Fans of international basketball, or just the Utah Jazz as a whole, will want to keep an eye out for the beginning of the FIBA World Cup. Right now the tournament is in the preparation stages, allowing teams to gel and find a rhythm with one another before the tournament begins in earnest at the end of the month.
And while the Philippines and Jordan Clarkson are done with their prep games, the Canadians and Kelly Olynyk, Team Italy and Simone Fontecchio, Team Finland, and Lauri Markkanen and Team USA and Walker Kessler still have games to play.
But when those are over, when do our beloved Jazz players and their respective nations begin actual tournament play?
The opening round game for Finland takes place on Aug. 25 and will see Markkanen take on Australia and Josh Giddey. Giddey will be joined by two ex-Jazz players in Dante Exum and Joe Ingles, helping make the team one of the betting favorites to win it all.
Italy opens up on the same date against Angola, a win the Italians need to start the tournament. Lastly, on the 25th, we have the Philippines and Clark taking on Karl Anthony Towns and the Dominican Republic.
Team USA opens up things on the next day, Aug. 26, against New Zealand, who isn’t expected to have a deep run, least of all starting against the USA. Lastly, Team Canada debuts on Sunday, Aug. 27 against Lebanon.
Team Canada is one of the favorites, and like Team USA, start their tournament off on a relatively easy note.
On Aug. 11, 2023, the Utah Jazz announced a partnership with Kiswe, a technology company out of Murray Hill, New Jersey, to create a streaming platform for the Jazz to air their games on. Kiswe is no stranger to developing said services for pro leagues, having worked with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, the Phoenix Mercury, and Suns and also working with the Pro Fighters League as well.
They seem to be a very good partner to have and should develop a platform that fans find engaging and easy to use. There is no timetable for the service just yet, but the early word is that an announcement regarding the release date and the price for the service will be announced sometime in September. It seems like the service should be ready by the start of the regular season.
This will go hand in hand with airing games on KJZZ-TV about airing games over the air as well.
There’s just one problem; streaming is a bubble about to burst. How will that impact the plans the Jazz have with Kiswe? With reports that just about every streaming service, safe for maybe Hulu evidently, is losing money hand over fist, what do the Jazz and owner Ryan Smith really think is going to happen to this venture?
Does he believe it is necessary and is willing to eat any losses that will likely come from this service? If so, no worries. But if he’s hoping to develop this into a new revenue stream, then fans may be out of luck in a few years when it becomes clear that it isn’t worth the money.
