Montenegro and Côte d’Ivoire became the first two national teams to arrive in the country for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.
Côte d’Ivoire’s men’s national basketball team, known as the Elephants, landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport around 6:00 p.m. A couple of hours later, Montenegro’s national team, led by Nikola Vucevic and referred to as the Black Mountain, also arrived.
These two squads are scheduled to have closed-door tune-up games against Gilas Pilipinas at the Philsports Arena.
Côte d’Ivoire, ranked 42nd in the world, will take on the Filipino team on Friday, while Montenegro, ranked 18th, will have their opportunity on August 20.
Among the notable arrivals so far is Vucevic, who plays for Chicago. The squad also features former Chicago Bull, Marko Simonovic, as part of their lineup.
Montenegro’s roster also includes Kendrick Perry, Igor Drobnjak, Petar Popovic, Vladimir Mihailovic, Andrija Slavkovic, Dino Radoncic, Aleksa Ilic, Nemanja Radovic, Marko Simonovic, and Bojan Dubljevic.
The team aims to rebound from their 25th-place finish in China in 2019.
While Côte d’Ivoire doesn’t have any NBA players, their team is led by three prospects: Vafessa Fofana, Souleyman Diabate, and Maxence Dadiet.
Assemian Moulare, Bazoumana Kone, Nisre Zouzoua, Traore Aboubacar, Mike Fofana, Charles Abouo, Jean-Philippe Dally, Cedric Bah, Amadou Sidibe, and Patrick Tape round out the rest of the squad, hoping to outperform their 29th-place finish in the last World Cup.
In preparation for the global meet, Montenegro played in four tune-up games since August 2. Their participation in the France Summer Tour resulted in a loss to France (80-69) and to Slovenia (104-100). They also joined the City Hall Cup in Georgia, where they defeated Iran (81-66) but fell to Georgia (79-84).
On the other hand, the Elephants engaged in eight tune-up games.
They had impressive wins against Portugal (79-68) and Czech Republic (97-81) during the Torneio Internacional Caracao de Viana, but lost to Jordan (71-74).
They faced Bosnia and Herzegovina in back-to-back road tune-ups and then hosted Guinea, emerging victorious in both matches. Recently, they defeated Lebanon (77-67).
Montenegro will play their games at the SM Mall of Asia Arena and are grouped with Mexico, Egypt, and Lithuania. Meanwhile, Côte d’Ivoire is set to travel to Indonesia this weekend as they are grouped alongside Spain, Iran, and Brazil.
