NBA guard set to suit up for the country in third window of qualifiers

Simba FrenchSend an emailMay 23, 2022 116 2 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email

The Bahamas’ senior men’s national basketball team will get a boost at the shooting guard position for its upcoming fixtures as Indiana Pacers sharp shooter Chavano “Buddy” Hield will play. He confirmed that he will suit up for The Bahamas in July.

Hield made the announcement after tryouts for his Buddy Buckets Bahamas AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) team this past Saturday. He kept it short when reporters asked him about playing this summer.

“Oh yes. I will play this summer,” he simply said.

The last time Hield played for The Bahamas was in the third window of the 2019 FIBA (International Basketball Federation) Basketball World Cup Americas Qualifiers back in June 2018. The Bahamas split two games.

It is unclear if the other two Bahamian National Basketball Association (NBA) players – Charlotte Hornets’ Kai Jones and Phoenix Suns’ DeAndre Ayton will play on the team this summer.

The Bahamas is set to play in the third window of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup Americas Qualifiers in July.

They will play against the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) on Friday, July 1 at the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) Sports and 

Fitness Center in St. Thomas, USVI. The two teams met in February of this year with The Bahamas beating the USVI 86-74. Willis Mackey led The Bahamas with 25 points in that game.

The Bahamas is in Group C with Canada, the Dominican Republic and the USVI. After four games, The Bahamas sports a 1-3 win/loss record with its only victory coming against the USVI. Canada leads the group with a perfect 4-0 record while the Dominican Republic has a 3-1 win/loss record. The USVI is still looking for its first win of the tournament.

Following the USVI game, the team will fly home to play the Dominican Republic at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs Gymnasium on Monday, July 4. The last time these two teams faced each other, back in February, the Dominican Republic won 90-65. Travis Munnings led the way for the Bahamians with 16 points in that game.

The Bahamas finished its two-game series against Canada in November 2021. It was a rough start for the Bahamian squad as they lost the first game 115-73, and lost the second game 113-77.

The top three teams from this group will advance to the second round of the Americas Qualifiers. They will join other teams to create two six-team groups. The Bahamas needs to hold off the USVI to lock up the third position.

In the second round, each team in a group will play home-and-away series against the three new teams in the group over three windows. The second-round windows are scheduled for this year August and November with the final window to be held in February 2023. Each team will play two games in each window.

At the end of these additional six games per team, the top three teams in each group, plus the best fourth placed team, will qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.

The FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 is set to be held in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia – August 25 to September 10, 2023.