2015 FIBA Asia Championship

2015 FIBA Asia Championship
28th Asian Basketball Championship
Tournament details
Host nation	China
Dates	23 September – 3 October
Teams	16 (from 45 federations)
Venues	2 (in 1 host city)
Champions	China (16th title)
MVP	Yi Jianlian[1]
Tournament leaders
Players Teams Points Sani Sakakini (22.4)  Chinese Taipei (88.4) Rebounds Sani Sakakini (12.6)  Iran (46.9) Assists Imad Qahwash (6.0)  South Korea (19.7)
Official website
Official website
< 2013 2017 >

The 2015 FIBA Asia Championship for Men was the 28th continental basketball championship in Asia. The tournament was organised by FIBA Asia.

At the FIBA Asia Congress held in Doha, Qatar, the Central Board awarded the hosting rights to China.^[2] On 4 December 2014, the Chinese Basketball Association acquired approval from FIBA Asia to hold the men's championship at Changsha, Hunan, with the women's championship to be held at Wuhan, Hubei.^[3]

As the winner of the tournament, China qualified for the basketball tournament on the 2016 Summer Olympics, while the Philippines, Iran, and Japan will participate at the 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men, as stated by FIBA and the IOC in qualification quota.^[4]

The 2015 edition was the last FIBA Asia Championship, as starting in 2017; it will be rebranded as the FIBA Asia Cup and will now feature teams from FIBA Oceania.

Qualification

According to the FIBA Asia rules, the host nation China and 2014 FIBA Asia Cup champions Iran automatically qualified. East Asia, West Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Persian Gulf each had two berths while Central Asia and South Asia each had one slot allotted. The other four places are allocated to the zones according to performance in the 2014 FIBA Asia Cup. Therefore, with Chinese Taipei, Philippines, Jordan, and Japan finishing in the top four in that tournament other than Iran and China which were both direct qualifiers, East Asia gained another two berths while the Southeast Asia and West Asia gained an additional slot each.

Event	Date	Location	Vacancies	Qualified
Host Nation	24 July 2014	Doha	1	China
2014 FIBA Asia Cup	11–19 July 2014	Wuhan	1	Iran
Central Asian Qualifying Round	27 April 2015	Astana	1	Kazakhstan
East Asian Basketball Championship	Cancelled	N/A	4	South Korea  Chinese Taipei  Japan  Hong Kong
Gulf Basketball Championship[5]	13–20 October 2014	Dammam	2	Qatar  Kuwait
SABA Championship[6]	3–5 July 2015	Bengaluru	1	India
Southeast Asian Basketball Championship	27 April–1 May 2015	Singapore	3	Philippines  Malaysia  Singapore
West Asian Basketball Championship	29 May–3 June 2015	Amman	3	Lebanon  Jordan  Palestine

Venues

Changsha has been chosen by the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) as the host of the men's championship. Changsha Social Work College's gymnasium was chosen as the primary stadium, while Central South University of Forestry and Technology's gymnasium was the auxiliary stadium.^[7]

Draw

The draw was held at Changsha on 27 June 2015. Two teams that were unknown at the date of the draw, the South Asia qualifier and the last remaining team from East Asia were known a short time after.^[8]

The top four teams from 2013 were seeded; all other teams except the host team were drawn. By the time that there were three teams in each group, China chose their group, then the remaining three unseeded teams are drawn.

Included are the teams' FIBA World Rankings on the day the draw was made.

Pot 1 (Seeded teams)	Pot 2 (Unseeded teams)			Pot 3 (Host team)
Chinese Taipei (44)  Iran (17)  Philippines (31)  South Korea (28)	Japan (47)  Jordan (29)  Kazakhstan (53)  Kuwait (70)	Lebanon (34)  Malaysia (T-71)  Palestine (T-86)  Qatar (48)	Singapore (T-88) * South Asian team * East Asian team	China (14)

* Later determined as India (ranked 61st) and Hong Kong (ranked 69th), respectively.

Squads

Each team has a roster of twelve players. A team may opt to allocate a roster spot to a naturalized player.

