The 2003 ABC Championship qualification was held in late 2002 and early 2003 with the Gulf region, West Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and Middle Asia (Central Asia and South Asia) each conducting tournaments.

The following are eligible to participate:

• The organizing country.
• The five best-placed teams from the previous ABC Championship.
• The two best teams from the sub-zones.

Rank	Team
	China
	Lebanon
	South Korea
4	Syria
5	Qatar
6	Japan
7	Chinese Taipei
8	India
9	Uzbekistan
10	United Arab Emirates
11	Hong Kong
12	Kuwait
13	Thailand
14	Singapore

East Asia (3+2)	Gulf (1+2)	Middle Asia (2)	Southeast Asia (2)	West Asia (2+2)
China	Qatar	Uzbekistan	Philippines	Lebanon
South Korea	United Arab Emirates *	India	Malaysia	Syria
Japan	Saudi Arabia *			Jordan
Chinese Taipei				Iran
Hong Kong

* Withdrew,  Kazakhstan and  Kuwait were given a wild card entry into the championship.

All the others withdrew, so  Chinese Taipei and  Hong Kong qualified automatically.

The 2002 Gulf Basketball Association Championship is the qualifying tournament for the 2003 ABC Championship. the two best teams excluding Qatar qualifies for 2003 ABC Championship. The tournament was held at Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Tiebreaker
Qatar	4	3	1	293	251	+42	7	1–0
United Arab Emirates	4	3	1	291	268	+23	7	0–1
Saudi Arabia	4	2	2	325	325	0	6	1–0
Bahrain	4	2	2	313	335	−22	6	0–1
Kuwait	4	0	4	298	341	−43	4

Rank	Team
	United Arab Emirates
	Qatar
	Saudi Arabia
4	Bahrain
5	Kuwait

The 2003 Middle Asia Basketball Championship is the qualifying tournament for the 2003 ABC Championship. the two best teams qualifies for 2003 ABC Championship. The tournament was held at New Delhi, India.

Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
Uzbekistan	4	4	0	429	185	+248	8
India	4	3	1	420	242	+178	7
Bangladesh	4	2	2	211	335	−124	6
Sri Lanka	4	1	3	247	372	−125	5
Nepal	4	0	4	224	401	−177	4

2003 SEABA Championship

5th Southeast Asian Basketball Championship
Tournament details
Host country	Malaysia
Dates	19–21 August
Teams	4
Venue(s)	1 (in 1 host city)
Final positions
Champions	Philippines (3rd title)
← 2001 2005 →

The 5th Southeast Asia Basketball Association Championship is the qualifying tournament for the 2003 ABC Championship. the two best teams qualifies for 2003 ABC Championship. The tournament was held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
Philippines	3	3	0	278	185	+93	6
Malaysia	3	2	1	250	232	+18	5
Thailand	3	1	2	203	234	−31	4
Vietnam	3	0	3	195	275	−80	3

The 2002/2003 West Asia Basketball Association Championship is the qualifying tournament for the 2003 ABC Championship. the two best teams qualifies for 2003 ABC Championship. The tournament supposed to be held in 3 stages in Jordan, Iran and Iraq in late 2002 and early 2003 but the last round was cancelled.

Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Tiebreaker
Jordan	4	3	1	327	285	+42	7	1–1 / 1.088
Iran	4	3	1	295	292	+3	7	1–1 / 0.919
Iraq	4	0	4	268	313	−45	4

• FIBA Asia official website Archived 2010-01-05 at the Wayback Machine