RealGM

EuroLeague never said the players could not play. They said it is up to the EuroLeague teams themselves to decide. So obviously, these federations are just thinking they might be able to play. But the chances EuroLeague teams release players to travel during the week, and to miss EuroLeague games is very small I would think.

So the qualifications for FIBA 2019 started. This is a complete joke, worldwide. I understand that FIBA wants to increase participation and give lesser countries an opportunity, but this system is not a fair representation. It's not fair for the fans, who want to watch their country's best go out and compete. And it's not fair to the guys that are representing their teams, going through the qualifications, only to be replaced by pros if/when they qualify for the FIBA world cup. Essentially, this system only favours countries with no legitimate talent or basketball system in place (Kosovo, Kazakhstan, Chinese Taipei). Not sure what was wrong with the previous system. They could have used it, and simply expanded the number of participating countries for the world cup (which they did). Have the lower tier countries compete for some wildcard spots, and that's that.