The FIBA Basketball World Cup, often referred to by"the FIBA World Cup of Basketball or simply the FIBA World Cup, between 1950 and 2010, also known by the name of FIBA World Championship, is an international basketball event that is played by the top men's national teams from the players of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) the global supreme body. It is thought to be the most important competition of FIBA.
The tournament's structure is like, but not identical in structure to that of the FIFA World Cup; both of these international tournaments were held during the same year, between 1970 and 2014. An additional event for women's teams, which is now known by the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup is also played quadrennially. From 1986 to 2014, both the men's championships for women were held during the same time but in different nations. The present structure of the tournament has 32 teams fighting for championships in venues in the host country. The team that wins is awarded the Naismith Trophy, first awarded in 1967. The present champions are Spain who beat Argentina during the last match match of the tournament in 2019.
In the wake of the events of 2014 FIBA championships for men as well as women and the male's World Cup was scheduled on an entirely new four-year cycle in order to avoid clashes in that of the FIFA World Cup. Men's World Cup was held in 2019 immediately following it. It was the year following the FIFA World Cup. The women's competition changed its name after the 2014 edition, changed its name from "FIBA World Championship for Women" to "FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup" following the inaugural edition in 2014, is expected to be on the previous four-year schedule and will be held within the same year when the FIFA World Cup.
In 1994, the FIBA World Championship, which was held in Canada it was the initial FIBA World Cup tournament in which active US NBA players, who also had played for the officially sanctioned NBA normal season match were permitted to take part. The World Cup and all FIBA World Championship tournaments since then can be considered professional-level tournaments.
History
The FIBA Basketball World Cup was developed at a meeting at participants of FIBA World Congress at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. The long-time FIBA Secretary General Renato William Jones encouraged FIBA to create the idea of a World Championship, similar to the FIFA World Cup, to be held each year between Olympiads. In 1950, the FIBA Congress, seeing how successful the 23-team Olympic event was in the year, endorsed the plan, beginning with a competition in 1950. Argentina was chosen as the host in part because they were the sole nation willing to accept the challenge. Argentina profited from the hosting choice and won all their games in the process of being the very first FIBA World Champion.
The initial five tournaments were played at South America, and teams from the Americas were the dominant teams with eight out of nine medals during the initial three tournaments. In 1963, however the teams of Eastern Europe (the Soviet Union) and Southeast Europe (Yugoslavia), specifically, started to catch up with players from American continents. Between 1963 and 1990, this tournament was won by the United States, the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, and Brazil who collectively won each medal awarded at the event.
In 1994, the FIBA World Championship held in Toronto was the start of the new era in basketball, as players who are currently actively American NBA players took part in the event at first (prior to that, only European as well as South American professionals were allowed to take part because they were still considered as amateurs) and the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia split into a number of new states. In 1994, the United States dominated that year and took home gold as the previous countries of USSR as well as Yugoslavia, Russia and Croatia were awarded bronze and silver. In 1998, the FIBA World Championship, held in Greece (Athens and Piraeus) was slowed down by the loss of its appeal due to it was a year of the NBA lockout stopped NBA players from competing. It was the first time that the new Yugoslavian team, made up made up of former Yugoslav republics Serbia and Montenegro have won an Olympic gold trophy over Russia while the USA comprised of professional basketball players in Europe and two college athletes placed third.
The year 2002 saw other countries were able to catch up to the four powerhouse nations as well as their successor countries. FR Yugoslavia, led by Peja Stojakovic from the Sacramento Kings and Dejan Bodiroga of FC Barcelona won the final match against Argentina and Dirk Nowitzki, who was the winner of the tournament, guided Germany to a bronze medal their first World Championship medal. In the meantime, The United States team, this was comprised of NBA players were unable to achieve a sixth-place finishing. The new era of parity prompted FIBA to extend the tournament up to 24 teams in the 2005, 2006 and the 2014 editions. also see Curling & Curling rules.
In 2006, the new powerhouse Spain defeated Greece in their first appearance in the finals in both squads. Spain was the only 7th team (Yugoslavia along with FR Yugoslavia are separately counted as per FIBA record books) to win the World Championship gold. The USA were defeated by Greece in the semi-finals defeated Argentina in the third place match and won bronze.
The 2010. FIBA World Championship final, the USA defeated Turkey and claimed silver for the first time after the last 16 years, while Lithuania defeated Serbia and claimed bronze. It was the United States became the third nation to defend the title and won against Serbia in 2014. The 2014 edition was a rematch of this championship. France defeated Lithuania during the bronze-medal match.
Following the 2014 edition, FIBA instituted significant changes to the World Cup. The final event was expanded from 24 teams to 32. Additionally, for it for the first time since the tournament would not coincide with that of FIFA World Cup. To accommodate this in 2014, the FIBA World Cup will be followed by an edition in 2019 in China to be followed by 2023's edition that will be held in Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia.
Other Articles realted with Basketball: