1963 FIBA World Championship


The 1963 FIBA World Championship was the 4th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's national teams. The competition was hosted by Brazil from 12 to 25 May 1963.
The Philippines was originally awarded the right to host the tournament, but FIBA rescinded this after the Filipino immigration officials refused to grant visas to players from communist countries.
Brazil, the defending champion and a previous host, re-hosted the championship from 12 to 25 May 1963, and won the first back-to-back title with just six games, having been seeded and entering the well-rested team in the final round only.

Background

The Philippines was supposed to host the FIBA World Championship in 1962 but FIBA revoked hosting rights after the government of then President Diosdado Macapagal, refused to grant visas to players and officials of socialists countries including Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. A smaller tournament, the Spalding Invitation Tournament was held in the Philippines in its place.
The FIBA World Championship was held in 1963 in Brazil.

Competing nations

Competition format

  • Preliminary round: Three groups of four teams play each other once; top two teams progress to the final round, bottom two teams relegated to classification round.
  • Classification round: All bottom two teams from preliminary round group play each other once. The team with the best record is ranked eighth; the worst is ranked 13th.
  • Final round: All top two teams from preliminary round group, the 1960 Olympic champion, and the host team play each other once. The team with the best record wins the championship.

    Preliminary round

Group A

Group B

Group C

Classification round

Final round

Awards

Most Valuable Player

Final standings

All-Tournament Team

  1. Ricardo Duarte 23.1
  2. Aleksander Petrov 17.6
  3. Luis Enrique Grajeda 17.5
  4. Radivoj Korać 16.8
  5. Maxime Dorigo 16.8
  6. Alfredo Tulli 16.1
  7. Alberto Desimone 16
  8. Rafael Valle 15.8
  9. Nemanja Đurić 14.6
  10. Paolo Vittori 14.3