The pandemic has once again disrupted the Asian basketball scene.
The second window of the 2023 Basketball World Cup qualifiers and the Asian region will be played on February 24-28, but the Korean men's basketball team has encountered problems.
The latest news on February 22, the South Korean men's basketball team withdrew from the second window, which means that their four games at this stage will all be judged to be 0-20 losses, and their record will also be 0-4 losses.
Why is South Korea withdrawing? Or the epidemic problem.
The epidemic has previously affected South Korea's KBL league, on the 22nd, 17 new positive cases were confirmed, and a total of 108 people have been confirmed, including 83 players and 25 coaches.
The Korean men's basketball team began from the training camp, many people tested positive, and Luo Jian'er and Kim Jong-kyu were diagnosed successively. The squad was then adjusted from 14 to 16, and then confirmed again, at least 10 remaining. In addition, some people who participated in the training session were diagnosed, making other members unsafe.
South Korea was once prepared for a 10-man expedition, which was not in line with the rules, but FIBA also allowed this and could add to the list. But in the end, South Korea decided to withdraw.
The first stage of the World Preliminary Tournament in South Korea is in the same group as the Philippines, New Zealand and India, and according to the schedule, in the second window, they will go to Manila and face the Philippines, New Zealand, India and the Philippines on the 24th, 25th, 27th and 28th.
According to the rules of the competition, the top three in each group advance to the next stage. South Korea's opt-out now means that these four games are all lost, 0-4 records. However, there is no need to worry too much, in the third stage of June, they can win more than 20 points over India, and they can also get the third place. However, it should be noted that the results of the first stage after qualifying should be brought to the second stage, which will affect the exit of South Korea, and it can be said that it will be fatal to the second stage.
This is not the first time that the epidemic has affected the Asian basketball world, and the Chinese men's basketball team has also been fined and deducted points because of the epidemic and did not participate in the Asian preliminaries in November 2020. Chinese Taipei also announced its withdrawal from the Asian Preliminary Round in February 2021 because of the lack of people, but fortunately, it was postponed later, and they did not withdraw.
Today, the epidemic is still serious, which is really fatal for this kind of intercontinental qualifier, but this situation in South Korea is also due to their own lack of attention, after all, the KBL league is also affected by the epidemic.