International Basketball Week 2023: Schedule, date, where to watch, participating teams, and more explored
The 2023 FIBA Men's Basketball World Cup is slowly approaching as countries prepare their final rosters and teams get a chance to practice during International Basketball Week. Let's take a look at the participating teams, schedules and more.
Team USA and the NBA will be partnering to bring International Basketball Week to Abu Dhabi from Aug. 17-20. Other countries that will participate in the exhibition games will be Lebanon, Egypt and Mexico at the Etihad Arena on Yas Island.
Tickets for those games will range from 48.75 AED ($13 USD) the cheapest to 595 AED ($161.99 USD) the priciest. Lebanon will take on Egypt to tip things off, and the USA will play Germany to finish things off.
Tickets for International Basketball Week in Abu Dhabi are now on sale! 🇩🇪🇬🇷🇺🇸
Other countries will play exhibition games to prepare for the FIBA World Cup. However, not all countries will be in one venue, and games will be spread out across the globe. The participating teams will be Angola, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, China, Cote d'Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Finland and France.
Georgia, Greece, Iran, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, New Zealand, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Serbia, Slovenia, South Sudan, Spain and Venezuela will also play exhibition games for International Basketball Week.
You might also be interested in reading this: Team USA schedule for FIBA World Cup 2023 Tuneup Games: Schedule, dates, timing, roster revealed
Karl-Anthony Towns expresses his excitement to play for the Dominican Republic at International Basketball Week
Part of the highlight of any international tournament is seeing NBA players represent their home countries in hopes of leading them to a gold medal. One of the players who have embraced his identity is Karl-Anthony Towns, who shared his excitement to represent his mother's country.
KAT posted a video on his Instagram about how he's looking forward to playing for the Dominican Republic.
"What's up everyone?" KAT wrote. "I'm checking in real quick with some big, big, big news. I'm so proud to be saying I'll be suiting up soon and representing my roots, the Dominican Republic, again. It's always been bigger than the game - representing my mother's country, my country, the Dominican Republic.
"I can't wait to go suit up again, put that jersey on and play some amazing FIBA World Cup basketball. I'll see you on the court. I'll see you over there in the Philippines."
The Dominican Republic will start its International Basketball Week against Puerto Rico on Aug. 4. Following that, it will have three more exhibition games, facing Latvia, Canada and Spain. KAT is looking forward to leading the country to a significant finish in the Philippines this year.
Also read: FIBA World Cup 2023: All you need to know about Team Dominican Republic