2006 FIBA World Championship

The 2006 FIBA World Championship was the 15th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's teams. The tournament was hosted by Japan and held from August 19 to September 3, 2006. It was co-organised by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), Japan Basketball Association (JABBA) and the 2006 Organizing Committee.

2006 FIBA World Championship

Tournament details
Host country	Japan
Dates	August 19 – September 3
Teams	24
Venue(s)	5 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Spain (1st title)
Runners-up	Greece
Third place	United States
Fourth place	Argentina
Tournament statistics
Games played	80
MVP	Pau Gasol
Top scorer	Yao Ming (25.3 points per game)

For the first time since 1986, the World Championship was contested by 24 nations, eight more than in 2002. As a result, group rounds were conducted in four cities, with the knockout rounds being hosted by Saitama City.

The tournament was won by Spain, who, in the championship final, beat Greece, 70–47, to finish the tournament having won all nine games played. For Spain, it was a record breaking performance at the FIBA World Championship and something the country had never seen before. It was the first time Spain had won Gold in the FIBA World Championship along with it being the first time Spain had won a medal at the FIBA world championship. Pau Gasol also became the first Spaniard to win the MVP award. It was the first time a country has won all nine of its games since 1994 when the United States won all nine games and took the gold medal home. The bronze medal was won by the United States, who defeated Argentina, 96–81, in the third place game, after a crushing loss by Greece. Up to 2014, including the 2014 tournament, it has been the only tournament where neither Yugoslavia or the USA have reached the final until 2019. The 2006 tournament marked the final appearance of Serbia and Montenegro as they broke up into the independent nations of Serbia and Montenegro after a successful independence referendum in Montenegro in May.

Venues

Hamamatsu	Hamamatsu Hiroshima Saitama Sapporo Sendai	Sapporo
Hamamatsu Arena Capacity: 5,100		Sapporo Arena Capacity: 6,400
Hiroshima	Saitama	Sendai
Hiroshima Green Arena Capacity: 6,900	Saitama Super Arena Capacity: 21,000	Sendai Gymnasium Capacity: 6,100

Qualification

Squads

Main article: 2006 FIBA World Championship squads

At the start of tournament, all 24 participating countries had 12 players on their roster.

Competing nations

The following national teams competed:

Teams that entered qualification tournaments; Asia (purple), Africa (orange), Americas (green), Europe (blue) and Oceania (yellow) and automatic qualifiers (aqua)

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Argentina France Lebanon Nigeria Serbia and Montenegro Venezuela	Angola Germany Japan New Zealand Panama Spain	Australia Brazil Greece Lithuania Qatar Turkey	China Italy Puerto Rico Senegal Slovenia United States

Teams qualified

Japan qualified as the host country, and Italy, Puerto Rico, Serbia and Montenegro, and Turkey gained FIBA wild-card invitations.[1] Argentina qualified as the champion of the 2004 Olympics. The remaining 18 countries qualified through their continents' qualifying tournaments (six from Europe, four from the Americas, three from each of Asia and Africa and two from Oceania).

The draw for the 2006 World Championship was held in Tokyo on 15 January 2006. In the preliminary rounds, Group A played at Sendai, Group B at Hiroshima, Group C at Hamamatsu and Group D at Sapporo. The Medal Rounds were played at Saitama.

Preliminary rounds

Group A (Sendai)

Team	Pts	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	First Tiebreaker Classification for Tied Teams
Argentina	10	5	5	0	464	339	+125
France	8	5	3	2	353	329	+24
Nigeria	7	5	2	3	371	393	−22	2W–0L
Serbia and Montenegro	7	5	2	3	409	352	+57	1W–1L
Lebanon	7	5	2	3	357	451	−94	0W–2L
Venezuela	6	5	1	4	336	426	−90

August 19, 2006

Venezuela	72–82	Lebanon
Serbia and Montenegro	75–82	Nigeria
Argentina	80–70	France

August 20, 2006

Nigeria	77–84	Venezuela
Lebanon	72–107	Argentina
France	65–61	Serbia and Montenegro

August 21, 2006

Argentina	96–54	Venezuela
Serbia and Montenegro	104–57	Lebanon
France	64–53	Nigeria

August 23, 2006

Nigeria	64–98	Argentina
Venezuela	65–90	Serbia and Montenegro
Lebanon	74–73	France

