The 2015 FIBA Asia Championship was the 28th and last edition of the FIBA Asia Championship in men's basketball in Asia. It was organised by FIBA Asia.
At the FIBA Asia Congress held in Doha, Qatar, the Central Board awarded the hosting rights to China. 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.
As the winner of the tournament, China qualified for the basketball tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympics, while the Philippines, Iran, and Japan would participate at the 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men, as stated by FIBA and the IOC in qualification quota.
The 2015 edition was the last FIBA Asia Championship, rebranded effective in 2017 as the FIBA Asia Cup and would include 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 Gulf each had two berths while Central Asia and South Asia each had one slot allotted. The other four berths were 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 QualifiedHost Nation 24 July 2014 Doha 1 2014 FIBA Asia Cup 11–19 July 2014 Wuhan 1 Central Asian Qualifying Round 27 April 2015 Astana 1 East Asian Basketball Championship Cancelled 4 Gulf Basketball Championship 13–20 October 2014 Dammam 2 SABA Championship 3–5 July 2015 Bengaluru 1 Southeast Asian Basketball Championship 27 April–1 May 2015 Singapore 3 West Asian Basketball Championship 29 May–3 June 2015 Amman 3
Venues
Changsha was chosen by the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) as the venue city 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.
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.
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 were drawn.
Included were the teams' FIBA World Rankings on the day the draw was made. Pot 1 (Seeded teams) Pot 2 (Unseeded teams) Pot 3 (Host team) (44) (17) (31) (28) (47) (29) (53) (70) (34) (T-71) (T-86) (48) (T-88) * South Asian team * East Asian team (14)* Later determined as (ranked 61st) and (ranked 69th), respectively.
Squads
Each team had 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 would be in a single elimination tournament with consolation games to play for 13th place. Teams eliminated in the second round would figure in a single elimination tournament with consolation games to play for 9th place. Final round: The remaining teams would figure in a single elimination tournament with consolation games. The champion would qualify to the 2016 Summer Olympics. The runner-up, third and fourth placer would qualify to the Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Preliminary round All times were local (UTC+8).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Second round
Group E
Group F
Classification round
Classification 13th–16th
13th–16th place semifinals
15th place game
13th place game
Classification 9th–12th
9th–12th place semifinals
Eleventh place game
Ninth place game
Final round
Bracket
Quarterfinals
5th–8th place semifinals
Semifinals
Seventh place game
Fifth place game
Third place game
Final
Final standings Qualified for the Olympics Qualify to Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament as host. Qualify to Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament RankTeamRecordFIBA World RankingsBeforeAfterChange 9–014140 7–231283 7–217170 4th 5–447T-48−1 5th 5–43443−9 6th 5–42830−2 7th 4–54850−2 8th 3–661T-538 9th 5–329290 10th 4–4NR7513 11th 2–65356−3 12th 1–769T-654 13th 3–244T-48−4 14th 1–470691 15th 1–4NRT-826 16th 0–5T-71674
Awards
Most Valuable Player: Yi Jianlian All-Star Team: PG – Jayson William SG – Guo Ailun SF – Samad Nikkhah Bahrami PF – Yi Jianlian C – Zhou Qi
Statistical leaders
Player tournament averages
Points Pos. Name PPG1 Sani Sakakini 22.42 Jamal Abu-Shamala 21.53 Trey Johnson 21.14 Amjyot Singh 20.95 Andray Blatche 17.86 Jay Youngblood 17.47 Alex Legion 17.38 Jayson William 16.7 Yi Jianlian10 Makoto Hiejima 15.9
Rebounds Pos. Name RPG1 Sani Sakakini 12.62 Joji Takeuchi 11.93 Delvin Goh 10.44 Anton Ponomarev 9.45 Andray Blatche 9.2 Quincy Davis7 Yi Jianlian 8.88 Jamal Abu-Shamala 8.59 Amjyot Singh 8.3 Zaid Abbas
Assists Pos. Name APG1 Imad Qahwash 6.02 Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 4.83 Yang Dong-geun 5.74 Jerry Johnson 4.55 Guo Ailun 4.06 Chen Shih-chieh 3.6 Wael Arakji8 Trey Johnson 3.39 Makoto Hiejima 3.2 Kim Tae-sul
Steals Pos. Name SPG1 Yang Dong-geun 2.42 Cho Sung-min 2.33 Mehdi Kamrani 2.0 Zaid Abbas 2.05 Alex Legion 1.96 Liu Cheng 1.87 Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 1.78 Makoto Hiejima9 Jamal Abu-Shamala 1.75 Imad Qahwash Blocks Pos. Name BPG1 Quincy Davis 2.22 Zhou Qi 23 Lee Jong-hyun 1.94 Ali Jamal Zaghab 1.45 Yi Jianlian 1.26 Ali Haidar 1.13 7 Amjyot Singh 1.11 Bassel Bawji Andray Blatche 10 Hamed Haddadi 1 Duncan Reid Abdulrahman Aljuma'h Delvin Goh
Other statistical leaders Stat Name Avg.Field goal percentage Quincy Davis 65.0%3-point FG percentage Lu Cheng-ju 55.2%Free throw percentage Jerry Johnson 88.5%Turnovers Amjyot Singh 5.3Fouls Alexandr Zhigulin Abdulrahman Aljuma'h Wei Hong Choo 4
Team tournament averages
Points Pos. Name PPG1 88.42 86.03 85.94 84.15 83.7
Rebounds Pos. Name RPG1 46.92 46.443 46.384 43.45 43.1
Assists Pos. Name APG1 19.72 17.23 15.34 14.85 14.1
Steals Pos. Name SPG1 11.32 9.73 9.44 8.95 8.4
Blocks Pos. Name BPG1 4.92 3.63 3.44 3.25 3.1
Tournament game highs Category Player game high Total Opponent (date) Team game high Total Opponent (date)Points Samad Nikkhah Bahrami 35 (3 October) 122 (25 September)Rebounds Joji Takeuchi19 (25 September) (28 September) 64 (25 September)Assists Kim Tae-sul 12 (2 October) 33 (2 October)Steals Yang Dong-geun8 (27 September) 20 (24 September)Blocks Lee Jong-hyun Zhou Qi Yi Jianlian 4 (25 September) (28 September) (2 October) 8 (25 September) (2 October)
Controversies
Rescheduling of Semifinals There was suspicion and outrage 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.
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 twittered that the delay of the tournament electric bus to bring the Philippine squad to the game venue as it was not charged would give them less time to warm up. He claimed the SBP were not allocated tickets by the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), so the Philippine squad coaching staff and SBP officials were without tickets hours prior to the game although it was standard practice. He also cited that the Chinese players stayed at a different hotel from the players from the other nations, which violates the FIBA rules. 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.
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.
Behavioural issues There was wide criticism of the rude behavior of the Chinese fans were shouting threats towards visiting teams, 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. One particular moment was 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. There was a report that a Filipino cameraman got involved in a verbal exchange with a Chinese cameraman. 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.
Referees The following referees were selected for the tournament.Referees
Duan Zhu Peng Ling Wen Keming Ye Nan Yuen Chun Yip Harja Jaladri Atanu Banerjee Snehal Bendke Ceciline Vincent Amirhossein Safarzadeh Naser Abu Rashed Yuji Hirahara Toru Katayose Arsen Andryushkin Yevgeniy Mikheyev Hwang In-tae Mohammad Al-Amiri Marwan Egho Rabah Noujaim Chan Owe Shiong Ricor Buaron Ferdinand Pascual Anan Daraghma Victor Mah Chen Ying-cheng Chung Yi-chih
References
External links