Well Football(Soccer) has a World cup, Rugby has a World Cup, even baseball is starting to become serious about international play, so I had an ideal.

See, Basketball is a world sport... So instead of the current drab basketball tournaments FIBA has, why not have a Basketball World Cup every 4 years. The USA was once the complete dominant force in Basketball, but it's become all to apparent that is no longer the case. There are some good international teams out there, teams like the Chinese, the Greeks, the Argentines, Germany, Lithuania, and many others. And like football(soccer) basketball is an easy sport to learn and it doesn't take a lot of expensive equipment to play.

So what to you folks think of that... We can host the first one in the USA, then the next one in China, then host one in Germany, and so on...

That wouldn't be a bad idea Skep, basketball is popular here....

I think it would be second only to the Football(Soccer) World Cup in popularity... Basketball is a fun game to watch too...

My thought is, we have regional point-system qualifiers, just like the Soccer World Cup... where 16 teams qualify, for Four groups for that stage (like 4 North and Central American teams, 4 European teams, 3 teams from South America, 2 teams from Africa, 2 teams from Asia, 1 team from Oceana) and the top two teams from each of the four groups play an 8 team single elimination tourney, with one team taking home the international championship.

I want a basketball world cup too , I Like like it alot more than those football pussy that dive wayyyyy too much.

England would be in an uphill battle for a spot in my ideal of a cup... maybe 32 teams instead of 16 would be better, but I don't know if 64 would be good for the first World Cup of hoops... But I think the one sport that has the kind of international draw that football/soccer does is basketball...

http://www.fiba.com/pages/en/index_en.asp?intro=0

That's FIBA's international site... but honestly, the NBA site is much better...

Hmmmm, Make a cross between football and soccor would be good, Call it Blitzball.
A few more years of research in gravity, and we could create a floating ball of breathable water as the dome
(Sorry, Ive been playing too much Final Fantasy X lol, That'd rock though )

I think 64 team would be a little too much, until all the kinks have been worked out atleast, 32 does sounds right
Hmmm, need a name.

The World Cup of Basketball

So 32 teams... that works out to:

6 North and Central American teams
8 European teams
5 South American Teams
6 African Teams
6 Asian Teams
1 Oceana Team

I think you would need to alter that.. 6 North and Cental American teams seems a bit much.. and I dont know much about basketball but really are the Hondurans and the El Salvadorans really going to be competitive at this point? It seems also a bit of a rip off for Africa.. they have far more countries and people than South America yet just 1 more place. South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Zaire, Libya, Morocco, Ethiopia.. thats 6 right there that you would want in it I guess..

But much like the Soccer World Cup Vet, the area's were the sport has it's roots get more participants, thus, North and Central America get 6 teams...

And yes Vet, the Central Americans have some pretty good teams. The real powers in global basketball right now are: America, Spain, Germany, China, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Serbia, Croatia, Russia, Greece, and France...

He said that they would have to qualify for said spots... Africa can have a team for every village for all we care. They can only put their bext forward though.

I personally find basketball really boring, but I'd like to see this just for the international co-operation it would promote like soccer/football does. Except in Italy, of course...

Basketball is like the fastest sport in the world... It's much more exciting than Soccer... only Ice Hockey comes close to the speed and excitment of hoops...

Speed doesn't make excitement for me... Quality players who don't take dives and play for the love of the sport instead of the money and prostitutes and etc etc etc make excitement in my world... I can't even watch basketball for the duration of the commercials on other shows that I watch... So. Boring.

I guess racing doesn't qualify as the fastest sport then...

I'd rather watch that hack Bob Izumi talk while his brother fishes than watch an entire basketball game. I would never watch Bob Izumi do anything...

First off, I guess you've never watched a small college play basketball, no money there, just love of the game.

And second, men driving in circles is not a sport...

Only very occasionally have I enjoyed a basketball game. Way back when..the Sonics and Chicago Bulls played for the championship.. that series was really really good. Hockey..oh..no... Soccer..I can get into World Cup games if I watch in a sports bar..

really only (American) football gets me really going. Oh..and for some reason womens volleyball. Too much power in the mens game.. more technique in womens.

You know Vet, there are football leagues in France and Poland now, and I ain't talking about the NFL Europe... I love American football, but I don't think most nations would have all that much of a chance in international play...

My thought is this, basketball is an international sport, hense my ideal...

I have watched college basketball and its still boring. Most players are cherry pickers like Wayne Gretzky was in hockey. There are a couple of players who carry the whole game while the rest are useless. Just like in professional. Most of them are standing around while the select few play for the love of the game. Really not exciting.

Besides, I said I didn't find it exciting. I didn't say it was boring to all. Any time I present an opinion contrary to yours in any topic, you go off like this. I'm not going to buy your love for basketball although, if you'd read back a couple of posts, I actually encouraged it.

Men driving in circles? Care to call ESPN and tell them that? Or would you just care to make more stupid generalizations? I think racing is boring as well, but its more complicated than driving in circles...

Watching cars go by, weeeee....

Once again... I said it wasn't interesting... Once again you're making a stupid generalization.

I was commenting on the ability of the 'players'. It's harder to drive a car at 120+mph around these ridiculous courses than it is to stand on a hardwood floor adn cherry pick while waiting for one of the other pansies to pass the ball.

This thread is going back on the ignore list like it should have been after I commented once.