Jordan Clarkson comments on facing off with his teammate Simone Fontecchio

Jordan Clarkson and Simone Fontecchio face off to close round one of the FIBA World Cup.

Jordan Clarkson and Simone Fontecchio are going to be teammates come October, as both men report back to the Utah Jazz to begin their quest for the 2024 NBA Championship. Until then, however, they’re opponents. Clarkson and Fontecchio are the faces of their respective countries at the moment, with Clarkson leading Team Philippines and Fontecchio leading Team Italy through the FIBA World Cup.

Combined, they are 1-3, however, and they could both be looking at less-than-desirable competition the rest of the tournament should Italy fall to the Philipines in the final game of their respective group play. Should Italy lose, they’re out of the tournament and will go on to play ranking games for the remainder of the events.

The Philipines are just about heading that way, having played valiantly against the Dominican Republic and losing against a beatable Angola in back-to-back games.

Now, however, Clarkson and the Philipines are playing for their FIBA lives against Fontecchio and Team Italy. Speaking to the press (viaSports Illustrated) before the game against Angola, Clarkson spoke about how tough Italy is; a team they now have to beat, just to have a chance to move on, saying;

"I haven’t seen really much but I got a chance to watch the game before ours in the back so — he’s doing a great job over there. Italy is really good. They come out with skill and talented players all the time. Definitely a good game, looking forward to those."

If the Philipines beat Italy, they’ll have four points, same as Italy, and would hold the tie-breaker to move on to round two. So the Philipines have a shot. However, if Angola somehow beats the Dominican Republic, the Philipines would be eliminated; as they’d have more points than the Philipines.

Italy can move on by beating the Philipines. If Angola somehow beats the Dominican Republic, and Italy wins against the Philipines, then it’s going to be chaos to see who moves on.