Up until this year, the FIBA Basketball World Cup–it’s exactly what it sounds like–was held once every four years. After the 2014 Cup takes place in Spain, it will be held once every five years, so the next one will be in 2019. For this year, three current Nets (and one presumably former one) will be suiting up for four different teams that are all trying to become the best team in the world.
Mason Plumlee (United States), Jorge Gutierrez (Mexico), Bojan Bogdanovic (Croatia), and Andray Blatche (Philippines)–who spent the last two seasons in Brooklyn, but is unlikely to re-sign as he’s still a free agent–are all involved in the tournament this year.
There was a lot of controversy over Mason making the US team, as people thought he was put on the squad not for basketball reasons, but because his former college coach is also coaching the United States delegation.
Regardless, through its first two games–big wins over Finland and Turkey–the US is 2-0.
Mason hasn’t played a big role in either of the victories, but has seen some playing time in the waning minutes of the blowouts, scoring a total of six points on 3-for-4 shooting (he only scored in the Finland game). Still, at least he’s representing the Nets and his country well abroad. The US’s next game is tomorrow against New Zealand.
Jorge Gutierrez is an important part of the Mexican team as he is a starter in the backcourt along with countryman Francisco Cruz. Our neighbors to the South haven’t had nearly as much success thus far, as Mexico is 0-2, having been beaten handedly by both Lithuania (with Jonas Valanciunas) and Slovenia (with Goran Dragic).
Jorge played well in the first game, scoring 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting but went just 3-for-8 for eight points in the second. He was a nice addition to the Nets during the regular season and has shown that on the international stage as well going up against the world’s best players.
Bojan, signed by the Nets this summer after a few years of playing in Spain, is also a starter for his Croatian national team, which is 2-1 through three games of the tournament, beating Andray Blatche’s Philippines and Argentina but losing to Senegal by just two points in a game played earlier today.
A big scorer, Bogdanovic dropped 26 in his team’s first game, lighting up the floor with the explosive offensive game the Nets hope he brings to the NBA this fall.
He followed that performance up against the Argentines, scoring 16 and also grabbing seven rebounds to boot. Surprisingly, for the Senegal game, he was moved out of the starting lineup and saw his play suffer, as he made just five of 14 field goals (and went 1-for-7 from three) for 15 points in an inefficient loss.
Finally, Andray Blatche–who somehow was granted Philippine citizenship to play for the national team even though he’s a Syracuse native–has seen his team go 0-2 so far (the Philippines’ game against Argentina is currently in progress). Andray has played well though, as he’s the sole NBAer on the Filipino team and has taken the lion’s share of the offensive burden, averaging 24.5 points through two contests.
Nets fans know well enough that ‘Dray can dominate the ball from time to time–as well as take ill-advised shots–and the international game is the perfect place for him to do that, especially when he’s by far the biggest star on “his” team. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem as if his team is going to last very long in this year’s FIBA World Cup.
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