Rahul Sharma (Editor)

1997 Tournament of the Americas

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Host nation
  
Uruguay

Venues
  
1 (in 1 host city)

Dates
  
21−31 August

1997 Tournament of the Americas

Teams
  
10 (from 42 federations)

Champions
  
United States (3rd title)

The 1997 Tournament of the Americas, known now as the FIBA Americas Championship, was a basketball championship hosted by Uruguay from 21 to 31 August 31 1997. The games were played in Montevideo. This FIBA Americas Championship was to earn the four berths allocated to the Americas for the 1998 FIBA World Championship in Athens, Greece. The United States won the tournament, the country's third Americas championship.

Contents

Qualification

Eight teams qualified during the qualification tournaments held in their respective zones in 1997; two teams (USA and Canada) qualified automatically since they are the only members of the North America zone.

  • North America:  Canada,  United States
  • Caribbean and Central America: Cuba,  Dominican Republic,  Mexico,  Puerto Rico
  • South America:  Argentina,  Brazil,  Uruguay,  Venezuela

    • The draw split the tournament into two groups:

    Format

  • The top four teams from each group advance to the quarterfinals.
  • Results and standings among teams within the same group are carried over.
  • The top four teams at the quarterfinals were granted berths in the 1998 FIBA World Championship. Since the United States were already qualified as Olympic Champions, should they reach one of the top four places in the quarterfinals, the fifth team on the final standings was given the remaining berth.
  • The top four teams then played an extra match to define the first six places in the final standings (1 vs. 2 for first place, 3 vs. 4 for third place and 5 vs. 6 for fifth place).

    • Quarterfinal Group

    The top four teams in both Group A and Group B advanced to the quarterfinal group. Then each team played the four from the other group once to complete a full round robin. Records from the preliminary groups carried over. The top four teams advanced to the semifinals. The fifth-place team (Cuba) did not continue competing for the Americas Championship, but qualified for the 1998 FIBA World Championship.

    References

    1997 Tournament of the Americas Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA