The United States didn’t win a medal at this year’s World Cup, but the team’s fourth-place finish helped move the program back to No. 1 in FIBA’s updated world rankings.
The rankings are based on national teams’ performance in recent international competitions, including the World Cup, Olympics, and various regional tournaments. The U.S. had previously been at No. 2, behind Spain, the 2019 World Cup champions. The Spaniards finished ninth at this year’s World Cup and fell to second place in FIBA’s rankings.
Germany, Canada, and Latvia are among the biggest risers. The Germans moved up from 11th to third after winning the 2023 World Cup, while Canada’s bronze-medal finish helped them jump from 15th to sixth. Latvia, having finished fifth at the World Cup, climbed an impressive 22 spots, from 30th to eighth, in FIBA’s rankings.
Australia (fourth), Serbia (fifth), Argentina (seventh), France (ninth), and Lithuania (10th) are the other teams in the top 10. South Sudan is another notable riser, having leaped from 63rd to 31st to become Africa’s top-ranked national club.
FIBA’s rankings don’t mean much once the games begin, but they’re used to determine potting, seeding, and groupings in future competitions, so it will benefit teams like Germany, Canada, and Latvia going forward to be ranked higher, as Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca notes (via Twitter).
The full rankings can be viewed right here.
Stop. They proved they are weaklings compared to competition. This is a pointless article sorry. LeBron saying please help me. USA is not ranked first, that is Germany.
The FIBA team that just competed didn’t have one player on it from the 2020 Olympic roster that won Gold and, most likely, will only have 1 player on the Olympic roster come from it that played on the FIBA team in Anthony Edwards. The only real threat to overtaking USA’s claim at the top is France. Lebron also hasn’t played in FIBA or the Olympics since 2012 so not sure why you mentioned him.
Bobby Portis was on the Olympic team.
No, he wasn’t. You may be thinking of Jerami grant who was a part of that team.
link to fiba.basketball
Because he is recruiting all the all stars for the next Olympics. Help me help me
4th place does not equal 1st in the power rankings
Bro they sent their D or F team out there. What are you talking about.
Europeans punching the air right now