Spain has won the 2019 FIBA Basketball Men’s World Cup. On Sunday from Beijing, China, Spain defeated Argentina 95-75 in the gold medal game.
Spain was led in scoring by Ricky Rubio of the Phoenix Suns. Rubio recorded 20 points and was one of six players on Spain who reached the double digit mark in scoring. Sergio Llul of Real Madrid had 15 points, Marc Gasol of the Toronto Raptors had 14 points, while Willy Hernangomez of the Charlotte Hornets, his brother Juancho Hernangomez of the Denver Nuggets and Rudy Fernandez of Real Madrid had 11 points each.
Fernandez meanwhile had the double double as he collected 10 rebounds. Gasol led Spain with seven assists and was the co-leader in blocked shots with three. Meanwhile, Willy Hernangomez also co-led Spain with three blocked shots, and Gasol, Juancho Hernangomez and Victor Claver of FC Barcelona all led Spain with two steals each.
Spain had more points than Argentina in all four quarters. The Spanish-speaking European nation outscored the Spanish-speaking South American nation 23-14 in the first quarter, 20-17 in the second quarter, 23-18 in the third quarter and 29-28 in the fourth quarter.
Gasol, who won the NBA Finals with the Toronto Raptors in June, became only the second basketball player ever to win the NBA Finals and the FIBA Basketball World Cup in the same year. The first was Lamar Odom of Queens, NY, who won the NBA Finals with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2010 and the 2010 World Men’s Basketball Championship with the United States in Istanbul, Turkey. In the gold medal game, the United States beat the host nation from Turkey 81-64.
This was Spain’s second FIBA Basketball World Cup title. The first came in 2006, as Spain beat Greece 70-47 in Japan.
France beat Australia 67-59 to win the bronze medal at the 2019 FIBA Men’s Basketball World Cup. This was the first world men’s basketball championship where the United States did not earn a medal since 2002.
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