1959 FIBA World Championship

Dates

16–31 January

Teams

Venues

5 (in 5 host cities)

Champions

Brazil (1st title)

MVP

Amaury Antônio Passos

Tournament leaders

	Players	Teams
Points	James Chen (20.1)	Brazil (75.9)

< 1954

1963 >

The 1959 FIBA World Championship was an international basketball competition hosted by Chile from January 16 to 31, 1959. Amaury Antônio Pasos was named the MVP.

The hosting cities for the competition were Antofagasta, Concepción, Temuco, Valparaíso, with the final stages being held at the capital of Santiago.

The final stages were supposed to be held at the newly constructed Metropolitan Indoor Stadium, but because the venue was not finished in time the games were postponed by a year from the original date and moved outdoors to the Estadio Nacional de Chile, configured in a way that the games were seen by a crowd of 16,000. The United States is represented by the United States Air Force Team.

The Soviet Union refusal to meet Formosa in the final round led to their relegation to the last two places. If Soviet Union would have played that match and have won to Formosa (that was very probable), they would have been the champions of the tournament, but they refused to play because of political differences and lost the title.

Competing nations

Group A	Group B	Group C
Argentina United Arab Rep. Formosa United States	Brazil Canada Mexico Soviet Union	Bulgaria Philippines Puerto Rico Uruguay
Chile – advanced automatically to the final round as host

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:
- First round: Two groups of three teams (A1, B2, C1 and A2, B1, C2) play each other once.
- Second round: Top teams from each group play for eighth, second placers play for tenth, and last placers play for twelfth.
Final round: All top two from preliminary round group play each other once. The team with the best record wins the championship.

Preliminary round

	Qualified for the final round

Group A


Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
United States	3	3	0	271	204	+67	6
Formosa	3	2	1	207	209	−2	5
Argentina	3	1	2	197	202	−5	4
United Arab Rep.	3	0	3	179	239	−60	3

January 16

United States

81–73

Argentina

January 16

Formosa

71–69

January 17

Argentina

65–52

January 17

United States

81–73

Formosa

January 18

Argentina

59–63

Formosa

January 18

58–103

United States

Group B


Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Tie
Brazil	3	2	1	211	175	+36	5	1W-1L; 1.064
Soviet Union	3	2	1	229	199	+30	5	1W-1L; 1.000
Canada	3	2	1	169	174	−5	5	1W-1L; 0.935
Mexico	3	0	3	173	234	−61	3

January 16

Canada

52–69

Brazil

January 16

Soviet Union

73–64

January 17

Canada

54–51

January 17

Soviet Union

73–64

January 18

Canada

63–54

January 18

50–78

Brazil

Group C


Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
Bulgaria	3	3	0	217	174	+43	6
Puerto Rico	3	2	1	209	194	+15	5
Philippines	3	1	2	192	220	−28	4
Uruguay	3	0	3	181	211	−30	3

January 16

Philippines

68–59

January 16

Bulgaria

67–55

January 17

64–78

Puerto Rico

January 17

Bulgaria

85–61

Philippines

January 18

Puerto Rico

76–63

Philippines

January 18

Bulgaria

65–58

Classification round

Group D


Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
Philippines	2	2	0	145	120	+25	4
United Arab Rep.	2	1	1	136	148	−12	3
Canada	2	0	2	124	137	−13	2

January 21

Philippines

66–65

January 22

Canada

69–71

United Arab Rep.

January 23

Canada

65–79

Philippines

Group E


Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
Uruguay	2	2	0	105	95	+10	4
Argentina	2	1	1	123	117	+6	3
Mexico	2	0	2	113	129	−16	2

January 21

Argentina

48–51

Uruguay

January 22

47–54

Uruguay

January 23

Argentina

75–66

Second round

January 25

12th place

Canada

64–56

January 25

10th place

59–61

Argentina

January 25

8th place

Philippines

78–70

Final round


Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Tie
Brazil	6	5	1	472	382	+90	11
United States	6	4	2	370	378	−8	10
Chile	6	2	4	393	444	−51	8	86–85
Formosa	6	2	4	315	350	−35	8	85–86
Puerto Rico	6	1	5	397	471	−74	7
Soviet Union	6	5	1	365	264	+101	11
Bulgaria	6	2	4	315	338	−23	8

The Soviet Union and Bulgaria's refusal to meet Formosa in the final round and led to their relegation to the last two places. If Soviet Union would have played and won to Formosa (very probable), they would have been the champions of the tournament, but they refused to play because of political differences, and lost the title.

20 January

86–85

Formosa

21 January

55–84

21 January

58–63

United States

22 January

94–76

Formosa

22 January

83–71

23 January

62–53

Bulgaria

23 January

United States

54–53

24 January

63–66

24 January

Bulgaria

76–71

26 January

Formosa

69–85

United States

26 January

58–78

27 January

Formosa

81–85

27 January

49–75

28 January

99–71

28 January

United States

37–62

29 January

70–62

29 January

55–64

United States

30 January

Formosa

2–0

30 January

81–67

United States

31 January

Bulgaria

0–2

Formosa

31 January

73–49