Qualification (left) and
Javier Mojica during a February 2022 qualifying game at
Entertainment and Sports Arena basketball in 2023 World Cup Qualifiers As co-hosts, the
Philippines and
Japan each got an automatic qualification for the tournament when they were awarded joint hosting rights along with co-host Indonesia. However, Indonesia's host qualification slot was conditional, as FIBA wanted the
Indonesian national team to be competitive by 2021 and thus required Indonesia to qualify for and finish in the top-eight (advance to the quarter-finals) of the
2022 FIBA Asia Cup (postponed from 2021). Indonesia officially qualified for the Asia Cup as host and advanced from the
preliminary round-robin round, but lost to China in the
playoff round (round of 16) and were therefore unable to secure qualification for their hoped-for FIBA Basketball World Cup debut. This was the first time in the FIBA Basketball World Cup history that a host nation did not qualify. 80 teams from four FIBA zones qualified for the World Cup qualifiers through qualification for the FIBA Continental Cups (
AfroBasket 2021,
2022 FIBA AmeriCup,
2022 FIBA Asia Cup, and
EuroBasket 2022). For Europe and the Americas, additional teams qualified through the pre-qualifiers of the said regions. The participants of both the AfroBasket and the Asia Cup comprised the teams that also took part in the qualifiers for their respective regions. The first game of the qualifiers took place in
Minsk on 25 November 2021 between
Belarus and
Turkey, as part of the
European Qualifiers. The draw for the World Cup qualifiers was held at the Patrick Baumann House of Basketball in
Mies, Switzerland, on 31 August 2021. The first round of the Americas, Asia/Oceania, and Africa qualifiers featured 16 teams each, whereas Europe had 32 teams. Division A teams were split into groups of four, to be held in a home-and-away round-robin. The top three teams in each group advanced to the second round. In round two of the World Cup qualifiers, teams were split into six groups, totaling four groups in Europe and two in the other qualifiers. Teams carried over the points from round one, and faced the other three teams again in a home-and-away round-robin. The best teams in each group qualified for the World Cup. No wild card selection was held, and the Olympic champions (
United States) were not guaranteed a spot in the tournament. The complete field of 32 teams that participated in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 was determined on 27 February 2023 at the conclusion of the sixth window of qualifiers.
Qualified teams On 28 August 2022,
Finland and the
Ivory Coast became the first teams to qualify from Europe and Africa, respectively. The following day,
New Zealand became the first Asian team outside of hosts Japan and the Philippines to qualify for the tournament. Finland made their second World Cup appearance after their debut at the
2014 edition in Spain. On 10 November 2022,
Canada became the first team from the Americas to qualify. Alongside Finland,
Slovenia,
Egypt, and
Mexico returned to the World Cup since the
2014 edition after notably missing the
2019 tournament in China.
Lebanon returned to the World Cup after participating in the
2010 edition, while
Latvia,
South Sudan, and
Georgia all made their FIBA Basketball World Cup debut.
Cape Verde also qualified for their first World Cup, becoming the smallest nation in tournament history to qualify.
Brazil and the
United States also secured qualification for the tournament, continuing their streaks of participating in all World Cups since its inception in
1950. Days before the second window of the
Asian Qualifiers,
South Korea withdrew from the tournament due to one of its players, scheduled to join the team in its second window campaign, testing positive for COVID-19. The
Korea Basketball Association made an appeal to FIBA to justify its non-appearance in the qualifiers but was rejected. Notable countries in Africa also failed to make the World Cup, including two-time reigning
AfroBasket champions
Tunisia, which made the last three World Cups prior to 2023 (
2010,
2014, and
2019),
Senegal, which qualified for the 2014 and 2019 editions, and
Nigeria, who was the lone African nation to qualify for the
2020 Summer Olympics in
Tokyo. The qualified teams, listed by region, with numbers in parentheses indicating final positions in the
FIBA Men's World Ranking before the tournament were: ;
Africa (5) • (41) • (64) (debut) • (55) • (42) • (62) (debut) ;
Americas (7) • (13) • (15) • (23) • (31) • (20) •
United States (2) • (17) ;
Asia and Oceania (8) • (3) • (27) • (22) • (36) (co-hosts) • (33) • (43) • (26) • (40) (main hosts) ;
Europe (12) • (24) • (5) • (32) (debut) • (11) • (9) • (10) • (29) (debut) • (8) • (18) • (6) • (7) • (1)
Draw , at the
Bonifacio Global City in
Taguig, Philippines. The draw was held on April 29, 2023 The draw took place on 29 April 2023 at the
Araneta Coliseum in
Quezon City, Philippines, at 19:30
PHT. FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Global Ambassador
Luis Scola (Argentina) and 2011 NBA champion
Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) led the draw ceremony, along with Local Ambassadors from the three host nations:
2014 Philippine World Cup team member
LA Tenorio and
Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray (Philippines), former national team member and current president of
Levanga Hokkaido Takehiko Orimo (Japan), and actor
Raffi Ahmad (Indonesia). American rapper and singer
Saweetie and Filipino artists
Billy Crawford and
Sarah Geronimo performed during the draw. The remaining 28 teams were allocated Pots 2 to 8 based on the February 2023 FIBA World Ranking, with co-host
Japan placed in Pot 7. Furthermore, the three host countries were given the privilege to select a team each to host in the group stage. The United States were selected to play in the Philippines,
Slovenia in Japan, and
Canada in Indonesia. FIBA cites "commercial reasons" for the selection which it says would not affect the draw process. The draw consisted of two clusters of pots. Teams in Pots 1, 3, 5, and 7 were drawn into Groups A, C, E, and G, while teams in Pots 2, 4, 6, and 8 were placed into Groups B, D, F, and H. Teams from confederations of
Africa,
Americas,
Asia and
Oceania would not be allowed to be drawn against other members of their confederation in the group stage. Additionally, each group contains at least one team from
Europe, but no more than two. As such, it's known that
Montenegro and
Mexico were drawn to the same group, so were
Spain and
Brazil since Greece, Germany, and Italy from Pot 3 could not be drawn with Spain.
Seeding The seeding was confirmed on 21 April 2023. ;Groups A, C, E, and G ;Groups B, D, F, and H
Squads Each team has a final roster of 12 players; a team can opt to have one
naturalized player as per
FIBA eligibility rules from its roster. ==Venues==