FIBA Asia Cup
| Current season, competition or edition: Current sports event 2025 FIBA Asia Cup qualification | |
| File:FIBA Asia Cup.png | |
| Formerly | FIBA Asia Championship ABC Championship |
|---|---|
| Sport | Basketball |
| Founded | 1960 |
| First season | 1960 |
| No. of teams | 16 |
| Country | Asia and Oceania |
| Continent | |
| Most recent champion(s) | File:Flag of Australia (converted).svg Australia (2nd title) |
| Most titles | File:Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg China (16 titles) |
| Related competitions | FIBA Women's Asia Cup |
| Official website | FIBA Asia |
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The FIBA Asia Cup (formerly the FIBA Asia Championship and ABC Championship) is an international basketball tournament which takes place every four years between the men's national teams of Asia and Oceania. Through the 2015 edition, the tournament took place every two years and was also a qualifying tournament for the FIBA World Cup and the Olympic basketball tournament. However, since 2017, the tournament was renamed the FIBA Asia Cup and now includes teams from FIBA Oceania. Also, it was the first to be played on a new four-year cycle, and is no longer a part of the qualifying process for the World Cup or the Olympics.[1][2]
History
This section needs additional citations for verification. (November 2023) |
Beginnings: Philippines/Japan dominance
The Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Championship was inaugurated in Manila in 1960. The championship was held to find Asia's best team and for qualification to the World Championship and the Olympics. On the next four tournaments, the Philippines won 3 with the Japanese beating the Filipinos in 1965. Korea, Japan and the Philippines split the next 3 championships until China debuted in 1975 at Bangkok with the championship, where they have dominated for 40 years.
Chinese dominance
Right after the Philippines had started sending amateur players when the Philippine Basketball Association was established in 1975 as the first professional basketball league in Asia and therefore not allowed to lend the country's best players,[citation needed] China emerged as the new dominant country in Asian basketball. From 1975 to 2007, there were only two instances where China did not win the championship. In 1985, the Philippines defeated a full-strength Chinese team, which were by then five-time defending champions, in the championship round. The Chinese then won every game in the championship until 1997, where they to lost to South Korea in the semi-finals where they complained about the climate in Riyadh.[citation needed] The Koreans beat the Japanese in the final, but the Chinese would then start a championship streak of four tournaments, led by Yao Ming.
Renaming
By 2005, the tournament had been renamed as the FIBA Asia Championship; in that year's tournament in Doha, the Chinese easily won against the Lebanese in the final. During the 2007 championship, the Chinese did not send their "A" team since they had already qualified to the Olympics by virtue of hosting it. In this championship, West Asian teams started to compete with the traditional East Asian powers, as evidenced of an all-West Asian final when Iran defeated Lebanon. In 2009, Iran defeated the Chinese team A in the 2009 final to become only the 3rd team to successfully defend the championship. The 2009 championship started a streak of finals contested between a team from the Middle East and a team from the Far East; in 2011, Iran was eliminated by Jordan in the quarterfinals, which would then lose to hosts China by one point in the final. The 2013 championship would be the first to be hosted outside East Asia since 2005 in the Philippines, the hosts, emerged as finalists; China had been eliminated by Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals, which were then defeated by the Iranians, who then beat the Filipinos in the Final.
Removal of qualification status
As FIBA implemented a new cycle and tournament format, the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship held in Manila and the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship held in Changsha were the last Asian Championships to serve as qualification to either the FIBA Basketball World Cup and the Olympic Games, respectively. The 2017 FIBA Asia Championship marked firsts and lasts for the Asian Championship, as it was the first Asian Championship as a standalone tournament, meaning it did not serve as the qualifier for either the Basketball World Cup or the Olympic Games. The 2017 tournament was the last Asian Championships to be ever held under a 2-year cycle. After 2017, the Asian Championships and the FIBA Oceania Championship merged into a tournament to be known as the FIBA Asia Cup. It was held every 4 years like the EuroBasket, AfroBasket and AmeriCup, which are held 2 years before/after the FIBA World Cup.
Qualification
Qualification is via the different FIBA Asia subzones. The East, Gulf, Southeast and West subzones receive two berths each, while the Central and South zones get one each. The host and the champion from the preceding FIBA Asia Cup also get a berth each. Each subzone conducts a qualification tournament up to a year before the championship to determine the qualifying teams. The other four berths are distributed to the subzones in reference to their performance in the previous year's FIBA Asia Cup, with the subzone receiving an extra berth for each team in the top four excluding the champion and the host.
