1959 FIBA World Championship
FIBA Campeonato Mundial de Baloncesto de 1959
Tournament details
Host country	Chile
Dates	16–31 January
Officially opened by	Jorge Alessandri
Teams	13
Venue(s)	5 (in 5 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Brazil (1st title)
Runners-up	United States
Third place	Chile
Fourth place	Formosa
Tournament statistics
Games played	48
MVP	Amaury Pasos
Top scorer	James T. L. Chen (20.1 points per game)
← 1954 1963 →

The 1959 FIBA World Championship was the 3rd FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's national teams. It was hosted by Chile from 16 to 31 January 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.

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

Group A

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

Source: FIBA archive
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal average; 4) head-to-head number of points scored.

16 January

United States	87–73	Argentina
Scoring by half: 48-27, 39-46

Concepción, Chile

16 January

Formosa	71–69	United Arab Rep.
Scoring by half: 39-38, 32-31

Concepción, Chile

17 January

Argentina	65–52	United Arab Rep.
Scoring by half: 36-32, 29-20

Concepción, Chile

17 January

United States	81–73	Formosa
Scoring by half: 35-38, 46-35

Concepción, Chile

18 January

Argentina	59–63	Formosa
Scoring by half: 33-31, 26-32

Concepción, Chile

18 January

United Arab Rep.	58–103	United States
Scoring by half: 49-23, 54-35

Concepción, Chile

Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Brazil	3	2	1	211	175	+36	5^[a]	Final round
2	Soviet Union	3	2	1	229	199	+30	5^[a]	Final round
3	Canada	3	2	1	169	174	−5	5^[a]	Classification round
4	Mexico	3	0	3	173	234	−61	3	Classification round

Source: FIBA archive
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal average; 4) head-to-head number of points scored.
Notes:

^ ^a ^b ^c Head-to-head record: Brazil 1–1 (1.06 GAvg), Soviet Union 1–1 (1.00 GAvg), Canada 1–1 (0.94 GAvg)

16 January

Canada	52–69	Brazil
Scoring by half: 24-30, 28-39

Temuco, Chile

16 January

Soviet Union	102–72	Mexico
Scoring by half: 48-42, 54-30

Temuco, Chile

17 January

Canada	54–51	Mexico
Scoring by half: 26-19, 28-32

Temuco, Chile

17 January

Soviet Union	73–64	Brazil
Scoring by half: 39-36, 34-28

Temuco, Chile

18 January

Canada	63–54	Soviet Union
Scoring by half: 32-23, 31-31

Temuco, Chile

18 January

Mexico	50–78	Brazil
Scoring by half: 20-50, 30-28

Temuco, Chile

Group C

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

Source: FIBA archive
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal average; 4) head-to-head number of points scored.

16 January

Philippines	68–59	Uruguay
Scoring by half: 36-31, 32-28

Antofagasta, Chile

16 January

Bulgaria	67–55	Puerto Rico
Scoring by half: 37-16, 30-39

Antofagasta, Chile

17 January

Uruguay	64–78	Puerto Rico
Scoring by half: 37-40, 27-38

Antofagasta, Chile

17 January

Bulgaria	85–61	Philippines
Scoring by half: 36-21, 49-40

Antofagasta, Chile

18 January

Puerto Rico	76–63	Philippines
Scoring by half: 39-32, 37-31

Antofagasta, Chile

18 January

Bulgaria	65–58	Uruguay
Scoring by half: 31-28, 34-30

Antofagasta, Chile

Classification round

First round

Group D

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Philippines	2	2	0	145	130	+15	4	Eighth place playoff
2	United Arab Republic	2	1	1	136	135	+1	3	Tenth place playoff
3	Canada	2	0	2	134	150	−16	2	Twelfth place playoff

Source: FIBA archive
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal average; 4) head-to-head number of points scored.

21 January

Philippines	66–65	United Arab Rep.
Scoring by half: 25-29, 41-36

Valparaíso, Chile

22 January

Canada	69–71	United Arab Rep.
Scoring by half: 40-28, 29-43

Valparaíso, Chile

23 January

Canada	65–79	Philippines
Scoring by half: 33-31, 32-48

Valparaíso, Chile

Group E

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification
1	Uruguay	2	2	0	105	95	+10	4	Eighth place playoff
2	Argentina	2	1	1	123	117	+6	3	Tenth place playoff
3	Mexico	2	0	2	113	129	−16	2	Twelfth place playoff

Source: FIBA archive
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal average; 4) head-to-head number of points scored.

