The summer of 2006 is an amazing time for sports fans, especially football and basketball lovers. Before the end of the NBA finals, the World Cup will begin in Germany and the summer will close with the FIBA World Championship, which will be played in Japan from August 19 to September 3 in five different cities. This competition is played every 4 years and determines the best basketball nation in the world. The FIBA World Championship may not have the prestige of the soccer World Cup or even the basketball tournament of the Olympic Games, but it is one of the few opportunities basketball fans have to see the most of the best world players. in the same competition. That is why FIBA (the International Basketball Federation) chose “One world, one title” as the motto of this Championship.
The first World Championship took place in 1950 in Argentina and since then it has been organized 14 times. Until 1989, professional players – that is, all those who play in the NBA – could not participate in international competitions. The United States was forced to participate with young college players or with other amateur players, and their performance varied significantly from time to time. The Americans were able to win the championship only twice in 1954 and in 1986. Argentina, Brazil, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia took advantage of the absence of NBA professionals to become world champions during this period.
In 1989 FIBA allowed professional athletes to play in international competition. Thus, in 1994, the United States participated for the first time in the history of the World Championship with a team made up of NBAers led by Don Nelson, who easily won the gold medal. Shaquille O’Neal, Isiah Thomas and Reggie Miller were the team’s biggest stars. However, in the following competitions, in 1998 and 2002, Yugoslavia won the gold medal, leaving the United States in third and sixth place respectively. Especially the last Championship was considered a big failure for the US team, since the tournament was held on American soil, in Indianapolis. After the failure in Indianapolis and the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, where the United States team finished only third, USA Basketball named Jerry Colangelo to be in charge of selecting the team. Colangelo has selected some of the NBA superstars to play in Japan such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Shawn Marion who will be coached by legendary NCAA coach Mike Krzyzewski.
However, the American team will not have an easy job, as they have to face really strong teams like the Argentines who won the gold medal in the Olympiad led by Manu Ginobilli, the Serbs defending the world title, the French teammate Ginobilli’s team at The Spurs Tony Parker, the German Maverick Dirk Nowitzki, the Spanish Grizzle Pau Gasol and the Greek who won the Euro Cup in 2005.
Is the United States still the dominant power in world basketball? We have to wait until September to find out!