Tournament format
There had been a variety of tournament formats used before. Most were similar to the format of two group stages and a knockout stage. The current format, as first applied in 2017, is a multistage tournament. The 16 teams are grouped in four groups in the preliminary round. The teams play against each other once; the top team will directly advance to the quarterfinals, and the second placed teams will play an elimination game between the third placed team of another group. The four winning teams of the elimination games will advance to the quarterfinals. After the elimination games, the knock-out phase will follow. The classification games will be conducted as follows:
- 13–16th place games are for the teams eliminated from the group phase.
- The 9th to 12th place games are for the losing teams of the elimination games.
- The 5–8th place games are for the eliminated teams in the quarterfinals.
Summary
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Medal table
- First place
- Second place
- Third place
- Fourth place to Eighth place
- Lower than Eighth place
- FIBA Asia or FIBA Oceania member, no appearance yet
- Not a member of FIBA Asia or FIBA Oceania
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | File:Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg China | 16 | 1 | 2 | 19 |
| 2 | File:Flag of the Philippines.svg Philippines | 5 | 4 | 1 | 10 |
| 3 | File:Flag of Iran.svg Iran | 3 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| 4 | File:Flag of South Korea.svg South Korea | 2 | 11 | 12 | 25 |
| 5 | File:Flag of Japan.svg Japan | 2 | 5 | 7 | 14 |
| 6 | File:Flag of Australia (converted).svg Australia | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | File:Flag of Lebanon.svg Lebanon | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 8 | File:Flag of Chinese Taipei for Olympic games.svg Chinese Taipei | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 9 | File:Flag of Jordan.svg Jordan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 10 | File:Flag of North Korea.svg North Korea | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | File:Flag of Qatar.svg Qatar | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 12 | File:Flag of New Zealand.svg New Zealand | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| File:Flag of Saudi Arabia.svg Saudi Arabia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Totals (13 entries) | 30 | 30 | 30 | 90 | |
Tournament awards
- Most recent award winners (2022)
| Year | Winner |
|---|---|
| 2022 | Lebanon Wael Arakji |
Tournament leaders
All-time
Highest scoring averages
| Rank | Player | Team | GP | Pts | PPG | Tournaments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Madanly | File:Flag of Syria.svg Syria | 11 | 314 | 28.5 | Japan 2007, Lebanon 2017 |
| 2 | Sani Sakakini | File:Flag of Palestine.svg Palestine | 8 | 179 | 22.4 | China 2015 |
| 3 | Alkhas Zaid | File:Flag of Jordan.svg Jordan | 7 | 156 | 22.3 | China 2003 |
| 4 | Fadi El Khatib | File:Flag of Lebanon.svg Lebanon | 39 | 860 | 22.1 | China 2001, Kuwait 2005,Japan 2007, China 2009, Lebanon 2017 |
| 5 | Jamal Abu-Shamala | File:Flag of Palestine.svg Palestine | 8 | 172 | 21.5 | China 2015 |
| 6 | Wael Arakji | File:Flag of Lebanon.svg Lebanon | 10 | 212 | 21.2 | Lebanon 2017, Indonesia 2022 |
| 7 | Abdullah Alsarraf | File:Flag of Kuwait.svg Kuwait | 14 | 290 | 20.7 | China 2003, Kuwait 2005 |
| 8 | A. Mohamad | File:Flag of Syria.svg Syria | 7 | 139 | 19.9 | China 2003 |
| 9 | K. Satiyseelan | File:Flag of Malaysia.svg Malaysia | 7 | 138 | 19.7 | China 2003 |
| 10 | Rasheim Wright | File:Flag of Jordan.svg Jordan | 26 | 504 | 19.4 | Japan 2007, China 2009, China 2011 |
Cumulative top scorers
| Rank | Player | Team | GP | Pts | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fadi El Khatib | File:Flag of Lebanon.svg Lebanon | 39 | 860 | 22.1 |
| 2 | Hamed Haddadi | File:Flag of Iran.svg Iran | 60 | 855 | 14.3 |
| 3 | Samad Nikkhah Bahrami | File:Flag of Iran.svg Iran | 44 | 615 | 14.0 |
| 4 | Yi Jianlian | File:Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg China | 36 | 551 | 15.3 |
| 5 | Anton Ponomarev | File:Flag of Kazakhstan.svg Kazakhstan | 43 | 548 | 12.7 |
| 6 | Kim Joo-sung | File:Flag of South Korea.svg South Korea | 50 | 523 | 10.5 |
| 7 | Rasheim Wright | File:Flag of Jordan.svg Jordan | 26 | 504 | 19.4 |
| 8 | Daoud Musa Daoud | File:Flag of Qatar.svg Qatar | 45 | 487 | 10.8 |
| 9 | Wang Zhizhi | File:Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg China | 34 | 472 | 13.9 |
| 10 | Abdulrahman Saad | File:Flag of Qatar.svg Qatar | 41 | 467 | 11.4 |
Per tournament
Points
| Year | Player | Team | GP | Pts | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Michael Madanly | File:Flag of Syria.svg Syria | 7 | 232 | 33.1 |
| 2007 | Fadi El Khatib | File:Flag of Lebanon.svg Lebanon | 8 | 218 | 27.3 |
| 2009 | Rasheim Wright | File:Flag of Jordan.svg Jordan | 9 | 186 | 20.7 |
| 2011 | Marcus Douthit | File:Flag of the Philippines.svg Philippines | 9 | 197 | 21.9 |
| 2013 | Hamed Haddadi | File:Flag of Iran.svg Iran | 9 | 169 | 18.8 |
| 2017 | Fadi El Khatib | File:Flag of Lebanon.svg Lebanon | 7 | 181 | 25.9 |
| 2015 | Sani Sakakini | File:Flag of Palestine.svg Palestine | 8 | 179 | 22.4 |
Rebounds
| Year | Player | Team | GP | Reb | RPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Wissam Yakoub | File:Flag of Syria.svg Syria | 7 | 74 | 10.6 |
| 2009 | Hamed Haddadi | File:Flag of Iran.svg Iran | 9 | 118 | 13.1 |
| 2011 | Marcus Douthit | File:Flag of the Philippines.svg Philippines | 9 | 110 | 12.2 |
| 2013 | Hamed Haddadi | File:Flag of Iran.svg Iran | 9 | 90 | 10.0 |
| 2015 | Sani Sakakini | File:Flag of Palestine.svg Palestine | 8 | 101 | 12.6 |
| 2017 | Hamed Haddadi | File:Flag of Iran.svg Iran | 6 | 65 | 10.8 |
Assists
| Year | Player | Team | GP | Ast | APG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Sambhaji Kadam | File:Flag of India.svg India | 7 | 28 | 4.0 |
| 2009 | Samad Nikkhah Bahrami | File:Flag of Iran.svg Iran | 9 | 43 | 4.8 |
| 2011 | Mario Wuysang | File:Flag of Indonesia.svg Indonesia | 5 | 32 | 6.4 |
| 2013 | Mehdi Kamrani | File:Flag of Iran.svg Iran | 9 | 59 | 6.6 |
| 2015 | Imad Qahwash | File:Flag of Palestine.svg Palestine | 8 | 48 | 6.0 |
| 2017 | Hamed Haddadi | File:Flag of Iran.svg Iran | 6 | 39 | 6.5 |
Participating nations
20th century
21st century
Debut of teams
A total of 33 national teams have appeared in at least one FIBA Asia Cup in the history of the tournament through the 2025 competition. Each successive Asia Cup has had at least one team appearing for the first time. Countries competing in their first Asia Cup are listed below by year.
General statistics
All-time statistics, as of the 2022 FIBA Asia Cup.
Notes
- ↑ Originally scheduled for 2021, but postponed to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
See also
- Basketball at the Summer Olympics
- Basketball at the Asian Games
- FIBA Basketball World Cup
- FIBA Asia Challenge
- FIBA Asia Under-20 Championship
- FIBA Asia Under-18 Championship
- FIBA Asia Under-16 Championship
- FIBA Asia Women's Cup
References
- ↑ Etchells, Daniel (2 June 2017). "Holders China learn group-stage opponents for 2017 FIBA Asia Cup". Inside the Games. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
- ↑ Beltran, Nelson (31 May 2017). "'Stand-alone' FIBA Asia Cup crowns continental champ". The Philippine Star. Retrieved 18 August 2023.
- ↑ "FIBA Archive", FIBA.com, 3 October 2015, archived from the original on 12 July 2011, retrieved 13 October 2015
- ↑ "FIBA Archive: highest scoring average in FIBA Asia Championship", FIBA.com, 3 October 2015, archived from the original on 26 August 2017, retrieved 26 August 2017
