By beating Serbia in the final, Germany won its first world title. Team USA and Team France leave without a medal.
Germany, like in a dream, had the perfect tournament: winner of all its matches, defeat of the United States in the semi-final (113-111), dominant against Serbia in the final (83-77), the Mannschaft wins his first world title. Led by Dennis Schröder as formidable as in the semi-final, notably with 28 points scored, the Germans were able to make the difference in the third quarter by putting the Serbs up 13-2 in four minutes, while the score was 47-47 at halftime. Controlling their advantage until the end of the match, Germany won their second international competition after Euro 1993 at home. They will advance to the 2024 Olympics as serious candidates for the podium, and can in the meantime enjoy the consecration of their new status as a great nation in the world of basketball.
The two victories of the Blues in classification matches, which allow them to take 17th place in this world, will not erase the disappointment of the first two defeats against Canada (65-95) then Latvia (86-88). The French certainly lost against two superb teams, respectively 3rd and 5th in this World Cup, but their status obliged them to do better than an elimination in the first round. Rudy Gobert gave the beginning of an explanation for the rout, after the defeat against Latvia: “Perhaps unconsciously, the fact that we are expected very high, we forgot why we were there and our strength in recent years : play together, hard and impact the teams. […] In the end, in each match, we were the less tough team.” Vincent Collet’s Blues will have to rediscover the qualities that took them to the final of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, to perform at home in 2024.
This World Cup will also have been one of great stories. For its first World Cup, Latvia had an extraordinary tournament, beating and eliminating two favorites, France (88-86) then Spain (74-69). Then the Latvians came very close to overthrowing Germany in the quarter-final (79-81). They ended their journey on a good note by winning their two classification matches to finish fifth. Serbia, which had to do without NBA champion Nikola Jokic, also surprised by going to the final. South Sudan finally had a fantastic run for its first World Cup, just two years after its first Afrobasket. The South Sudanese finished 16th in this world championship, ahead of France and especially all the other African nations, which allows them to qualify directly for the 2024 Olympics. On the disappointment side, the United States only finished fourth losing against Germany in the semi-final then Canada in the small final (118-127 A.P.). Australia and Spain, other announced favorites, stopped in the second round.
France has never won the Basketball World Cup. The most successful nation is the United States and formerly Yugoslavia.
