After five editions in Latin America, the World Cup landed in Europe, with Yugoslavia being the chosen host, a country with a basketball in full swing, as the tournament would show. The hosts, led on the court by the centre of the park by Cosic, had one day left to win the tournament. They did so after beating the United States (70-63) in a boiling Tivoli Palace in Ljubljana with 14,000 spectators in the stands
At the 1963 World Cup in Brazil, the locals were crowned world champions for the second time in a row. After passing the group stages, Brazil won the Gold, Yugoslavia the Silver and the Soviet Union the Bronze
Political stuff. In 1959 the World Cup was held in Chile, where at the end, and after two phases we reached the last game with the Soviet Union virtually winning the World Cup, but their leaders had the order from Moscow not to play against the nationalist China team, ‘enemy’ of communist China, and by default was given up the game (2-0), and this was used by Brazil to be world champion
In 1954, the World Cup was held in Brazil, where the United States ended up undefeated and proclaimed themselves World Champions. The silver went to the local Brazil, and the bronze to the Philippines
