Slovenia’s Luka Doncic and France’s Rudy Gobert will be among the NBA’s international stars trying to stop the United States from regaining the Basketball World Cup when the event begins on Friday in Asia.

A young USA start the 32-team competition, which is being co-hosted by the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan, as favourites to lift the Naismith Trophy for the first time since 2014.

Spain, who beat Argentina in the final four years ago in China, when the Americans failed to make the podium, have the experienced Rudy Fernandez to lead their title defence.

But fellow veteran Ricky Rubio will be missing after announcing a break from the NBA to “take care of my mental health”.

Read the full story on Times of Malta Sport...

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.