The Road to Gold Medal

If Gilas Pilipinas will be able to enter the FIBA Asia Cup, there are stages they have to go through to achieve the Gold Medal. Gilas Pilipinas is currently # 1 in Group A standings of the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers. 

Their remaining games are against South Korea and Indonesia which will take place in Clark, Pampanga. The Philippine team will face their rival, South Korea, twice in the upcoming 3rd window. The last window which supposed to occur last February was postponed due to the rise of the Covid-19 case. The Philippine government has agreed to hold the 2021 FIBA Asia Qualifying tournament on June 16-20. 

The top 2 squads from each group will qualify for the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup. The six 3rd place teams from each group qualify to play in a final qualifying tournament. And the top 4 teams from this tournament, will take part in the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup. 

16 combined teams from Asia and Oceania will compete in the contest. In the group phase, the 16 teams will be divided into four groups of four teams, with each team playing the other three squads in their group.  

The top teams will qualify for the quarterfinals and the second team from each batch will each play an elimination game against the third team from another group. The four winning teams will enter the quarterfinals. 

The four victors from the quarterfinals, will then play the two semi-final round.   

The two winners of the semi-finals will play the FIBA Asia Cup final. While, the two losing teams will play for the 3rd place. 

Gilas has not won a Gold Medal in the FIBA Asia Cup since 1985. They had a chance to break the drought in 2013 and 2015, but they failed because they lost to Iran and China in the Gold Medal game.