The long and winding road to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will officially begin on May 13 as the Philippines braces for the upcoming draw for the FIBA Asian Qualifiers.
A total of 16 teams will play, but only seven spots from the Asian region will qualify for the 2027 FIBA World Cup with Qatar, being the host country, given an automatic spot.
“Sana maganda yung makuha nating draw,” said Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas executive director Erika Dy.
All 16 teams will be divided into four groups playing in a home and away format and facing teams belong to their groups in the first two windows. These windows will be in November 2025, February 2026 and July 2026.
The top three teams from each group will then advance to the second round. The teams that will advance in Groups A and C will form Group E while Groups B and D will form Group F. Qatar being the pre-qualified team as host will take one of these spots. All teams will carry over the results they incurred in the first round.
In the second round, there will be two games each per team playing in a home and away format against the other teams coming from the other group. The three windows scheduled in 2026 will be in August and November and the last window will be played in February 2027.
At the end of these two rounds, the top seven teams along with Qatar, will advance to the FIBA 2027 World Cup, which will serve as a qualifying event for the 2028 Olympics.
The top Asian team (not including Oceania teams like Australia and New Zealand) at the end of the 2027 FIBA World Cup will qualify to the Olympics. Such happened to Japan, which emerged as the best Asian team after the 2023 FIBA World Cup which was co-hosted by the Philippines along with Japan and Indonesia.
But to get there, the objective is to qualify to the FIBA World Cup and getting a good break through the draw in the Asian Qualifiers will put the Philippines in a much better position.
Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone is not as excited though on which bracket the Philippines will end up and will deal with whichever squad it’s going to wind up with.
“It’s totally out of control which team is drawn, so there is no anxiousness,” wrote Cone in a text message to Pinoystep.com. “We get who we get and whoever we get, we’ll deal with them.”
