Four Celtics players will be lacing up for their national teams in the FIBA World Cup qualifier games this week. That list includes two-way center Amari Williams (Great Britain), Luka Garza (Bosnia), Hugo Gonzalez (Spain), and Neemias Queta (Portugal).
Amari Williams and the British team will face off against Switzerland on Thursday at 1pm ET. Luka Garza and Bosnia will face off against Italy on Friday at 2pm ET. And, Hugo González and Neemias Queta will battle against one another in Spain-Portugal
on Friday at 3pm ET.
All of the action is to determine which countries will qualify for the 2027 FIBA World Cup, which will take place between August 27 and September 12th in Qatar. In total, 32 teams will qualify: seven teams from FIBA Americas, seven teams from FIBA Asia/Oceana, five teams from FIBA Africa and 12 teams from FIBA Europe. Qatar automatically qualifies as the host nation.
Gonzalez and Garza both partook in qualifying games earlier this summer, with Joe Mazzulla travelling to Spain to watch Gonzalez perform.
“It was cool to just watch him play,” Mazzulla told CelticsBlog in July. “I sat with his family. I wasn’t really critiquing his game; it’s a different game. I got to spend time with their coach, who’s a great coach, and learn from him. It was just an opportunity to just kind of be there for him more than anything else, and watch the game from a different perspective.”
Gonzalez played great in the match-up that Mazzulla watched, tallying 16 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block in 20 mins, while hitting 4 of 7 three-point attempts.
Luka Garza was a standout for Bosnia in July
Luka Garza tallied 16 points and 7 rebounds in Bosnia’s game against Nikola Jokic and Serbia, and erupted for 27 points and 8 rebounds in a loss to Turkey. Both standout performances came with him coming off the bench; he’ll continue his summer run representing Bosnia on Friday against Italy.
Neemias Queta will once again represent Portugal
On the heels of signing a 4-year, $56 million extension with the Celtics, Neemias Queta will once again represent Portugal in national team action. Queta was a standout last summer at EuroBasket, averaging 15.5 points and 8 rebounds per game as Portugal’s starting center. Now, he’ll rejoin his national team for the FIBA World Cup qualifiers, and face off against Celtics teammate Hugo Gonzalez in his first game with Portugal.
FIBA Europe World Cup qualifying standings
36 European countries are competing in the Europe World Cup qualifying tournament, and 12 will ultimately qualify. Here’s where those countries currently stand.
Group I
1. Spain 5-1
2. Ukraine 4-2
3. Montenegro 4-2
4. Portugal 3-3
5. Greece 3-3
6. Georgia 3-3
Group J
1. Turkey 6-0
2. Italy 5-1
3. Serbia 4-2
4. Lithuania 3-3
5. Iceland 3-3
6. Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-4
Group K
1. Poland 6-0
2. Croatia 5-1
3. Germany 5-1
4. Latvia 3-3
5. Netherlands 2-4
6. Israel 2-4
Group L
1. France
2. Finland
3. Estonia
4. Sweden
5. Slovenia
6. Hungary