21 January

Argentina	48–51	Uruguay
Scoring by half: 19-22, 29-29

Valparaíso, Chile

22 January

Mexico	47–54	Uruguay
Scoring by half: 20-25, 27-29

Valparaíso, Chile

23 January

Argentina	75–66	Mexico
Scoring by half: 34-34, 41-32

Valparaíso, Chile

Second round

Twelfth place playoff

25 January

Canada	64–56	Mexico
Scoring by half: 33-25, 31-31

Valparaíso, Chile

Tenth place playoff

25 January

United Arab Rep.	59–61	Argentina
Scoring by half: 29-32, 30-29

Valparaíso, Chile

Eighth place playoff

25 January

Philippines	78–70	Uruguay
Scoring by half: 47-36, 31-34

Valparaíso, Chile

Final round

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts
1	Brazil (C)	6	5	1	472	382	+90	11
2	United States	6	4	2	370	378	−8	10
3	Chile (H)	6	2	4	393	444	−51	8^[a]
4	Formosa	6	2	4	315	350	−35	8^[a]
5	Puerto Rico	6	1	5	397	471	−74	7
6	Soviet Union^[b]	6	5	1	365	264	+101	10
7	Bulgaria^[b]	6	2	4	315	338	−23	7

Source: FIBA archive
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal average; 4) head-to-head number of points scored.
(C) Champions; (H) Hosts
Notes:

^ ^a ^b Head-to-head record: Chile 1–0 Formosa
^ ^a ^b FIBA demoted the Soviet Union and Bulgaria to the bottom two places after they refused to play against Formosa, forfeiting the game, due to political reasons.

20 January

Chile	86–85 (OT)	Formosa
Scoring by half: 35-27, 36-44 Overtime: 15-14

Puerto Rico	55–84	Soviet Union
Scoring by half: 29-26, 26-58

Bulgaria	58–63	United States
Scoring by half: 27-26, 31-37

United States	54–53	Puerto Rico
Scoring by half: 25-32, 29-21

Formosa	69–85	United States
Scoring by half: 32-33, 37-52

Bulgaria	58–78	Soviet Union
Scoring by half: 18-35, 40-43

United States	37–62	Soviet Union
Scoring by half: 14-25, 23-37

Rank	Team	Record
1	Brazil	7–2
2	United States	7–2
3	Chile	2–4
4	Formosa	4–5
5	Puerto Rico	3–6
6	Soviet Union	7–2
7	Bulgaria	5–4
8	Philippines	4–2
9	Uruguay	2–4
10	Argentina	3–3
11	United Arab Republic	1–5
12	Canada	3–3
13	Mexico	0–6

FIBA Basketball World Cup
History Awards Records Naismith Trophy
Tournaments	Argentina 1950 Brazil 1954 Chile 1959 Brazil 1963 Uruguay 1967 Yugoslavia 1970 Puerto Rico 1974 Philippines 1978 Colombia 1982 Spain 1986 Argentina 1990 Canada 1994 Greece 1998 United States 2002 Japan 2006 Turkey 2010 Spain 2014 China 2019 Philippines / Indonesia / Japan 2023 Qatar 2027
Qualification	2010 2014 2019 2023 2027
Finals	2002 2006 2010 2014 2019 2023 2027
Squads	1954 1986 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2019 2023
Final draw	2014 2019 2023
Host bids	2019 China Philippines 2023 Philippines–Japan–Indonesia Argentina–Uruguay 2027 Qatar
Related topics	Team appearances Most Valuable Player Top Scorer All-Tournament Team Winning head coaches
Category Commons

Competing nations

Competition format

Preliminary round

Group A

Group B

Group C

Classification round

First round

Group D

Group E

Second round

Twelfth place playoff

Tenth place playoff

Eighth place playoff

Final round

Awards

Final standings

Top scorers (points per game)

All-Tournament team

References

External links