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FIBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
The FIBA World Championship is the biggest international basketball competition
in the world.
The inaugural edition of the tournament took place in 1950 in Argentina and it
has since been held 15 times.
Yugoslavia were crowned world champions on five occasions while the Soviet
Union won the tournament three times. Spain are the reigning champions.
The United States of America, gold medal winners in 13 of 16 Olympic Games
basketball tournaments, have only won the FIBA World Championship in three
of their 15 attempts.
Here is a look back at the four most recent FIBA World Championships.
2006 – JAPAN
Spain reigned supreme at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan in what
was then the biggest and most competitive international basketball event. With
the field increased from 16 to 24 teams, six European sides reached the last
eight with Spain ultimately triumphing over Greece to capture the gold medal.
The other four continents had memorable moments of their own over the
course of the tournament. African giants Angola and Nigeria advanced to the
knockout stages, where the latter fell to Dirk Nowitzky’s Germany by just one
point. Oceania’s two representatives, Australia and New Zealand, also made it to
through to the last 16, while Yao Ming led then FIBA Asia champions China into
the Eight-Finals and the Americas were represented by the USA and Argentina
in the Semi-Finals.
As the tournament progressed towards a thrilling climax, fans were treated to
two breathtaking semi-finals. The USA, Greece, Argentina and Spain all made
it to the last four with undefeated records and each team expected nothing less
than to reach the Final.
In the first semi-final, Greece came from behind to beat the USA 101-95. The
Greeks trailed by 12 early on, but thanks to the passing of Theo Papaloukas
and the power of Sofoklis Shortsianitis inside, they fought back to lead 45-41
at halftime and went on to win the game, leading fans to pour into the streets
of Athens.
In the second semi-final, 2004 Olympic champions Argentina lost out to Spain,
75-74. Andres Nocioni missed an open three-pointer in the final seconds and the
Spaniards were deserving winners. The triumph came at a high price though as
star player Pau Gasol broke his foot and missed the decider.
However, he was not needed as Spain triumphed 70-47 over Greece to win their
first ever World Championship. The USA secured bronze after getting the better
of Argentina 96-81.
2002 – USA
The 2002 FIBA World Championship will go down in history as the first to
take place in the homeland of basketball and one of the most exciting FIBA
competitions ever.
Before the start of the tournament, most experts agreed that more than half of
the 16 teams could make it to the Semi-Finals. However, the USA – gold medal
winners at the 2000 Sydney Olympics – were still heavy favourites, if anything
because they were playing on home soil.
The hosts though lost 87-80 against Argentina in the Eighth-Finals and that
meant they would have to face reigning FIBA World Champions Yugoslavia in
the Quarter-Finals. After losing that game 81-78, the USA were out of the running
for medals for the first time since using NBA players.
In the Final, Yugoslavia successfully defended their title by outlasting Argentina
84-77 after overtime in a thrilling contest. Germany dispatched New Zealand 117-
94 to secure a bronze, and their first medal in the FIBA World Championship.
1998 – GREECE
The best players in the USA refused to participate in this edition of the FIBA
World Championship because of the NBA lock-out.
While that was a blow to the tournament’s success and popularity, it also resulted
in there never being so many candidates for the medals, especially since
Yugoslavia had returned to the competition. From this point on though, their team
would be made up entirely of players from Serbia and Montenegro.
The games involving potential medal winners were most often evenly-matched
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and gave rise to several surprises. For example, Lithuania edged out the USA 84-
82 behind 29 points from Arturas Karnishovas while Yugoslavia needed overtime
to see off Russia 82-74 and Spain just about squeezed past Argentina 68-67.
The USA got the upper hand over Italy 80-77 to reach the Semi-Finals but
relinquished their title as World Champions after falling 66-64 against a Russian
team led by the excellent Sergei Babkov who broke out for 30 points.
In the other semi-final, Yugoslavia had problems dealing with Greece’s height
advantage early on, but Dejan Bodiroga and Zeljko Rebraca came through in the
second half for a come-from-behind 78-73 win.
The Yugoslavs confirmed their superiority in Europe by beating Russia 64-62
in the Final thanks once again to the pair of Bodiroga and Rebraca, who made
it possible to for the country to win a fourth world championship despite the
absence of Predrag Danilovic, Vlade Divac and Zoran Savic.
1994 – CANADA
This FIBA World Championship was like no other for several reasons. Firstly
because it was played in Toronto’s SkyDome – usually home to the Toronto Blue
Jays, the city’s professional baseball team – which had a capacity of up to 70,000
people. The stadium though was converted for the occasion and registered a
crowd of 32,616 spectators on the final day – a FIBA World Championship
record.
The tournament was also different through the presence of a USA team that
boasted NBA superstars Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Dominique Wilkins
and Reggie Miller and as such was deserving of its title of “Dream Team II”. They
justified that title by following in the footsteps of “Dream Team I” which, two years
earlier, had walked away with the gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics.
The wind of change had blown through the participating teams. The USSR,
which had been dismantled, made way for Russia while Yugoslavia, submitted to
a UN embargo, was not admitted to Toronto. Croatia were appearing in a FIBA
World Championship event under their own flag for the first time.
The USA proved their superiority in the Final by beating Russia 137-91.
There were, however, mitigating circumstances for the Russians. On the previous
day, they had to battle hard against a Croatian side led by Toni Kukoc and Dino
Radja, eventually outlasting them 66-64 to book their place in the Final.
In the definitive fight for the title, the exploits of Babkov, Mikhail Mikhailov and
Sergei Bazarevich were not enough to prevent O’Neal from enforcing his own
law under the basket at both ends of the court.
Europe managed to place three teams behind the invincible “Dream Team
II”. Russia took silver, Croatia claimed a bronze and Greece enjoyed its best
championship to date.
A history of all past editions of the FIBA World
Championship can be found on archive.fiba.com.