FIBA Asia Cup

History

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, 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. 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 quarter-finals, 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 quarter-finals, 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 is held every four years like the EuroBasket, AfroBasket and AmeriCup, which are held two years before and 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 quarter-finals, 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 quarter-finals. After the elimination games, the knock-out phase will follow.

The classification games will be conducted as follows:

1. 13–16th place games are for the teams eliminated from the group phase.
2. The 9th to 12th place games are for the losing teams of the elimination games.
3. The 5–8th place games are for the eliminated teams in the quarter-finals.

Summary

Medal table

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Tournament awards

;Most recent award winners (2022) Main article: FIBA Asia Cup Most Valuable Player, FIBA Asia Cup All-Tournament Team

Tournament leaders

• Minimum of five games played (GP).

All-time

Highest scoring averages

Cumulative top scorers

Per tournament

Points

Rebounds

Assists

Participating nations

20th century

21st century

Debut of teams

A total of 34 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 2025 FIBA Asia Cup.

Notes

References

References

1. Etchells, Daniel. (2 June 2017). "Holders China learn group-stage opponents for 2017 FIBA Asia Cup".
2. Beltran. (31 May 2017). "'Stand-alone' FIBA Asia Cup crowns continental champ".
3. (3 October 2015). "FIBA Archive". FIBA.com.
4. (3 October 2015). "FIBA Archive: highest scoring average in FIBA Asia Championship". FIBA.com.