History of the FIBA World Cup

  1. Home
  2. History of the FIBA World Cup

FIBA World Cup, formerly known as the FIBA World Championship, is the flagship event of the International Basketball Federation. the 2019 edition of this tournament is starting from August 31 and there will be 32 teams competing this year for the Naismith trophy. The USA, who won the previous two editions of the tournament, are regarded as top favorites to win the 2019 FIBA World Cup as well. It seems a wise decision to bet availing Unibet promo code on the chances of the USA winning the Naismith trophy.

The first FIBA World Cup took place in Argentina in the year 1950, and the hosts Argentina became the first FIBA World Champion after remaining unbeaten for the entire tournament. Initially, the teams from the Americas dominated the tournament, but by 1963 the European teams had become strong enough to compete for the trophy. 

By the year 2006, the tournament had been expanded to 24 teams, while a completely different champion also emerged on the scene that year. Both Spain and Greece hadn't reached the finals before, so it was a big occasion for both teams. Spain dominated in that match and won by 70-47, thus they became the 7th nation to earn such a big achievement.

In the 2010 FIBA World Championship, the USA claimed their fourth trophy. They hadn't won that trophy in 16 long years at the time.

2014 FIBA World Cup

The tournament was previously called FIBA World Championship but it was rebranded to FIBA World Cup after the 2014 edition. Not only that, the 4-year-cycle changed to a 5-year-cycle after the 2014 FIBA World Cup.

In the 2014 edition, everybody was expecting a final between the defending champions United States and the star-studded team of Spain. However, Spain couldn't get past the quarter-finals as an amazing performance from Boris Diaw and Rudy Gobert got a 65-52 victory for France in Madrid.

And though France fought well in the semi-finals, they also couldn't make it to the finals.  Serbia, who had lost three of their group matches, prevailed against France by 90-85.

While the USA team showed their dominance right from the beginning of the tournament. They won all their five group games easily, and then in the knockout stages, they downed Mexico, Slovenia and then Lithuania in the semi-finals to book their tickets to the final.

And in their big final match, the USA team destroyed Serbia by the score 129-92. Kyrie Irving is in the form of his life that day as he scored 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting. He was later named the MVP for the 2014 FIBA World Cup while James Hardon added 23 points to play a big part in the USA's victory.