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(詳細はFIBA World Championship in 1950. The FIBA Basketball World Cup is an international basketball competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been held every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1950 (the 1958 tournament was postponed to 1959 and did not get back on its current schedule until the 1970 tournament was held three years after the 1967 tournament). The tournament was conceived during the 1948 Summer Olympics when FIBA leaders, seeing how successful the Olympic basketball tournament had become, wanted to hold a Championship every four years between Olympiads. The first tournament was held in 1950 in Argentina and was won by the hosts. The tournament was later dominated from 1963 through 1998 by Brazil, the Soviet Union (and later Russia), the United States, and Yugoslavia (and later Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro), as those four teams won every medal in that era. Since 2002, however, parity has seen new teams claim medals as basketball continues to grow throughout the world. The tournament was restricted to amateur players for the first forty years of its existence. However, in 1989, FIBA made the decision to allow professional players for future tournaments. Starting in 1994, professional players have played in each Basketball World Cup. == Background == The first international basketball tournament took place in South America in 1930, some forty years after Dr. James Naismith invented the game. The International Amateur Basketball Federation (better known by its French acronym FIBA) was founded two years later with founding members Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland. In 1935, Europe held its first continental championship; based on the success of the event, basketball was introduced as an outdoor game for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The 1936 tournament was largely a success, drawing 21 teams from five continents (not including Spain and Hungary, which initially registered but withdrew just prior to the competition), the largest of any team competition. North American teams dominated, as the United States, Canada, and Mexico took the three podium spots. The tournament was not without its faults, as FIBA attempted to impose two last-minute rules. The first, that no player could be taller than was rejected after the United States (the only team with players over that stature) objected because half of their team would have been ineligible. The second, that only seven players could suit up for each game, was passed. Players also complained about the basketball, which was lighter than most players were used to and tended to get tossed about in the wind.〔 Finally, the final turned into a sloppy affair held in a driving rainstorm on a lawn tennis court. The United States won over Canada 19–8 in what was the lowest scoring game of the tournament (future events were moved indoors because of the disastrous weather). Despite the storm and the lack of any seating, 1,000 fans showed up for the final, and basketball was kept on the Olympic program for future years. Although the European Basketball Championship was put on hold between 1939 and 1946 because of World War II, the South American Basketball Championship was held every year between 1937 and 1945. Following the war years, basketball continued to grow in popularity; the 1947 European Basketball Championship drew a record fourteen teams. Basketball was again part of the Olympics in 1948. Despite the continued dominance of the gold-medal winning American team, the tournament was a resounding success, drawing 23 nations that were evenly disbursed around the world (eight from Europe, five from South America, five from Asia, four from North America, and one from Africa). Defending European champions Soviet Union did not take part in the event. With the successful Olympic tournament taking place in the background, the FIBA Congress met in London in 1948. At the urging of FIBA Secretary-General Renato William Jones, FIBA decided to organize a World Championship tournament every four years between the Olympics. The first tournament was to be held in 1950. Argentina was nominated to host for three major reasons – first, European countries were still recovering from the War and none expressed interest in hosting; second, Argentina had a positive image in the international basketball community and were a founding member of FIBA; finally, and probably most importantly, they were willing to take on the unenviable task of hosting the first World Championship. FIBA decided to invite ten teams – the hosts Argentina, the medalists from the 1948 Olympics (the United States, France, and Brazil), plus two teams each from South America, Europe, and Asia.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the FIBA Basketball World Cup」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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