History
The FIBA Basketball World Cup was conceived at a meeting of the FIBA World Congress at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. Long-time FIBA Secretary-General Renato William Jones urged FIBA to adopt a World Championship, similar to the FIFA World Cup, to be held in every four years between Olympiads. The FIBA Congress, seeing how successful the 23-team Olympic tournament was that year, agreed to the proposal, beginning with a tournament in 1950. Argentina was selected as host, largely because they were the only country willing to take on the task. Argentina took advantage of the host selection, winning all their games en route to becoming the first FIBA World Champion.
The first five tournaments were held in South America, and teams from the Americas dominated the tournament, winning eight of nine medals at the first three tournaments. By 1963, however, teams from Eastern Europe – the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in particular – began to catch up to the teams from the American continents. Between 1963 and 1998, the tournament was dominated by the United States, the Soviet Union (and later Russia), Yugoslavia (and later Croatia and FR Yugoslavia/Serbia), and Brazil accounted for every medal at the tournament.
In 1994, professional players participated in the tournament for the first time. Although the United States initially dominated with NBA players, other nations eventually used professional players to finally catch up to the four powerhouse countries. In 2002, Argentina, led by four future NBA players, captured the silver medal, FR Yugoslavia, led by Peja Stojakovic and Vlade Divac of the Sacramento Kings won gold while NBA player and tournament MVP Dirk Nowitzki led Germany to the bronze, its first ever World Championship medal. Meanwhile, the United States' team, made up entirely of NBA players, struggled to a sixth place finish. In 2006, emerging powerhouse Spain beat Greece in the first appearance in the final for both teams. Spain became only the seventh team (Yugoslavia and FR Yugoslavia are counted separately in the FIBA records) to capture a World Championship gold. This new era of parity convinced FIBA to expand the tournament to 24 teams for both the 2006 and 2010 editions of the tournament. FIBA expects to have 24 teams again at the 2014 World Cup.
After the 2014 edition, FIBA will institute significant changes to the World Cup. The final competition will expand from 24 to 32 teams. Also, for the first time since 1967, the competition will not overlap with the FIFA World Cup. To accommodate this change, the 2014 World Cup will be followed by a 2019 edition.
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