On Tuesday, the World Cup named after James Naismith, who is considered the inventor of basketball, will land in Israel. Israel is the first of 80 countries to participate in the 2023 World Cup qualifiers, across four continents, which will be visited by the prestigious trophy.
The match between Israel and Poland on Thursday will be the first in which the trophy will be placed, out of dozens of games that will take place in the November window and the crowd that arrives at the Shlomo team hall will be able to be photographed with the trophy placed before the game and at the break.
The Naismith trophy was first hoisted at the 2019 World Cup in China, when Spain won it. It is 60 cm high and weighs 7.5 kg. The trophy is made almost entirely of gold and has Egyptian geometric markings. The trophy will be accompanied by a FIBA representative. That in the next two years he will move with him between most of the countries participating in the early games and later between the 32 countries that will qualify for the games themselves. From Israel, the Golden Cup went to Klaipeda in Lithuania, where he will be represented in the match between the local team and Bulgaria, from there to Istanbul for Turkey's match against Great Britain, and the November window will end in Spain, which will host Georgia.
The Basketball Association stated: "We see great honor in the fact that the trophy comes to Israel first of all the countries participating in the qualifiers. This decision by FIBA testifies to the status of Israeli basketball in the world and the status of the Israeli Basketball Association In Israel the European Women's Championship.
Of course we are not satisfied with the visit of the trophy and the big goal of the Israeli team is to qualify for the World Cup games that will take place in the summer of 2023 in Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan. "