Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — Saudi Basketball Federation is hosting the eighth World Basketball Championship next Friday and Saturday at Jeddah waterfront with the participation of 16 international teams. The event is being supported by that General Sports Authority and the Creative Edge entertainment company.

The 16 teams will compete to win and be in the finals in Utsunomiya, Japan.

It is the 11th and the last tour before choosing teams that will participate in the finals. In Jeddah tour, the prizes are valued at $150,000. The first place winner gets $30,000, the second place is $20,000, the third place is $12,000, the fourth is $8,000 and the fifth is $5,000. However, the amount of all the prizes is $1 million.

The championship officially started in 2012 and played in 11 cities with a tour system. Then, the scores will be collected after the last tour and choosing the best 12 teams for finals. The game was included in 2017 for Olympics and will be in Tokyo for the first time.

The first Saudi team named “Jeddah” will participate in the championship. It ranked 18th worldwide and played two tours. The team won the fourth place in one of them and seventh place in the other one. Currently, it is13th in the overall ranking of world tours. The player of the team Khalid Abdul Jabbar is considered one of the most prominent players of the championship.

Moreover, the committee agreed to include another Saudi team named “Riyadh.” The team will participate for the first time and will be played by Muhammed and Muthanna Almarwani, Marzouk Almowaled and Fahad Alsalik