2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup Final

The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup final was the concluding basketball game which determined the winner of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup. The game was played on 10 September 2023, at the Mall of Asia Arena, in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines, between Germany and Serbia. It was the first all-European final since 2006 in Japan, when Spain won its first title against Greece.

At halftime, a turnover ceremony was held to officially hand over the hosting rights of the FIBA Basketball World Cup from the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia to Qatar, host of the 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup, the first in tournament history to be held in the Middle East and North Africa region. The Naismith Trophy was awarded to the winning team for the second time since the adoption of its new version in 2017, with Germany winning its first World Cup title.

Background

The 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup was the 19th edition of the tournament, held in multiple countries for the first time in its history in the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia, between 25 August and 10 September 2023. Japan and the Philippines automatically qualified as hosts but Indonesia weren't able to qualify after failing to reach the quarterfinals of the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup, which was the condition set by FIBA for the country to qualify for the tournament. 80 teams competed for the remaining 30 spots through qualification windows organized by FIBA's four confederations (Africa, Americas, Asia-Oceania, Europe) and were held from November 2021 to February 2023. In the final draw, the 32 qualified teams were then divided into eight groups of four teams, with each team playing each other once in a round-robin format. The top two teams in each group qualified for the second round made up of the teams that advanced from the first round, with groups being formed by joining pairs of first-round groups together (A and B to I, C and D to J, E and F to K, and G and H to L). The top two teams from each group advanced to a knock-out phase.

The defending champions from the 2019 World Cup were Spain. They managed to top their first round group but were eliminated in the second round, finishing at third behind Canada and Latvia. Both Germany and Serbia have not won the FIBA Basketball World Cup once, but the latter cliched two consecutive titles in 1998 and 2002, respectively, as the former Yugoslavia. Germany won its last matchup against Serbia at the World Cup in 2010 in double-overtime, 82–81.

Serbia reached the 2014 final and the 2016 Olympic final, but lost to the United States on both occasions. They were also eliminated by Argentina in the quarter-finals of the 2019 tournament. Under head coach Svetislav Pešić, Serbia won all of its five games in the group phase and finished 9th at the EuroBasket 2022. The 2023 final would be the first for Germany in their seventh World Cup appearance and sixth as Germany, as they were formerly known as West Germany in their tournament debut in 1986. Their previous best performance was at the 2002 World Cup, where they won the bronze medal after winning against New Zealand in the third-place game. Under head coach Gordon Herbert, Germany also won the bronze at the EuroBasket 2022, the country's first podium finish in the tournament since 2005.

Venue

The final was played at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, a city within Metro Manila, Philippines. The arena was one of the five proposed venues of the joint Philippine–Japanese–Indonesian World Cup bid, and was named the Final Phase venue on 28 April 2023. It hosted twelve group stage games, four second-round games, four 17–32 classification games, and all final phase games.

The Mall of Asia Arena, owned by SM Lifestyle Entertainment, which is under SM Prime Holdings, was built as part of the master plan for the SM Mall of Asia complex. The arena was designed by architecture firm Arquitectonica, and has a seating capacity of 15,000 but can host as much as 20,000 people in a full-house capacity. Construction began in 2010, and had its topping-off ceremony in September 2011. It hosted its first basketball event, a 2012 PBA Governors Cup semifinals game between the B-Meg Llamados and the Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters, on 7 July 2012.

The arena is one of the playing venues of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) and the country's major collegiate leagues ( NCAA, UAAP). It has also hosted the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship, one of the 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournaments for Men, the basketball tournament of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, and several 2019 and 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers games of the Philippines.

Venue change

The joint bid initially called for the 55,000-seater Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan to host the World Cup's Final Phase, from the quarter-finals to the World Cup Final. The arena previously hosted the 2018 FIBA 3x3 World Cup, three FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian Qualifiers games of the Philippines for 2019 and 2023, and the opening ceremony of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

On 28 April 2023, FIBA announced during its Central Board meeting that the venue would be changed to the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay, citing logistical and transport issues, which were experienced in various events at the arena, including various concerts and the sixth and final window of the 2023 World Cup Asian Qualifiers. Instead, the Philippine Arena hosted the first two games of Group A on 25 August 2023: Angola vs. Italy and Dominican Republic vs. Philippines.

Route to the final

''Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first.''

Game

The game between Germany and Serbia was widely seen as a surprising final, as both teams were not favoured in their semi-final match-ups. In FIBA's media survey, none of the participants tipped Germany or Serbia as title winners, instead favouring record holders United States. The game was tightly contested in the first quarter, which finished with a 23–26 score. Serbia went on a run in the second quarter, and following a Bogdan Bogdanović step-back three-pointer the Serbs led by four points, 38–42. Germany managed to come back and the two teams went into halftime with the score tied at 47–47. It was only the second time a World Cup final had been tied at halftime. In the third quarter, Germany opened up a lead after going on a 15–4 run and began the final quarter with a 12-point lead. Serbia fought back, behind 13 points in the quarter from Aleksa Avramović. With 1:21 remaining and just a three-point lead, Germany's Isaac Bonga turned over the ball to Marko Gudurić, who missed a lay-up as he was fouled in the process. Following more free throws by Germany and Serbia, the game was 79–77, Germany, in the final minute. With just 21 seconds on the clock, it was Dennis Schröder driving lay-up that gave the Germans an 81–77 lead. In the following possession, Gudurić turned the ball over and Schröder converted two free-throws to seal Germany's first-ever World Cup title. Schröder had a game-high 28 points and hit nine of his seventeen attempted field goals. Franz Wagner contributed 19 points and 7 rebounds, while Avramović led Serbia in scoring with 21 points. Bogdanović finished with 17 points and 5 assists. Schröder was named the tournament's most valuable player after the game, and was also named to the All-Star Five along with Bogdanović.

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Final
FIBA Basketball World Cup finals
Sports competitions in Manila
FIBA Basketball World Cup final
September 2023 sports events in the Philippines
Serbia national basketball team games