Emanuel Terry competes for Team USA

Last week, Team USA finalized its roster for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup Qualifiers and Enterprise native Emanuel Terry is one of the 12 players that made the cut.

Terry is coming off a successful 2020-2021 season with the NBA G-League’s Agua Caliente Clippers and also averaged a double-double playing for the Sacramento Kings in the NBA’s Summer League California Classic in August. He’s currently signed to the Kings’ G-League affiliate Stockton Kings.

Terry will join former college and NBA stars like Isiah Thomas Jr., Justin Anderson, Brian Bowen, Josh Gray of LSU, Shaq Harrison, Haywood Highsmith, BJ Johnson, Luke Kornett of Vanderbilt, Chasson Randle, Zavier Simpson and Will Davis II.

Terry is the only Alabama native that made the roster. He grew up in Enterprise before moving to Cleveland in high school. There he would become a top high school star before going on to become an All-American at Lincoln Memorial University. He’s played for a number of NBA and NBA G-League teams, as well as being a star player overseas in Turkey, Israel and Serbia.

Team USA trained at the University of Houston through the end of November and then headed to Chihauha, Mexico to compete in the first round of qualifying games for the Americas Region. Team USA captured its first win by a score of 95-90 on Nov. 28 over Team Cuba. In the second qualifier, Team USA fell to Team Mexico 97-88 in an upset. Terry scored four points and grabbed three rebounds in the loss.

The next set of qualifying games will take place in February as Team USA will place Team Puerto Rico on Feb. 24, 2022 and rematch with Team Mexico on Feb. 27, 2022. The final qualifying games will take place later in 2022 with Team USA playing Team Puerto Rico on July 1, 2022 and play Team Cuba on July 3, 2022. The top three finishing team of the Americas Region will then move on to the second round of qualifiers. The World Cup competition will begin in 2023.