JORGE BRIONES
PHOTO: Courtesy | @mexbasquet
The historical Mexico’s win over the United States in the Qualifier FIBA heading to the 2023 World Cup, puts him in a select group where only they were Argentina and France, two other powers of “burst sport”. The national representative became the third who manages to beat him on more than one occasion to USA Basketball so far in the 21st century.
The first occasion was in the previous World Cup Qualifier, which was in China 2019, where the then team led by the Puerto Rican Iván Déniz did the feat. On that occasion the ’12 Guerreros’ featured its main figures of the last period such as Gustavo Ayón and Paco Cruz.
Last night in Chihuahua, Mexico repeated the dose to the quintet of the Bars and the stars with veterans of that same generation such as Orlando Méndez, Gabriel Girón and Paul Stoll leading the now team of Omar Quintero.
Although in neither of the two opportunities USA He had his figures that shine in the NBA, it is still a great achievement to beat the highest power in basketball worldwide. It should be noted that in the qualifier they are presented with elements that the NBA G-League and some who already have participation in the best league in the world.
The only countries that had defeated the former ‘DreamTeam’ at least twice so far in the 21st century were Argentina and France.
The South Americans did it in the semifinals of the Athens Olympics 2004, the 2002 World Cup and the Qualifying for the 2019 World Cup.
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While France did the same in the 2019 World Cup and a few months ago at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
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