August 24, 2006

Serbia and Montenegro	79–83	Argentina
Lebanon	72–95	Nigeria
France	81–61	Venezuela

Group B (Hiroshima)

Team	Pts	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
Spain	10	5	5	0	476	336	+140
Germany	9	5	4	1	421	384	+37
Angola	8	5	3	2	451	406	+45
New Zealand	7	5	2	3	345	393	−48
Japan	6	5	1	4	322	393	−71
Panama	5	5	0	5	326	429	−103

August 19, 2006

Germany	81–70	Japan
Angola	83–70	Panama
Spain	86–70	New Zealand

August 20, 2006

Japan	62–87	Angola
New Zealand	56–80	Germany
Panama	57–101	Spain

August 21, 2006

Angola	95–73	New Zealand
Germany	71–92	Spain
Japan	78–61	Panama

August 23, 2006

Spain	93–83	Angola
Panama	63–81	Germany
New Zealand	60–57	Japan

August 24, 2006

Angola	103–108 (3OT)	Germany
New Zealand	86–75	Panama
Japan	55–104	Spain

Group C (Hamamatsu)

Team	Pts	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff
Greece	10	5	5	0	404	358	+46
Turkey	9	5	4	1	370	358	+12
Lithuania	8	5	3	2	413	353	+60
Australia	7	5	2	3	370	349	+21
Brazil	6	5	1	4	399	392	+7
Qatar	5	5	0	5	310	456	−146

August 19, 2006

Brazil	77–83	Australia
Greece	84–64	Qatar
Turkey	76–74	Lithuania

August 20, 2006

Qatar	66–97	Brazil
Australia	68–76	Turkey
Lithuania	76–81(OT)	Greece

August 22, 2006

Lithuania	106–65	Qatar
Greece	72–69	Australia
Turkey	73–71	Brazil

August 23, 2006

Australia	57–78	Lithuania
Qatar	69–76	Turkey
Brazil	80–91	Greece

August 24, 2006

Australia	93–46	Qatar
Lithuania	79–74	Brazil
Greece	76–69	Turkey

Group D (Sapporo)

Team	Pts	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	Diff	First Tiebreaker Classification for Tied Teams	Second Tiebreaker Basket Average for Tied Teams
United States	10	5	5	0	543	428	+115
Italy	9	5	4	1	386	367	+19
Slovenia	7	5	2	3	434	433	+1	1W–1L	(167/160, 1.0438)
China	7	5	2	3	424	455	−31	1W–1L	(165/167, 0.9880)
Puerto Rico	7	5	2	3	432	440	−8	1W–1L	(172/177, 0.9718)
Senegal	5	5	0	5	355	451	−96

August 19, 2006

Puerto Rico	100–111	United States
Slovenia	96–79	Senegal
China	69–84	Italy

August 20, 2006

Senegal	79–88	Puerto Rico
Italy	80–76	Slovenia
United States	121–90	China

August 22, 2006

Puerto Rico	90–87 (OT)	China
Italy	64–56	Senegal
Slovenia	95–114	United States

August 23, 2006

Senegal	83–100	China
Puerto Rico	82–90	Slovenia
United States	94–85	Italy

August 24, 2006

Slovenia	77–78	China
Italy	73–72	Puerto Rico
United States	103–58	Senegal

Knockout stage

All times are local (UTC +9).

Venue: Saitama Super Arena

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

August 26

Argentina

79

August 29

New Zealand

62

Argentina

83

August 26

Turkey

58

Turkey

90

September 1

Slovenia

84

Argentina

74

August 26

Spain

75

Spain

87

August 29

Serbia and Montenegro

75

Spain

89

August 26

Lithuania

67

Italy

68

September 3

Lithuania

71

Spain

70

August 27

Greece

47

Greece

95

August 30

China

64

Greece

73

August 27

France

56

France

68

September 1

Angola

62

Greece

101

August 27

United States

95

Third place

United States

113

August 30

September 2

Australia

73

United States

85

United States

96

August 27

Germany

65

Argentina

81

Germany

78

Nigeria

77

Fifth through eighth place

	Classification round				Fifth place
	August 31
	Turkey (OT)	95
					September 2
	Lithuania	84
					Turkey	56
	August 31
					France	64
	France	75
	Germany	73
					Seventh place
					September 3
					Lithuania	77
					Germany	62

Final

Main article: 2006 FIBA World Championship Final

September 3, 2006 7:30 p.m.

