JAPAN
2006
After twenty years FIBA decided to grow. The experiment in the 1986
Championship in Spain had only been a reflection of the boom that basketball
was going through at the time, backed up by the interest in the NBA of the
legendary Lakers and Celtics led by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. For the first
time the World Championship was organised by Japan, and the organising
committee made it clear from the very first day that they wanted everything to
be perfect.
In the World Championship of 2006 there were 24 teams instead of the usual 16, all battling for
the highly prized Naismith Trophy defended by Yugoslavia, who had won four years previously with
a gold-plated team featuring Dejan Bodiroga and Pedja Stojakovic (between them they scored 53
of the 84 points that gave them the title). In 2002 Yugoslavia, who had still not broken up as a
consequence of the regional conflict, beat the best Argentine team of all time. Argentina received
their just rewards two years later when their team including Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Luis
Scola amongst others finally savoured the Olympic gold in Athens, were they were authentic gods
during the summer. In Japan 2006 Yugoslavia defended their title, but they did it under two
different flags, Slovenia was one and the other was Serbia and Montenegro. These two teams had
the challenge of defending the honour and prestige of the Balkans, always a reference point
throughout the history of basketball.
24 TEAMS AND THE FIREPOWER OF THE USA
From 19 August to 3 September, 24 teams, divided into 4 groups of 6, playing in 4 cities (Sendai,
Hiroshima, Hamamatsu and Sapporo, with the decisive phase in Saitama, close to Tokyo) fought
for their places in the grand final. Japan was the host. The organisation of the tournament was a
pretext to promote basketball in a country where baseball was king, if we put sumo wrestling
aside as being more than a sport. The other wildcard entries opened the doors to talented
basketball teams such as Italy, Turkey, Serbia and Montenegro and Puerto Rico. That is to say that
they got in through the back door but they were prepared to put up a fight. Six entries for Europe,
four for America, three for Africa, three for Asia and two for Oceania made up the participants of a
championship with a great deal of promise.
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FUNDACIÓN PEDRO FERRÁNDIZ
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP