USA Men’s National Team Preparation For FIBA World Championship To Include Exhibition Games In New York, Madrid, And Athens

USA Basketball Men’s National Team, in preparation for the Aug. 28-Sept. 12 FIBA World Championship, will play four world basketball powers in exhibition games during the newly launched 2010 Global Community Cup Tour, USA Basketball announced today.

USA Basketball officially announced its complete domestic and international training and exhibition game plans for the 2010 USA Men’s National Team. The Americans will face France at Madison Square Garden in New York on Aug. 15, meet Lithuania on Aug. 21 and Spain on Aug. 22 in Madrid, Spain, and play Greece in Athens on
Aug. 25.

All of these “friendlies” are part of the new Global Community Cup, which will include all USA Basketball exhibition games played outside of formal international competitions. Along with the games, the Global Community Cup features a social responsibility element that will highlight USA Basketball’s commitment to giving back to the communities they touch, in the U.S. or abroad

“We set out to establish a very challenging lineup of exhibition opponents for our 2010 USA National Team Tour and we have accomplished that. In order to get our team as best prepared as possible for the 2010 World Championship we believe it is important to face top competition in challenging settings. In facing France in New York, Spain in Madrid, Greece in Athens and Lithuania in Spain, not only will we be facing formable teams that rank #3 (Spain), #4 (Greece), #6 (Lithuania) and #15 (France) in the FIBA world rankings , but we’ll also be playing two of those teams in their home country,” said Jerry Colangelo, USA Basketball chairman.

“I’m sure these four exhibition games will be exciting and memorable events for all basketball fans. As we begin the building of our National Team for 2010-12, the first year is critical and in looking at our training and exhibition schedule this summer, we will face some very talented teams. France, Lithuania, Spain and Greece are all World Championship medal contenders and the training and the exhibition games that are ahead for the USA team will be critical to our preparations for the World Championship,” said USA and Duke University head coach Mike Krzyzewski.

USA Basketball previously announced that the USA National Team will open its 2010 training with a July 19-24 team training camp in Las Vegas. That camp will culminate with the 2010 USA Basketball Showcase, a Blue-White intra-squad game that will be held on Saturday, July 24, 7 p.m. (PDT) at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of UNLV. The USA training camp will also feature daily practice sessions from 12-3 p.m. (PDT) July 20-23 at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion. Tickets are now on sale for the 2010 USA Basketball Showcase. Tickets are priced $75, $50, $35 for plaza seats and $18 and $12 for balcony and can be purchased by calling 866-388-FANS or on line at www.UNLVtickets.com.

Reassembling Aug. 9 in New York and training Aug. 10-11 at John Jay College, the USA National Team will be a prominent part of the first ever World Basketball Festival, which is being held by Nike and USA Basketball in New York City Aug. 12-15. The World Basketball Festival officially tips off on Aug. 12 when the U.S. team takes part in a special showcase in an unprecedented open-air setting in Times Square on Aug. 12

Following practice on Aug. 13, the team will travel to Springfield, Mass., to participate in the 2010 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony. Training Aug. 14 at Madison Square Garden, the USA will cap its week of training and the World Basketball Festival with an exhibition double-header at Madison Square Garden The USA will face France (1 p.m. EDT) in the first exhibition game, while China will meet Puerto Rico (3:30 p.m. EDT) in the second contest. Tickets for the exhibition double-header go on sale June 11 and are available on the web at www.Ticketmaster.com and www.thegarden.com, by phone at 1-800-4-NBA-TIX, and at the Madison Square Garden box office.

Following a practice in New York on Aug. 16, the USA’s training moves to Madrid. Training Aug. 17-20, the USA will play Lithuania on Aug. 21 (9 p.m. local time), then face defending World Champion Spain on Aug. 22 (9 p.m. local time). Both Madrid exhibition games are part of the 2010 Global Community Cup and will be played at La Caja Mágica. Tickets are on sale now and available online at http://www.entradas.com/entradas/comprar-global_community_cup.

The U.S. will resume its training Aug. 24 in Athens, and will meet Greece on Aug. 25 (9 p.m. local time) in the final 2010 Global Community Cup exhibition game at OAKA Arena.