The Dominican Republic national basketball team is keeping alive the dream of making it to the Tokyo Olympics 2020. During the FIBA World Cup being played in China, seven direct tickets to the Tokyo Games will be awarded. The DR team has taken the first step forward, by winning its games against Jordan and Germany in the first rounds. The DR is now among the top 16 teams of 32 teams that move to the second round of the World Cup.
The media around the world has applauded the feat of the Dominican team. On its roster were no NBA or European League players, and the team is the shortest of all playing in the World Cup.
Germany has four NBAs on its national team roster — Dennis Schroder, Maxi Kleber, Isaac Bonga and Daniel Theis. The NBA players did not make the difference: the DR defeated Germany 68:70.
Besides its lack of NBA or European League stars, the average height of Dominican players is a mere 194 cm (6’3 inches), according to an AFP press note.
The Dominican team members are playing with heart and many players have a family legacy to defend. Four members of the team are offspring of former outstanding Dominican athletes. FIBA names Ronald Roberts Jr., Dagoberto Peña, Juan Miguel Suero and Ronald Ramón.
The team captain is Victor Liz, who along with Eulis Baez and Ricardo Ramón played with the team in the Spain FIBA World Cup in 2014.
The Dominican national team next faces France, ranked third in the world, on Friday, 5 September at 8:30am. France has NBA players Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum, Frank Ntilikina, and Vincent Poirier on the team.
Follow the story:
Listin Diario
Sport 1
En24
Sport 1
Xinhuanet
Celticswire
NBA
FIBA
Talk Basket
FIBA
FIBA
FIBA
5 September 2019