The Greek National Basketball Team arrived Thursday at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport to begin its quest for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Hundreds of eager fans — many of them wearing Giannis Antetokounmpo Milwaukee Bucks jerseys — greeted the players as they arrived and approached “The Greek Freak” to request autographs and take “selfie” photographs.
The FIBA World Cup will begin on August 31, but first the team will compete in another brief eight-team tournament as a final lead up.
From Shanghai, the team heads to the neighboring city of Suzhou, where it will participate in the 2019 Suzhou International Basketball Challenge. The eight teams competing include China, Dominican Republic, Greece, Jordan, Puerto Rico, Senegal, Turkey and Venezuela.
The team’s first opponent during the challenge is Jordan on August 24. Its opponents in the subsequent matches on August 26 and August 27 will depend on the outcomes of other games.
Greece will play on August 26 either for a classification or the semifinal (depending on its outcome against Jordan) against China or the Dominican Republic. On August 27, the group will compete for either its final classification or the final match — i.e. #1 vs. #2 — of the challenge.
On August 28 the team will depart for Nanjing, where it will face Montenegro on September 1, Brazil on September 3 and New Zealand on September 5 — the first round of the World Cup.
The team’s 12-man roster includes: Nick Kalathis, Antonis Koniaris, Evangelos Mantzaris, Giannoulis Larentzakis, Costas Papanikolaou, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Ioannis Papapetrou, Panagiotis Vassilopoulos, George Printezis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ioannis Bourousis and George Papagiannis.
Point guard Kostas Sloukas remains in Athens to continues recovering from a recent injury. His progress is being monitored daily and his return is possible.
The full game schedule is as follows in local time:
2019 Suzhou International Basketball Challenge
The following 12 games will be streamed for free on FIBA’s YouTube channel, the FIBA Facebook channel and the FIBA World Cup Weibo account.
August 23, 2019
Senegal vs. Venezuela (19:30 GMT+8)
Turkey vs. Puerto Rico (19:00 GMT+8)
August 24, 2019
Greece vs. Jordan (20:00 GMT+8)
China vs. Dominican Republic (19:30 GMT+8)
August 25, 2019
Semi Final (15:00 GMT+8)
Classification Game (19:30 GMT+8)
August 26, 2019
Classification Game (19:30 GMT+8)
Semi Final (19:30 GMT+8)
August 27, 2019
Classification Game (13:30 GMT+8)
Classification Game (15:30 GMT+8)
Classification Game (16:30 GMT+8)
Final (19:30 GMT+8)
2019 FIBA World Championship (First Round)
September 1
Greece vs. Montenegro (20:00 GMT+8)
September 3
Greece vs. Brazil (20:00 GMT+8)
September 5
Greece vs. New Zealand (20:00 GMT+8)
Watch the team’s departure from Athens
See photos from the team’s arrival in Shanghai
Photos courtesy of the Hellenic Basketball Federation
