FIBA Intercontinental Cup pairings drawn in Tenerife

The FIBA Intercontinental Cup official draw ceremony took place on Friday, revealing the path that each of the four trophy contenders will have to navigate in the big tournament set to take place in Tenerife, Spain from February 10-12, 2023.

The first Semi-Final – the game that will raise the curtain on the 32nd edition of the competition on February 10 – will see Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the 2022 NBA G League winners, go up against Brazil’s São Paulo, the 2022 Basketball Champions League Americas champions.

In the second Semi-Final, tournament hosts Lenovo Tenerife, the reigning Basketball Champions League champions, will face off with Tunisia’s US Monastir, the 2022 Basketball Africa League winners.

The winners of the two Semi-Finals will do battle in the Final on Sunday, February 12, with the 3rd-Place Game taking place earlier that day. The venue for all four contests is Pabellón Insular Santiago Martin, which also played host to the 2020 edition of the event, and the exact tip-off times will be confirmed in the coming days.

The ‘Salón Noble’ room in the Cabildo Insular de Tenerife building, adorned with murals that have been declared an Asset of Cultural Interest, provided the spectacular stage for the ceremony.

The list of distinguished attendees included San Cristobal de la Laguna Mayor Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, Sports Director of the Canary Islands Government Manuel Lopez Santana, Cabildo de Tenerife President Pedro Martin Dominguez and Vice-President Enrique Arriaga Alvarez, and Lenovo Tenerife President Félix Hernández.

Meanwhile BCL CEO Patrick Comninos, Spanish Basketball Federation Competitions Director Elisa Aguilar and ACB General Director Jose were on hand to conduct the draw that concluded the ceremony.

Brazil’s Flamengo will be the reigning FIBA Intercontinental Cup champions for another month as they won the previous edition, in February 2022 in Cairo, Egypt. Spanish giants Real Madrid, who have lifted the coveted trophy on five occasions, remain the most successful club in the history of the competition.