The FIBA World Championship also known as the FIBA World cup is one of the two major international events in the Global Basketball calendar, the other being the Summer Olympics of course.
It is one of the largest sporting spectacles in the World having a global TV audience of 800 Million people across 171 countries. In the coming weeks we will start digging up some archives and explore some notable events and great moments of the sporting history and how basketball has reached the position it holds today.
Inception
The idea of a Basketball World cup was initially put forward to the FIBA congress, which met in London in the 1948 for the 14th Olympic Games, by the FIBA Secretary-General at that time and now FIBA Hall of Famer Renato William Jones who held office for quite a long time (1932-1976). He suggested that FIBA organize a World championship every four years, much like the FIFA World cup. The Basketball event at the Summer Olympics in 1948 at London was a success with the participation of 23 teams and it was agreed by the members of FIBA that it was time to come up with a World championship. However choosing a host for this tournament proved to be quite tricky as basketball was still a relatively young sport at that time (59 years old) and countries were reluctant to take on the risk of hosting a tournament of that scale. One must keep in mind that TV telecasting rights and sponsorships were not the major means of collecting revenue back in those days when having a TV was considered a luxury. That was when Argentina stepped in and accepted the role of ‘Hosts’ and what a decision it turned out to be for them! Thus was born the ‘Basketball World cup’.
FIBA World Cup 1950 Argentina: The Curtain Raiser
Argentina stepped forward and Buenos Aires was selected as the location of the maiden Basketball World cup which was held from the 22nd of October to the 3rd of November 1950.
FIBA decided that there should be a total of 10 teams competing against each other for World Basketball supremacy. The initial plan was to have 10 teams: the Gold, Silver and Bronze medalists from the preceding Olympic Games, the 2 best teams from Asia, Europe and South America plus the host country of course which was automatically eligible for a spot in the tournament. In my opinion this worked in favour of Argentina who put up a dismal performance at the 1948 Olympics where they ended up a disappointing 15th spot out of a total of 23 countries.
Three teams that gained out of these circumstances were Ecuador, Spain and Yugoslavia. Do you believe in hidden blessings? Because this certainly turned out to become a huge blessing for 2 out of these 3 teams (Spain and Yugoslavia) who went on to make waves in the international basketball arena and they continue to do so to date.
The 1950 Basketball World cup in Argentina had 2 very unforgettable moments. The first one was the Egypt vs France encounter. France, going in as favourites, were expected to win quite comfortably. But the resilient Egyptian team who were having a spectacular tournament thus far gave a great fight and ended up winning the match 31-28. However there was a lot of controversy surrounding a major error by referees. One must keep in mind that technology was not as advanced as it is now back in the 1950s and match officials did not have the luxury of slow-motion replays but had to largely rely on gut feeling to make the final calls. France protested, however Egypt refused to replay the game and threatened to withdraw from the tournament. France made a sportive decision and renounced the appeal which was a big decision as it ended up with no wins in the Final rounds.
Argentina being the host nation and cheered on by more than 25,000 supporters went on to beat USA in the finals with a score of 64 points to 50. This served as a good lesson for Team USA in my opinion, since they didn’t seem to have taken the World championships as seriously as the Olympics. The fact that they took a corporate team from the Chevrolet factories in Denver bears testimony to this. Chile ended up 2nd Runners-up of the 1st ever Basketball World cup.
Tournament Summary
1) Argentina – 6 Wins 0 Losses (World Champions)
2) USA – 5 Wins 1 Loss (Silver medalist)
3) Chile – 4 Wins 4 Losses ( Bronze medalist)
4) Brazil – 3 Wins and 3 Losses
5) Egypt – 4 Wins 3 Losses
6) France – 2 Wins 6 Losses
7) Peru – 4 Wins 2 Losses
8) Ecuador – 2 Wins 3 Losses
9) Yugoslavia – no Wins 5 Losses
10) Spain – 1 Win 4 Losses
Join us next week at thepapare.com as we walk forward down memory lane and see what transpired at the 1954 and 1959 Basketball World cups. Until we meet again keep balling.
