FEBRUARY 19, 2019
SHENZHEN (China) - American best-selling singer/songwriter Jason Derulo will team up with global sporting icon Kobe Bryant to headline a star-studded show when the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Draw, presented by Wanda, takes place on Saturday, March 16, in the Chinese city of Shenzhen (18:30 local time/GMT +8).
Bryant, who was unveiled as a global ambassador of FIBA's flagship competition in October, will carry out the Draw, while Derulo - who has sold over 50 million singles worldwide, racked up over two billion views on YouTube and 1 billion plays on Spotify - will perform his biggest hits throughout the much-anticipated event, the highlight of a week-long celebration of basketball in one of the eight host cities of the biggest FIBA World Cup to date.
The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Draw will take place in Shenzhen Bay Arena and, for the first time ever, the event will be open to the public. Tickets will go on sale on Wednesday, February 20 (10:00 local time/GMT +8), on Damai.cn (click here for Chinese), with prices ranging from RMB 280 to 1080.
Yao Ming - like Bryant, a World Cup global ambassador - will be among a host of stars and distinguished guests on hand to witness this important milestone on the Road to China 2019, which sets out the path for the 32 participating teams in their journey to be crowned world champions. The draw procedures will be made public in the days leading up to the event.
Prior to the Draw, the sixth and final window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 Qualifiers takes place from February 21-26 to finalize the 32-team field, as 26 countries battle for the final 14 places still on offer.
These final 14 sides will join the 18 participating teams that are already known:
Tournament hosts: China
Africa: Angola, Nigeria, Tunisia
Americas: Argentina, Canada, USA, Venezuela
Asia: Australia, Korea, New Zealand
Europe: Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Spain, Turkey
All media representatives, both Chinese and international, wishing to attend the Draw must apply via the FIBA Media Portal. The application period will open on Monday, February 18, and close on Monday, March 4. For any additional information, please visit the FIBA Media Center.
About FIBA
FIBA (fiba.basketball) - the world governing body for basketball - is an independent association formed by 213 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognised as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
For further information about FIBA, visit fiba.basketball or follow FIBA on facebook.com/fiba, twitter.com/fiba, instagram.com/fiba and youtube.com/fiba.
Tweet us @FIBA_media
For Further Information please contact:
Patrick Koller
Communications Director
Route Suisse 5
1295 Mies
Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 545 00 00
Fax: +41 22 545 00 99
Email: communications@fiba.basketball
Web: WorldCup@basketball
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