HISTORY: USA to lose top spot in world basketball rankings to Spain

Willy Hernangomez won the Spanish European title in September. — ©AFP

The Belgian Lions are ranked 30th in the world. — © Belga

A historical fact in global basketball: The United States is no longer at the top of the new FIBA world rankings. The Olympic champion should leave that glory to Spain! Belgium Lions are in 30th place.

Patrick Soulemans

Yesterday at 9:09 PM

For the first time since the rankings were introduced in 2010, Americans are not No. 1. With 758.6 points, Spain is slightly better than the United States. (757.5 points). Spain has been a world power in basketball for years. With superstars such as Pau and Marc Gasol, Rudy Fernandez, Sergio Llull, Juan Carloz Navarro, Ricky Rubio and Sergio Rodriguez, it had many successes. And a new batch of talents. Spain were world champions at the 2019 World Cup, reached the quarter-finals at last year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo and were European champions in September. In the European Championship, it lost one game: against… Belgian Lions.

The USA may have become Olympic champions in Japan, but exited in the quarterfinals of the World Cup and finished 3rd at the 2022 America’s Cup.

Belgian Lions 30th

The rest of the top ten remain unchanged (in order) with Australia (3rd), Argentina, France, Serbia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Greece and Italy in tenth. The Belgian Lions dropped one place to 30th with 385.5 points.