Tournament format

• Preliminary round: The sixteen teams were grouped into four groups of four. Each team played all of the teams from its group once. The top three teams with the best record advanced to the second round.
• Second round: The qualified teams from groups A and B formed Group E, while those from Groups C and D formed Group F. The results against the teams that had also qualified were carried over. The teams played the teams from the group they had not faced before. The top four teams from each group proceeded to the final round.
• Classification round:
  • Teams eliminated in the preliminary round will figure in a single elimination tournament with consolation games to play for 13th place.
  • Teams eliminated in the second round will figure in a single elimination tournament with consolation games to play for 9th place.
• Final round: The remaining teams shall figure in a single elimination tournament with consolation games. The champion will qualify to the 2016 Summer Olympics. The runner-up, third and fourth placer will qualify to the Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Preliminary round

All times are local (UTC+8).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Iran	3	3	0	296	156	+140	6	Advanced to second round
2	Japan	3	2	1	250	199	+51	5
3	India	3	1	2	233	244	−11	4
4	Malaysia	3	0	3	163	343	−180	3	Proceeded to classification round

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Palestine	3	3	0	250	221	+29	6	Advanced to second round
2	Philippines	3	2	1	284	189	+95	5
3	Hong Kong	3	1	2	216	236	−20	4
4	Kuwait	3	0	3	183	287	−104	3	Proceeded to classification round

Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	China (H)	3	3	0	251	182	+69	6	Advanced to second round
2	South Korea	3	2	1	247	181	+66	5
3	Jordan	3	1	2	225	239	−14	4
4	Singapore	3	0	3	155	276	−121	3	Proceeded to classification round

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Qatar	3	2	1	248	247	+1	5[lower-alpha 1]	Advanced to second round
2	Lebanon	3	2	1	283	247	+36	5[lower-alpha 1]
3	Kazakhstan	3	1	2	214	243	−29	4[lower-alpha 2]
4	Chinese Taipei	3	1	2	232	240	−8	4[lower-alpha 2]	Proceeded to classification round

Second round

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Philippines	5	4	1	433	329	+104	9[lower-alpha 1]	Advance to final round
2	Iran	5	4	1	452	305	+147	9[lower-alpha 1]
3	Japan	5	3	2	360	353	+7	8
4	India	5	2	3	345	411	−66	7[lower-alpha 2]
5	Palestine	5	2	3	345	393	−48	7[lower-alpha 2]	Proceed to classification round
6	Hong Kong	5	0	5	318	462	−144	5

Group F

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	China (H)	5	5	0	414	339	+75	10	Advance to final round
2	Qatar	5	3	2	391	411	−20	8[lower-alpha 1]
3	South Korea	5	3	2	387	339	+48	8[lower-alpha 1]
4	Lebanon	5	2	3	414	411	+3	7[lower-alpha 2]
5	Jordan	5	2	3	374	397	−23	7[lower-alpha 2]	Proceed to classification round
6	Kazakhstan	5	0	5	328	411	−83	5

Classification round

Classification 13th–16th

	13th–16th place semifinals				13th place game
	27 September
	Malaysia	61
					28 September
	Kuwait	83
					Kuwait	69
	27 September
					Chinese Taipei	99
	Singapore	65
	Chinese Taipei	111
					15th place game
					28 September
					Malaysia	59
					Singapore	92

13th–16th place semifinals

15th place game

13th place game

Classification 9th–12th

	9th–12th place semifinals				Ninth place game
	1 October
	Palestine (OT)	83
					2 October
	Kazakhstan	81
					Palestine	82
	1 October
					Jordan	94
	Jordan	82
	Hong Kong	62
					Eleventh place game
					2 October
					Kazakhstan	68
					Hong Kong	62

9th–12th place semifinals

Eleventh place game

Ninth place game

Final round

Bracket

5th place match

5th – 8th place play-offs

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

E1

Philippines

82

F4

Lebanon

70

F4

Lebanon

89

E1

Philippines

81

F2

Qatar

86

E3

Japan

70

F2

Qatar

67

E3

Japan

81

F4

Lebanon

88

E1

Philippines

67

F3

South Korea

87

F1

China

78

F1

China

104

E4

India

58

E4

India

72

F1

China

70

7th place match

F3

South Korea

117

E2

Iran

57

3rd place match

F2

Qatar

84

E2

Iran

75

E3

Japan

63

E4

India

58

F3

South Korea

62

E2

Iran

68

Quarterfinals

5th–8th place semifinals

Semifinals

Seventh place game

Fifth place game

Third place game

Final

Final rankings

	Qualified for the Olympics
	Qualify to Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament as host.
	Qualify to Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament

