Dominican National Basketball Team manager Eduardo Najri and coach Kenny Atkinson announced on Monday, 15 June 2015 that a pre-selection of Dominican team members has been made and the players would begin to train with the objective of winning a slot to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Atkinson is the assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks. Najri said they are optimistic that Al Horford of the Atlanta Hawks and University of Kentucky Karl Towns who is expected to turn professional in 2015 will play in the pre-Olympic trial, the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship to be held in Mexico City, opening on 31 August. The top two teams qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics Basketball Tournament. Horford has yet to decide and is now resting after a busy season with the NBA, and Karl Towns will need to have the approval of the team that picks him in the NBA draft on 24 June 2015. In addition to Al Horford, Karl Towns, the list also includes Charlie Villanueva and Francisco Garcia.
The first and last time the DR achieved a slot for the Olympics was in 2003.
In the FIBA Americas Championship the DR (FIBA ranking 20th) will face Mexico (19th), Brazil (9th), Panama (33rd), Uruguay (26th) in a first round, Canada (25th), Puerto Rico (15th), Cuba (58th), Venezuela (27th) and Argentina (3rd) in a second round.
32 players are being assessed and half of them will be taken to train in Atlanta from 3-12 August. After training in Atlanta, the team will return to the DR on 15 August for a series that will be played in Santo Domingo and Santiago against players from Spain’s ACB league. Next it will travel to Puerto Rico to play the Copa Tuto Marchand from 22-27 August and then on 30 August the team will travel to Mexico for the FIBA Americas Championship that opens 31 August through 13 September.
http://www.diariolibre.com/baloncesto/2015/06/16/i1197241_optimismo-reserva-con-participacin-horford-towns.html