Greece	47–70	Spain
Scoring by quarter: 12–18, 11–25, 11–11, 13–16
Pts: Michail Kakiouzis 17 Rebs: Michail Kakiouzis 9 Asts: Papaloukas, Diamantidis 3 each		Pts: Garbajosa, Navarro 20 each Rebs: Carlos Jiménez 11 Asts: Garbajosa, Berni Rodríguez 4 each

Saitama Super Arena, Saitama Attendance: 18,500

Scene from the final

Spain's Gold Medal ceremony

Since the inaugural competition one of the two teams competing for the title had been either the USA or Yugoslavia. After the latter's breakup, a Former Yugoslav Republic, Serbia, has taken its place in the final. The 2006 final was the first (the second was in 2019 also including Spain) in which none of these two teams competed. The final was an unexpectedly one-sided affair, with Spain dominating from the beginning and limiting Greece to just 47 points, fewer than the Greeks had scored in any single game in the tournament, and less than half what Greece had scored against the US in the semifinals. Spain won despite having lost power forward Pau Gasol, who was ultimately named the tournament's most valuable player, to injury in a semifinal match against Argentina.

Final rankings

2006 FIBA World Championship final rankings.

• Teams that were eliminated at the round of 16 are officially tied for 9th.
• Teams that were 5th at their preliminary rounds are officially tied for 17th.
• Teams that were 6th at their preliminary rounds are officially tied for 21st.

Rank	Team	Record
1	Spain	9–0
2	Greece	8–1
3	United States	8–1
4	Argentina	7–2
5	France	6–3
6	Turkey	6–3
7	Lithuania	5–4
8	Germany	5–4
9	Angola	3–3
	Australia	2–4
	China	2–4
	Italy	4–2
	New Zealand	2–4
	Nigeria	2–4
	Serbia and Montenegro	2–4
	Slovenia	2–4
17	Brazil	1–4
	Japan	1–4
	Lebanon	2–3
	Puerto Rico	2–3
21	Panama	0–5
	Qatar	0–5
	Senegal	0–5
	Venezuela	1–4

Awards

2006 World Championship Winner
Spain First title

Most Valuable Player
Pau Gasol

All-Tournament Team

Main article: FIBA Basketball World Cup All-Tournament Team

• Pau Gasol
• Jorge Garbajosa
• Carmelo Anthony
• Manu Ginóbili
• Theodoros Papaloukas

Leading scorers

No.	Player	Team	PPG
1	Yao Ming	China	25.3
2	Dirk Nowitzki	Germany	23.2
3	Pau Gasol	Spain	21.3
4	Carlos Arroyo	Puerto Rico	21.2
5	Larry Ayuso	Puerto Rico	21.2

Referees

For the World Championship, FIBA selected 40 professional referees.

Group A Aibara, Nobuyasu Avanessian, Heros Aylen, Michael Chlif, Abdellilah Dovidavičius, Virginijus Facchini, Fabio Jungebrand, Carl Moore, Terry Matthew Trías Iglesias, Álvaro Darío

Group B Muhimua Joao, Abreu Belošević, Ilija Carrión, José Aníbal Chiti, Alejandro César Noujaim, Rabah Ryzhyk, Borys Sudek, Petr Viator, Eddie Yang Maogong

Group C Arteaga, Juan Carlos Cerebuch, Guerrino Estévez, Pablo Alberto Homsy, Mike Amir Mercedes Sánchez, Reynaldo Antonio Miyatake, Yosuke Muhvić, Dubravko Pukl, Saša Rush, Eddie Fernanzo Vázquez, Jorge

Group D Bachar, Shmuel Brazauskas, Romualdas Butler, Scott Jason Delgado Casadiego, Daniel Alfredo Hirahara, Yuji Jovčić, Milivoje Maranho, Cristiano Jesus Martín Bertrán, José Antonio Simão, Domingos Francisco

Sponsorship

• McDonald's

References

1. Press Release no. 38: ITA, PUR, YUG and TUR receive Wild Cards

External links

• FIBA World Championship 2006 official website
• FIBA official website
• EuroBasket.com FIBA Basketball World Cup Page