Rank	Team	Record	FIBA World Rankings
			Before	After	Change
01 !	China	9–0	14	14	0
02 !	Philippines	7–2	31	28	3
03 !	Iran	7–2	17	17	0
4th	Japan	5–4	47	T-48	-1
5th	Lebanon	5–4	34	43	-9
6th	South Korea	5–4	28	30	-2
7th	Qatar	4–5	48	50	-2
8th	India	3–6	61	T-53	8
9th	Jordan	5–3	29	29	0
10th	Palestine	4–4	NR	75	13
11th	Kazakhstan	2–6	53	56	-3
12th	Hong Kong	1–7	69	T-65	4
13th	Chinese Taipei	3–2	44	T-48	-4
14th	Kuwait	1–4	70	69	1
15th	Singapore	1–4	NR	T-82	6
16th	Malaysia	0–5	T-71	67	4

Awards

2015 Asian Champions
China 16th title

• Most Valuable Player: Yi Jianlian^[1]
• All-Star Team:
  • PG – Jayson William
  • SG – Guo Ailun
  • SF – Samad Nikkhah Bahrami
  • PF – Yi Jianlian
  • C – Zhou Qi

Statistical leaders

Player tournament averages

Team tournament averages

Tournament game highs

Category	Player game high	Total	Opponent (date)	Team game high	Total	Opponent (date)
Points
	Samad Nikkhah Bahrami	35	Japan (3 October)	Iran	122	Malaysia (25 September)
Rebounds	Joji Takeuchi	19	India (25 September)  Palestine (28 September)	Iran	64	Malaysia (25 September)
Assists	Kim Tae-sul	12	India (2 October)	South Korea	33	India (2 October)
Steals	Yang Dong-geun	8	Lebanon (27 September)	Japan	20	Malaysia (24 September)
Blocks	Lee Jong-hyun Zhou Qi Yi Jianlian	4	Singapore (25 September)  Lebanon (28 September)  Iran (2 October)	China	8	Singapore (25 September)  Iran (2 October)

Controversies

Rescheduling of Semifinals

There was suspicion and outraged when the organizers decided to move the schedule of the semifinals game between Philippines and Japan from its original schedule of 9:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Many fans believe that this move was a way for the Chinese to procure undue advantage come the gold medal match.^[9][10]

Finals Pregame

A few hours before the championship match, Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas President Manuel V. Pangilinan accused the host country of pulling off shenanigans. He ranted on his Twitter account that electric bus that was to bring the Philippine squad to the game venue was delayed because it failed to charge, which will give them less time to warm up.^[11] He also claimed that not a single ticket was allocated to the SBP by the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), which left members of the Philippine squad coaching staff as well as the group of SBP officials without tickets hours prior to the game. SBP officials claimed it is standard practice for local organizers to allocate tickets for teams playing in the championship.^[12] He also cited that the Chinese players stayed at a different hotel from the players from the other nations, which violates the FIBA rules.^[13] It was also reported that when the Philippine squad finally arrived at the arena, the goal's net where they were shooting was suddenly removed for repair, which gave them even less time to warm up after the delay from the electric bus incident.^[14][15]

Officiating

The officiating of the referees were also held in question by fans and various teams playing against China, especially the games with Jordan, South Korea, Iran and the Philippines.^{[16][17] [18]}

Behavioural issues

There was wide criticism of the rude behavior of the Chinese fans towards visiting teams, in which fans were shouting threats, doing the dirty finger and throwing bottles and paper at the opposing team benches. There were incidents in which foreign fans in the venue were heckled and insulted by Chinese fans while the Chinese Police just stood by.^[19] One particular moment is when Calvin Abueva irritated Chinese supporters after he accidentally bumped Guo Ailun with his shoulder while returning to the bench following his fifth and final personal foul. It was also reported that a Filipino cameraman got involved, too, in a verbal exchange started by a Chinese cameraman.^[20] Filipino veteran sportswriter Quinito Henson added that a Chinese photographer had to be restrained from scuffling with a Filipino lensman for shielding Abueva from crowd abuse.^[21]

Referees

The following referees were selected for the tournament.^[22]

References

External links

• Official website