Last week we looked at the 4th and 5th FIBA World cups at thepapare.com. We will now be fast forwarding into the 6th and 7th FIBA World cups and looking at the events that transpired in them.
1970 FIBA World cup- Yugoslavia
The 1970 FIBA World cup saw the scene shift away from a South American country for the first time in the history of the tournament. The host of this World cup was Yugoslavia and matches were played at 4 different venues. The tournament format was similar to the previous World cups where there were 13 teams out of which the hosts, which was in this case Yugoslavia, were given direct entry into the Final rounds whereas the other 12 teams were put into 3 groups of 4 each, out of which the top 2 would qualify for the Final rounds and the last 2 would get relegated to the Classification round to decide ranks 8 to 13. The final rounds were to be competed in a league basis.
From Group A, the USA stormed through to the final rounds as Group champions with a perfect 3 out of 3 record while Czechoslovakia followed behind as Runners up with a loss to the USA. In Group B, Brazil entered the Final rounds unbeaten while Italy followed as runners up with a loss to the former. Soviet Union had a comfortable 71-53 victory over Uruguay thus topping Group C whereas the Uruguay ended up as the Runners-up of the group. A well-rested Yugoslavian side of course had an automatic spot in the Final rounds as discussed, thus making it a league battle between 7 nations for Global supremacy.
It was a tournament to forget for Team UAE as they failed to register a single win at the Classification round while Cuba on the contrary cruised to a 5 wins out of 5 games to finish at 8th place in the tournament.
Yugoslavia had a close tussle with underdogs Italy although they eventually won 66-63 in the Final rounds. Soviet Union vs Brazil proved to be another tight game with the score card reading 66-64 in favour of the South Americans in the end. However one of the biggest upsets was the 80-55 thrashing the 2 time World champions Brazil got at the hands of Yugoslavia. USA edged past the Soviets 75-72 but lost to Italy by 2 points in yet another shocker. Czechoslovakia beat Brazil by 1 (72-71). Then Yugoslavia won an absolutely crucial match against the USA 70 points to 63 giving them 5 wins for the tournament, and even though they lost to the Soviet union by 15 points the very next day, they already had a better record than the other teams in the league format with 5 wins and only 1 loss and were thus named FIBA World champions 1970.
- Yugoslavia- 5 W 1L
- Brazil – 4 W 2L (Better Points for -And-Against margin)
- Soviet Union- 4 W 2L
FIBA World cup 1974 – Puerto Rico
The 7th FIBA World cup saw the FIBA World cup once again return to the American continent, this time the hosts being Puerto Rico. The tournament was held from the 3rd of July 1974 to 14th July 1974. This time there was one additional team in the competition making it a total of 14 teams. There was a slight change in the tournament format too, where the Defending champions got an automatic berth to the Final rounds along with the Host nation. This meant Yugoslavia and Puerto Rico could save their players for the business end of the tournament.
The Soviet Union, USA and Cuba topped their respective groups and strolled to the Final rounds while Brazil, Spain and Canada entered the next phase of the tournament as Runners-up in their groups. 2 things to note here was: firstly, how Cuba dominated the group stages and secondly, the emergence of Spain into the International Basketball scene as a major competitor. Pundits would agree with me when I say that this was the year Spain really laid the foundations for the glorious years they went on to enjoy later on.
Mexico finished in 9th spot at the Classification rounds whereas the Central African Republic finished 14th. Spain defeated the hosts with a convincing 102-86 win in the opening game of the Final rounds but however failed to capitalize on that momentum, as they fell to Canada 1 day later. Yugoslavia topped the Soviet Union by 3 points (82-79) in their encounter while Canada vs Brazil proved to be a thriller with the South Americans getting the better of their counter-parts from the North by just 1 point (75-74). Spain topped Brazil on the 13th of July 1974 in what was a historic 93-91 win. USA beat Yugoslavia 91 points to 88 on the same day. This meant USA had a chance of becoming World champions if they beat the Soviet Union. However they let that golden opportunity slip through their fingers as they were outplayed, particularly in the 2nd half and the European nation emerged victorious 105-94. This meant that at the end of the tournament there were 3 teams with 6 wins and 1 loss each, namely USA, Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. However the Soviet Union was crowned World champions for the 2nd time as they had a better points and against differential.
Soviet Union – 6 W 1 L (PD: +116)
Yugoslavia – 6 W 1 L (PD: +61)
United states – 6 W 1 L (PD: +47)
Join us again next week at ‘Swishing the Nets’ on thepapare.com as we further explore the world of basketball. Until then make sure you keep balling.
