2010 FIBA World Championship
The 2010 FIBA World Championship was the 16th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship contested by the men's national teams. The tournament ran from August 28 to September 12, 2010. It was co-organized by the International Basketball Federation, Turkish Basketball Federation and the 2010 Organizing Committee. It was considered as prestigious a competition as the Olympic Basketball Tournament. The tournament was hosted by Turkey.
For the third time, the World Championship had 24 competing nations. As a result, the group stage games were played in four cities, and the knockout round was hosted by Istanbul.
The United States won the tournament for their fourth time after going undefeated in the Opening Round and beating host Turkey in the final.
The draw for the Championship took place on December 15, 2009 in Istanbul. Teams were drawn into four [|preliminary round] groups of six teams each. Teams first played a round-robin schedule, with the top sixteen teams advancing to the knockout stage.
Bid
Three bids from six countries – France, Turkey, and a joint bid from former Yugoslav republics Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Slovenia – made their final presentation during the FIBA's 20-member Central Board in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on December 5, 2004. Previously, Australia and New Zealand, Italy, Russia and Puerto Rico announced their intention to bid from the tournament, but withdrew their bids prior to the votes. France won the first round of voting, but Turkey eventually won the right to host after the joint bidders were knocked out in the first round.The tournament was the first time that Turkey has hosted the event and marked the first World Championship held in Europe since the 1998 FIBA World Championship was held in Greece.
Venues
Below is a list of the venues which hosted games during the 2010 FIBA World Championship. Each preliminary round group was hosted in a single arena in Kayseri, Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir. The knockout phase then moved to Istanbul's Sinan Erdem Dome. Ankara Arena, completed in 2010, and Kadir Has Arena, completed in 2008, were built for the championships, while the other three arenas underwent renovations for the event.Qualifying
automatically qualified as the host country, and the United States also received an automatic berth for winning the 2008 Olympic Men's Basketball Tournament.Most other teams secured their places in continental qualifying tournaments. FIBA invited four "wild card" teams to fill out the twenty-four team field.
Wild cards
The four wild cards were determined by FIBA through criteria. For example, a team must have played in the Zone's qualification tournament to receive recommendation. Also, in order for every team to have an opportunity for a wild card, a maximum of three teams from any Zone can be allotted a wild card entry. Once these requirements are satisfied, FIBA then looks at other important factors. Those include popularity of basketball within the country, success of the team, and government support for the team's National Federation. As of 2009, FIBA now requires that wild card candidates pay a late registration fee to be considered.Fourteen teams paid the 500,000 € fee to apply for one of the four wild card spots. FIBA then whittled down the teams to eight semifinalists – Cameroon, Germany, Great Britain, Korea, Lebanon, Lithuania, Nigeria, and Russia. On Saturday, December 12, FIBA awarded Germany, Lebanon, Lithuania and Russia the four wild cards.
List of qualified teams
The following 24 teams qualified for the final tournament :;FIBA Africa
Group Draw
| Line 1 | Line 2 | Line 3 | Line 4 | Line 5 | Line 6 |
United States |
Squads
At the start of tournament, all 24 participating countries had 12 players on their rosters. Final squads for the tournament were due on August 26, two days before the start of competition.Angola and the United States were the only teams made up of entirely domestic players. Slovenia was the only team composed entirely of individuals playing outside the domestic league. The Canada squad also consisted entirely of individuals playing outside the country, but at that time Canada had no professional league operating exclusively in the country. The National Basketball Association, based in the U.S., has a Canadian team, and several minor leagues operate on both sides of the U.S.—Canada border. Four Canadian squad members played in U.S.-based competitions—two with U.S.-based NBA teams, and two for Gonzaga University's team. Forty-one NBA players were selected to compete in the tournament, the most of any league.
Preparation matches
Acropolis Tournament
and Serbia both began the tournament shorthanded when each had two players suspended for their roles in a brawl at the World Championship tuneup Acropolis Tournament, held in mid-August. The two teams engaged in a chaotic brawl with 2:40 left when Greece's Antonis Fotsis threatened Serbia's Miloš Teodosić after Teodosić committed a foul. The fight spilled off the floor and into the locker room tunnel; the game was thus terminated with final score the score at the time of the interruption. Serbian center Nenad Krstić was arrested and held overnight for throwing a chair in the brawl.For their roles in the melee, Krstić was suspended for the first three games of the tournament, while Teodosić, and Greece's Fotsis and Sofoklis Schortsanitis were suspended for the first two games. Both Greek coach Jonas Kazlauskas and Serbian coach Dušan Ivković criticized FIBA for waiting until less than 48 hours before the tournament – over a week after the brawl – to announce the suspensions, citing the unfairness of playing shorthanded for the first games. Greece eventually won their first two games in spite of the suspensions, while Serbia won two of their first three games.
