The 2019 FIBA World Cup draw takes place on Saturday, March 16 at Shenzhen Cultural Center in Shenzhen, China.
The draw will determine what groups the 32 participating nations will play in and who they'll face in the tournament which will run from August 31 to September 15.
The 32 nations that qualified for the 2019 FIBA World Cup are:
Africa (5): Angola, Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia
Americas (7): Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, USA, Venezuela
Asia (8): China (host), Australia, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Korea, New Zealand, Philippines
Europe (12): Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey
The FIBA World Cup draw will be shown via livestream here, starting 6:45 p.m.
Former Lakers star and international basketball icon Kobe Bryant is headlining the draw festivities, along with World Cup Ambassador Yao Ming and American best-selling singer/songwriter Jason Derulo .
Also expected to grace the event are FIBA President Horacio Muratore, FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis, representatives from the 32 participating national teams and high-ranking officials from the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) and the eight host cities.
What is the procedure of the draw?
The 32 teams have been distributed into eight pots of four teams each, based on the NIKE FIBA World Ranking Men.
As tournament hosts, China has the right to be placed in Pot 1, along with the top three teams in the world: USA (1), Spain (2) and France (3).
The 28 remaining teams owe their places in pots 2 through to 8 to their position in the Ranking, with one exception.
A change has been made to avoid having two teams from the Americas in the same group. As already four of them - Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, USA and Venezuela - will be drawn in Groups A, C E and G, Canada have been moved from Pot 5 to Pot 6, switching places with Iran, the best ranked team from that pot.
Here are the 🎱 pots! Find out the final groups tomorrow during the #FIBAWC draw!
— Basketball World Cup (@FIBAWC) March 15, 2019
🔍 For the complete draw procedures: https://t.co/UHfgfZI2x1 pic.twitter.com/rI1MWpYmRq
The 32 teams will be drawn across eight groups (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H) consisting of four teams each.
In order to balance the quality of the groups - not only in the First Round but also in the Second Round of the Group Phase - the following will apply:
Pots 1, 4, 5 and 8 will feed Groups A, C, E and G;
Pots 2, 3, 6 and 7 will feed Groups B, D, F and H;
Group A will cross with Group B, C with D, E with F and finally Group G with Group H;
Teams will be drawn and placed in the first available group as per the groups' alphabetical order;
Finally, after each team is drawn into a group, its position into the group will also be drawn, defining the order of games in the respective group in the Group Phase.
Pot 1 - The 4 teams (China, USA, Spain, France) will be assigned to Groups A, C, E and G. As agreed with the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), the Host China will be placed into Group A in Beijing and reigning world champions USA will be allocated to Group E in Shanghai;
Pot 2 - The 4 teams (Serbia, Argentina, Lithuania, Greece) will feed into Groups B, D, F and H, with a straight draw;
Pot 3 - The 4 teams (Russia, Australia, Brazil, Italy) will also feed into Groups B, D, F and H. Brazil cannot be drawn in the same group as Argentina;
Pot 4 - The 4 teams (Puerto Rico, Turkey, Dominican Republic, Venezuela) are drawn into Groups A, C, E and G. The 3 American teams - Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Venezuela - cannot be drawn in the same group as the USA;
Pot 5 - The 4 teams (Germany, Canada, Czech Republic, Poland) will be distributed into Groups A, C, E and G; Iran cannot be drawn in the same group as China;
Pot 6 - The 4 teams (Iran, Montenegro, Philippines, Korea) will feed into Groups B, D, F and H. Canada cannot be drawn in the same group as either Argentina or Brazil, while the Philippines and Korea cannot be placed in the group with Australia;
Pot 7 - The 4 teams (Nigeria, Senegal, New Zealand, Angola) feed into Groups B, D, F and H. New Zealand cannot be drawn in a group with other Asian teams;
Pot 8 - This will conclude the draw with the distribution of the last 4 teams (Japan, Jordan, Tunisia, Cote d'Ivoire) into the remaining groups. In this pot, Japan and Jordan cannot be drawn in the same group as either China or Iran.
The draw will be complete once all 32 teams have been drawn into the eight groups and following the determination of their group number as well as the order of games for the Group Phase.
Each group has already been assigned to a specific host city:
Group A - Beijing
Group B - Wuhan
Group C - Guangzhou
Group D - Foshan
Group E - Shanghai
Group F - Nanjing
Group G - Shenzhen
Group H - Dongguan
Information from FIBA was added to this report.