Pau Gasol congratulates Gilas; World Cup tickets now on sale

MANILA, Philippines – Pau Gasol of FIBA World Cup host Spain has congratulated the top three Asian teams – Iran, Philippines and South Korea – before the gold medal match was played Sunday night.

Gasol, who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA, offered his congratulations on his Twitter account (@paugasol).

Iran beat FIBA Asia host Gilas Pilipinas, 85-71, to win its third Asian championship while South Korea earned the last ticket to Spain next year with a 75-57 rout of Chinese Taipei in the bronze medal match.

The FIBA World Cup will be held from August 30 to Sept. 14 next year in Spain.

Six different cities were tapped to host the world conclave with the gold medal and bronze matches to be played in Madrid.

The preliminaries will be played in Bilbao, Sevilla, Granada and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria while the final round will be in Barcelona and Madrid.

As of now, only five teams including the top three Asian teams are assured of slots in the 24-team field.  

Spain, being the host country, and USA, being the defending champion, are the other two teams assured of World Cup berth.

Three teams will be coming from Africa, six from Europe, two from Oceania and four from the wild cards. 

Tickets to the games are now on sale on FIBA.com official website.