Bamberg Super Cup
Preliminary round
The top four finishers in each of the four preliminary round groups advanced to the sixteen team, single-elimination knockout stage, where Group A teams would meet Group B teams and Group C would meet Group D. European teams proved the most successful in the first round, as nine of the ten teams advanced to the knockout stage. Both Oceanian teams qualified for the next round, as did three of the five FIBA Americas teams. The three African and four Asian teams struggled, with only Angola and China reaching the knockout stage after each finished fourth place in their group.There were few surprises in the early round; each team that advanced to the knockout stage was ranked in the top 20 of the FIBA World Ranking at the time of the tournament. Defending champions Spain struggled early, losing two of their first three games before recovering to finish second in Group D. Argentina and the United States, the two top teams in the FIBA rankings, both cruised to the knockout phase, as the United States went 5–0 and Argentina went 4–1, with their only loss coming to Number 5 ranked Serbia.
Tie-breaking procedure
At the end of the preliminary round, any ties will be broken by the following criteria, ordered from the one that will be applied first to the last:- Game results between tied teams
- Goal average between games of the tied teams
- Goal average for all games of the tied teams
- Drawing of lots
Group A (Kayseri)
Group B (Istanbul)
Group C (Ankara)
Group D (Izmir)
Final round (Istanbul)
Championship bracket
Consolation bracket
Round of 16
Quarterfinals
5th–8th classification
Semifinals
Third–place game
Final
Statistical leaders
Individual tournament highs
Points| Pos. | Name | G | Pts | |
| 1 |  Luis Scola | 9 | 244 | 27.1 |
| 2 |  Kirk Penney | 6 | 148 | 24.7 |
| 3 |  Kevin Durant | 9 | 205 | 22.8 |
| 4 | Carlos Delfino | 9 | 185 | 20.6 |
| 5 |  Yi Jianlian | 5 | 101 | 20.2 |
| 6 |  Hamed Haddadi | 5 | 100 | 20 |
| 7 |  Linas Kleiza | 9 | 171 | 19 |
| 8 |  Juan Carlos Navarro | 8 | 135 | 16.9 |
| 9 |  José Barea | 5 | 84 | 16.8 |
| 10 |  Leandro Barbosa | 6 | 97 | 16.2 |
Rebounds
| Pos. | Name | G | Reb. | |
| 1 | Yi Jianlian | 5 | 51 | 10.2 |
| 2 | Hamed Haddadi | 5 | 43 | 8.6 |
| 3 |  Zaid Abbas | 5 | 42 | 8.4 |
| 4 | Luis Scola | 9 | 71 | 7.9 |
| 5 | Lamar Odom | 9 | 69 | 7.7 |
| 6 |  Ersan İlyasova | 8 | 61 | 7.6 |
| 7 |  Levon Kendall | 5 | 38 | 7.6 |
| 8 |  Nenad Krstić | 6 | 45 | 7.5 |
| 9 | Arsalan Kazemi | 5 | 37 | 7.4 |
| 9 |  David Andersen | 5 | 37 | 7.4 |
Assists
| Pos. | Name | G | Ass. | |
| 1 | Pablo Prigioni | 9 | 58 | 6.4 |
| 2 | Marcelinho Huertas | 6 | 35 | 5.8 |
| 3 | Miloš Teodosić | 7 | 39 | 5.6 |
| 4 |  Osama Daghlas | 5 | 28 | 5.6 |
| 5 | José Barea | 5 | 27 | 5.4 |
| 6 | Ricky Rubio | 9 | 46 | 5.1 |
| 6 |  Anton Ponkrashov | 9 | 46 | 5.1 |
| 8 |  Mouloukou Diabate | 5 | 22 | 4.4 |
| 9 | Patrick Mills | 6 | 25 | 4.2 |
| 10 |  Goran Dragić | 9 | 37 | 4.1 |
Blocks
| Pos. | Name | G | Blocks | |
| 1 | Mamadou Lamizana | 5 | 16 | 3.2 |
| 2 | Hamed Haddadi | 5 | 13 | 2.6 |
| 3 | Marc Gasol | 9 | 21 | 2.3 |
| 4 | Joel Anthony | 5 | 11 | 2.2 |
| 4 |  Salah Mejri | 5 | 11 | 2.2 |
| 6 | Fran Vázquez | 9 | 14 | 1.6 |
| 7 | Sergey Monya | 9 | 12 | 1.3 |
| 8 | Ömer Aşık | 9 | 11 | 1.2 |
| 9 | Timofey Mozgov | 9 | 9 | 1 |
| 10 | Matthew Nielsen | 6 | 6 | 1 |
Steals
| Pos. | Name | G | Stls | |
| 1 |  Arsalan Kazemi | 5 | 14 | 2,8 |
| 2 |  Ali Mahmoud | 5 | 13 | 2.6 |
| 3 | Mouloukou Diabate | 5 | 12 | 2.4 |
| 4 | Sinan Güler | 8 | 17 | 2.1 |
| 5 | Carlos Delfino | 9 | 18 | 2 |
| 5 | Pablo Prigioni | 9 | 18 | 2 |
