REGENSBURG (David Hein's Eye on the Future) - The 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup will be a showcase of the best players in the world. It will also serve as a proving ground for more than a handful of teenagers.

Some of the world's finest young talents will get a taste of the big time in Spain - with many possible of being more than just a last minute garbage time reserve.

The 19-year-old Cedi Osman showed what he's capable of at the U20 European Championship, winning the MVP vrown for the title-winning Turkish team. Now the Anadulo Efes guard, who played in 13 games in the Turkish Airlines Euroleague this season, gets his chance for the senior Turkish team in Bilbao.

Another 19-year-old European who expects to have a long senior national team career after making his World Cup debut in Spain is Croatia's Mario Hezonja. 

The guard also has earned minutes in the Euroleague for Barcelona and now gets to learn the tricks from young Croatia national team stars like Dario Saric, Bojan Bogdanovic and Ante Tomic.

The NBA has already seen the promise of Greece's 19-year-old wunderkind Giannis Antetokounmpo, but now the international stage gets to see him shine.

The world hasn't seen Dante Exum sine the summer of 2013 when he led Australia to a fourth-place finish at the FIBA U19 World Championship. Now, the Australian 19-year-old takes his game to the next level in advance of starting his NBA career with the Utah Jazz after the tournament.

Ukraine will feature the youngest player in the tournament in Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk. The guard, who won't turn 18 until June 2015, comes off an MVP performance in helping Ukraine earn promotion at the U18 European Championship Division B. Mykhailiuk will head to the United States after Spain 2014 to play collegiatel at Kansas University.

A couple of the other teenagers ready to show their stuff in Spain are Tai Webster of New Zealand as well as Aleksej Nikolic of Slovenia, Moustafa Elmekawi of Egypt and Iran's Behnam Yakhchali.

Some of these youngsters might not get a lot of playing time in their teams, but the experience will be a huge benefit down the ling run.

David Hein

FIBA

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