number of young NBA players, such as 2022 rookies Jeremy Sochan and Nikola Jovic, have dropped out to focus on preparing for the 2022/23 season, while others, including Bogdan Bogdanovic (Serbia) and Franck Ntilikina (France), were ruled out due to injury.
The round robin will begin on September 1, with each team playing the other five clubs in their group once. The top four teams from each group will advance to a 16-team group that begins on September 10. The final will take place on September 18, just over a week before the start of NBA training camps.
