Basketball National teams across the world have been gearing up this Summer to qualify for next Year’s samba-rific fiesta; Rio 2016, the Olympic games.

August

First up “down under”, were the FIBA Oceanic championships where Australia’s men’s and women’s teams qualified for Rio by beating their cross-ocean rivals, New Zealand. The “Tall Blacks” (and “Tall Ferns”) put up spirited efforts but were no match for the NBA & Euroleague stacked Oz men’s team (Dellavedova, Mills, Bogut, Ingles, Jawai etc.)

On the African continent, Nigeria was dominating Afrobasket 2015 on the way to their first ever African continental title. Another great basketball milestone for the Soccer-dominated country. Forward Al-Farouq Aminu formerly of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and Chamberlain Oguchi did a fine job helping their team win in the Final over perennial Basketball powerhouse, Angola.

September

Yet all that was just a taste of what’s to come. This month will showcase most of the best teams on the planet, all with their prime rosters, trying to grab a spot in Rio.
Here is an overview of the month’s major tournaments:

 Aug 29 – Sept 5

 Aug 31 – Sept 12

 Sept 5 – Sept 20

 Sept 23 – Oct 3

4 continental championships, 3 male, 1 female within the span of a Month! Fantastic for any Basketball fan. With much respect to the Americas, where Mexico is going to have to fend off a rejuvenated Team Canada (amongst others) to defend it’s title, and to Asia, where reigning Champ Iran are still looking strong; THE basketball tournament of the year is Eurobasket.

2013 (and First time) European Champion France has been unbeatable in the lead-up to Eurobasket and with stars Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Nicolas Batum and more back, look to be the team to beat. Yet looks can be deceiving. (we see what you did there Spain: adding Nikola Mirotic to your roster; sly)

Don’t take our word for it, let the experts tell you.

Entouragebball will have it’s own breakdown of Eurobasket2015 online before the Championship kicks off this Saturday.
It’s a going to be a great month, hope all your DVR’s are ready.