This resulted in China deploying another team in this tournament, while their primary team led by NBA star Yao Ming and rookie Yi Jianlian participated in the Stankovic Cup and tournaments and friendlies with countries across Europe to prepare themselves.

Korea upended Kazakhstan to clinch third place, and the last Asian berth in the FIBA pre-Olympic tournament, together with Lebanon.

According to the FIBA Asia rules, each zone had two places, and the hosts (Japan) and holders (China) were automatically qualified.

The other four places are allocated to the zones according to performance in the 2005 FIBA Asia Championship.

China Jordan Iran Philippines Lebanon Saudi Arabia * United Arab Emirates Japan Qatar India Kazakhstan Indonesia South Korea Hong Kong Syria Chinese Taipei * Saudi Arabia withdrew from the tournament,  Kuwait replaced them.