FIBA World Cup 1967 was held in Uruguay. For the first time in history, the champion was a team outside the American continent.
The 1967 World Cup was the fifth in history. Like previous tournaments, this one was held on the territory of America. More precisely, the host was Uruguay. A total of 13 national teams participated in the tournament.
In the end, the Soviet Union won the title, thus becoming the first team outside of America to win gold medal. The competition was marked by several interesting things, as well as dominant performances by Ivo Daneu.
Difficult weather condititions
The FIBA World Cup 1967 in Uruguay was played from May 27 to June 11. In that period, it is autumn in the southern hemisphere. However, it was extremely cold, as if it were winter. Certainly the organizers themselves contributed to that. They decided that the tournament would be played in a hall that did not have insulation.
The teams had to find their way in order to cope with the cold weather. The situation was particularly difficult for the players who were on the bench and were freezing, given that the temperature was around 2 degree Celsius.
For this reason, the players on the bench covered themselves with blankets, in order to protect as much as possible. Also, heaters were placed next to the benches, as an additional form of assistance to the basketball players.
The Polish dominant duo
Poland finished fourth at Eurobasket 2022. They were the surprise of the tournament, but actually with that result they reminded of some much more successful days in their history.
At three consecutive Eurobaskets before the World Cup 1967, they won medals. One silver and two bronze. After all, that paved the way for them for Mundobasket.
The Poles were led by a fantastic tandem: Mieczyslaw Lopatka and Bohdan Likszo. They were an unsolvable enigma for the opposing teams, but the rest of the team did not follow them with quality, so they had to settle for fifth place.
Likszo made a historic success. In a convincing win against Paraguay (101:60), he scored 34 points. It was the best performance by one player in the tournament. On the other hand, Lopatka ensured himself a place in the All-Tournament team.
Competition system and participants
At that time, the system consisted of two phases. In the first phase, participants were divided into three groups with four teams. The two first-placed would qualify for the second round. Uruguay was already there as host.
The United States and Yugoslavia easily finished ahead of Mexico and Italy in Group A. The Soviet Union was dominant, while Argentina outplayed Peru and Japan for second place. It was similar in Group C. Brazil was convincingly first, and Poland qualified for the second stage by defeating Puerto Rico and Paraguay.
In the final stage, Yugoslavia took revenge on the USA in an extremely dramatic ending. The team coached by Ranko Zeravica won 73:72 thanks to a free throw missed by Vern Benson. That game is also considered the best in the tournament.
In addition to Yugoslavia and USA, the contenders for the honors were Brazil and Soviet Union. The last day of the championship decided what the final order of the national teams would be and who would win which medal.
Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union played for the gold medal, while the winner of the duel between Brazil and the United States would win a bronze. In the replay of the finals from 1954 and 1959, this time Brazil beat USA by 80:71, thus finishing in third place. In this way, they won a medal at the fourth World Cup in a row.
There was no particular drama in the final either. In the end, the Soviet Union routinely won by 71:59 and thus won the the first gold for a team outside of European continent. They took what belonged to them eight years earlier in Chile.
Radivoj Korac was the best scorer in Yugoslavia. However, in key games against three rivals for the medal, Ivo Daneu averaged 24.3 points. This earned him the MVP award, making him the first player in history to receive that award without being part of the gold-winning team.
The Soviet Union – First world champion outside the American continent
At the beginning, the world cups were played outside the Europe. Given that it was not easy to organize trips at that time, it is not surprising that the Europeans did not have so much success in the beginning.
However, it was a different story in Uruguay. After the titles were won by Argentina, the United States and Brazil (twice), it was the time for the team from Europe. Moreover, the champion was decided by the game of two such teams, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
The mentioned game was won by the Soviet Union without problems with 71:59. Anatoli Polivoda and Jaak Lipso led their team to gold with 16 points each. Daneu was the most effective on the other side with 23 points, but he lacked the support of his teammates.
The James Naismith Trophy
First World Cup was held in 1950. Even then, there was an idea to make a trophy, which would be given to the world champion. It took a long time to make the cup, and it was finally completed in 1965.
Given that James Naimisth is considered to be basketball founder, the trophy was named after him. The first competition where the champion received this trophy was the FIBA World Cup 167 in Uruguay.
From the moment the trophy was made until today, it has only undergone certain changes twice. One happened for the World Cup in 1998, and the other for Mundobasket in 2019.
MVP & All-Tournament Team
MVP of the tournament was Ivo Daneu. He averaged 14 points, but in the most important moments, he was great and had three games with 20 or more points against three contenders for the medal. Thus, he became the first player in history to win MVP, without coming from the gold-medal winning team.
The best scorer was Mieczyslaw Lopatka with 19.7 points, while his teammate Bohdan Likszo had 19.3 points on average.
In the All-Tournament Team were Daneu, Lopatka, Radivoj Korac, Modestas Paulauskas and Luiz Claudio Menon.