FIBA Basketball World Cup begins with Lebanon, Egypt games

The FIBA Basketball World Cup kicks off on Friday, with five of the 32 teams competing hailing from the MENA region - Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon and South Sudan.

The tournament, co-hosted by Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines, will take place from 25 August to 10 September.

Lebanon, which came second in the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup, lost its opening game 70-109 to tournament debutantes Latvia. Despite a late surge from Lebanon, Latvia was able to comfortably secure their first win.

Friday will also see Egypt make its seventh appearance at the FIBA World Cup in a game against Lithuania. Ranked 55 in the world, the young Egyptian side enters the tournament led by new Canadian head coach in Roy Rana and team veterans Amr Abdelhalim, Assem Marei and Anas Mahmoud.

Jordan, which put on a strong performance at the 2022 Asia Cup, is set to face Greece on Saturday. The Jordanian side enters the games off the back of 12 friendly games, where they won five games and lost seven.

Iran will take on Brazil on Saturday in Group G, in which Spain favourites.

The second day of games will also see South Sudan's fledgling squad face Puerto Rico.

The top two teams from the tournament's eight groups will progress to the second round. The bottom two of each group will compete in the Classification Round for spots 17-32.