| 7 | Leandro Barbosa | 6 | 12 | 2 |
| 7 | Sun Yue | 6 | 12 | 2 |
| 9 | Makrem Ben Romdhane | 4 | 8 | 2 |
| 9 |  Olimpio Cipriano | 4 | 8 | 2 |
Minutes
| Pos. | Name | G | Min. | |
| 1 | Carlos Delfino | 9 | 327 | 36.3 |
| 2 | Liu Wei | 5 | 180 | 36 |
| 3 | Luis Scola | 9 | 323 | 35.9 |
| 4 | Mouloukou Diabate | 5 | 177 | 35.4 |
| 5 | Yi Jianlian | 5 | 175 | 35 |
| 6 | Osama Daghlas | 5 | 172 | 34.4 |
| 7 | Rasheim Wright | 5 | 169 | 33.8 |
| 8 | Hamed Haddadi | 5 | 163 | 32.6 |
| 9 | Javad Davari | 5 | 161 | 32.2 |
| 9 | Fadi El Khatib | 5 | 161 | 32.2 |
Individual game highs
Team tournament highs
Offensive PPG| Pos. | Name | PPG |
| 1 | United States | 92.8 |
| 2 | 88.9 | |
| 3 | 85.2 | |
| 4 | 83.3 | |
| 5 | 82.9 |
Defensive PPG
| Pos. | Name | PPG |
| 1 | United States | 65.9 |
| 2 | 68.2 | |
| 3 | 71.3 | |
| 4 | 71.3 | |
| 5 | 72.3 |
Rebounds
| Pos. | Name | RPG |
| 1 | United States | 41.7 |
| 2 | 40.4 | |
| 3 | 37.8 | |
| 4 | 37.2 | |
| 5 | 37 |
Assists
| Pos. | Name | APG |
| 1 | United States | 18.2 |
| 1 | 18.2 | |
| 3 | 18.1 | |
| 4 | 16.6 | |
| 5 | 16 |
Steals
| Pos. | Name | SPG |
| 1 | United States | 10.4 |
| 2 | 8.4 | |
| 3 | 8.2 | |
| 4 | 8.1 | |
| 5 | 7.8 |
Blocks
| Pos. | Name | BPG |
| 1 | United States | 4.9 |
| 2 | 4.8 | |
| 3 | 4 | |
| 4 | 3.8 | |
| 5 | 3.4 |
Team game highs
Final rankings
Method of breaking ties:- Result of classification game
- Place in preliminary round group
- Winning percentage
- Overall points average
Awards
| Most Valuable Player |
| Kevin Durant |
All-Tournament Team
- Luis Scola
- Linas Kleiza
- Kevin Durant – MVP
- Hedo Türkoğlu
- Miloš Teodosić
Referees
Broadcasting
Rights
FIBA announced that the championship will be shown in 183 countries, beating the record set be the 2006 championship which was 132. Countries that aired the championship for the first time were India and the United Kingdom, while Canada covered the event for the first time since hosting the 1994 FIBA World Championship.TV ratings
According to FIBA secretary general Patrick Baumann, the TV ratings for the 2010 championship exceeded the 2006 FIBA World Championship's and the FIBA EuroBasket 2009 numbers, with an expected audience of 800 million people in 200 countries, while 30 million people visited the official website.The preliminary round game between China and Greece was watched by around 65 million Chinese.
The U.S. TV ratings for the Final between the U.S. and Turkey, on the other hand, was watched by less than 900,000 viewers in American cable network ESPN, worse than the average audience of the broadcast of the 2009-10 NBA season, but double than the airing of the first game of the 2010 WNBA Finals on its sister terrestrial network ABC which was aired on the same timeslot.
List of broadcasters
TV broadcasters| Country | Broadcaster |
| Top Channel | |
| TPA | |
| TV Pública TyC Sports DIRECTV Sports | |
| Fox Sports | |
| BeTV | |
| BHRT | |
| TV E+I SporTV ESPN Brasil BandSports | |
| BNT | |
| TSN | |
| CCTV | |
| HRT | |
| Lumiere TV Alfa TV | |
| ČTV Sport 1 | |
| TV 2 Sport |
| Country | Broadcaster |
| TV6 Viasat Sport | |
| Nelonen Sport Pro | |
| Sport+ | |
| SPORT1 | |
| ERT | |
| iCable Sports | |
| Sport 1 | |
| TEN Sports | |
| RAI | |
| J Sports | |
| LBC | |
| TV3 Viasat Sport | |
| TDM | |
| Astro | |
| Sitel | |
| RTCG | |
| TV9 | |
| Sky Sports |
| Country | Broadcaster |
| Solar TV BTV | |
| TVP | |
| Sport TV | |
| Al Jazeera Sports | |
| Sport 1 | |
| SuperSport | |
| NTV Plus | |
| RTS | |
| STV Sport 1 | |
| RTVSLO Šport TV | |
| LaSexta MARCA TV | |
| Viasat Sport | |
| Videoland | |
| NTV NTV Spor HDen | |
| ESPN | |
| ESPN NBA TV |