The Mexican national team will suffer two quite important and sensitive losses in its squad and in their aspirations to be able to qualify for the next Olympic Games in Paris 2024, since for the FIBA Pre-Olympic championship that will be held in Puerto Rico, they will not be able to count on Jaime Jáquez Jr., nor Juan Toscano-Anderson.
The ’12 Warriors’ as the players of the Aztec national team are known, They will debut in training in the search for an Olympic berth on June 17 in the city of Nogales, Sonora, with a squad of 20 players that does not include the Miami Heat forward and the former Golden player. State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz and Sacramento Kings.
One or the other, but not both
Both Jáquez Jr. and Toscano-Anderson aspired to occupy the only available position to play the championship as playing ‘naturalized’, since, according to the regulations implemented by FIBA, the organization allows the registration of only one player of this type in official championships. Jáquez and Toscano share this distinction, since both players were born in the United States and acquired their Mexican passport after they were 16 years old. However, given their current status, the two could not coexist on the team at the same time and that is why the national team coach, Omar Quintero, should choose only one.
🚨 OFFICIAL 🚨
📝 The call for the Mexican Basketball Team heading to the San Juan pre-Olympic tournament that starts next July 2 has been defined. Neither Juan Toscano-Anderson nor Jaime Jáquez Jr. are here 🏀❌🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/EzaH236wWK
— AS México (@ASMexico) June 13, 2024
Through an official press release, the Mexican Basketball Sports Association He explained that Jáquez and Toscano will be taken into account for future calls and will not be excluded from the project led by coach Quintero since 2021.
Jáquez Jr. will be training with Team USA
“He (Jáquez Jr.) had a season with many minutes and games. We have been talking to him. He is committed to being with us. He received an invitation and it was a great decision to go to ‘Team USA’. He is going to be training with the basketball elite in the NBA. This will serve as experience to get to the next season; In addition, he is going to be with his coach (in Miami), Erik Spoelstra. We knew it beforehand. Wish you the greatest success. We hope to see him soon with the national jacket,” explained the coach of the ’12 Warriors’, about the inclusion of ‘Triple J’, as Jaime is known, in the United States practice team who are also preparing for the Games. 2024 Olympics.
The ‘naturalized’ element chosen by the Sonoran coach and former professional player aims to be center Josh Ibarra. Ibarra, one of the most outstanding elements of the National Team in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, began life since the end of last March in the Marinos de Oriente team, a club in the Venezuelan Professional Basketball Super League. The other 19 players of great size and level that appear on the list are key names in Omar Quintero’s process and the 2023 World Cup base: Paul Stoll, Gabriel Girón, Paco Cruz, Fabián Jaimes, Gael Bonilla, Gabriel Girón.
Tour of Mexico against Argentina
The camp will begin on the 17th and on the 20th it will culminate with an inter-squad match. After that, they will be in competition for the last 12 spots for the championship in Puerto Rico, a total of 16 players to begin the three-game preparatory tour against Argentina. The first duel will be in Ciudad Juárez, on June 24; A day later they will face each other again, this time the duel will take place at the Manuel Bernardo Aguirre Gymnasium, in Chihuahua. The tour will culminate in Mexico City, where the ’12 Warriors’ will have new rounds of training before saying goodbye to the Mexican public at the Juan de la Barrera Olympic Gymnasium, on June 29, also with the ‘Albiceleste’ as their rival.
It should be noted that, for this third confrontation, Omar Quintero is expected has already defined the official 12 of the so-called ’12 Warriors’, who will be heading to San Juan, Puerto Rico, on July 1st.
Who will be Mexico’s rivals in the FIBA Olympic Qualifiers?
Mexico will be facing Lithuania and Ivory Coast in group A in the Pre-Olympic tournament; If they reached the next round, they would face a qualifier from group B in the semifinals, made up of Italy, Puerto Rico and Bahrain. If the ’12 Warriors’ emerge victorious from the match, they could face Lithuania again in the grand final for the Olympic pass. Only one of the six teams will win the ticket to Paris 2024.
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