FIBA Intercontinental Cup

Ginásio Poliesportivo Parque São Jorge, where the 1965 FIBA Intercontinental Cup Test was held.

The FIBA Intercontinental Cup unofficially began with the friendly competition of the 1965 FIBA Intercontinental Cup Test in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1965. The game was played by the defending champions of the South American Club Championship, S.C. Corinthians Paulista, and the defending champions of the FIBA European Champions Cup (EuroLeague), Real Madrid. It was held at the Ginásio Poliesportivo Parque São Jorge. Corinthians won the game 118 to 109, with Wlamir Marques of S.C. Corinthians scoring 40 points in the game.[6] Due to the test tournament's great success (attendance for the game was 10,000),[7] the FIBA Intercontinental Cup was made an official annual tournament by FIBA. The first official FIBA Intercontinental Cup tournament was then held the following year.[8]

In 1972, FIBA held a 4 team tournament, featuring the Soviet Union national basketball team, the Polish national basketball team, the Brazilian national basketball team, and the NABL All-Stars Team, which participated in the place of Team USA. Although this tournament is not a part of the actual Club World Cup, it is still listed in the event's history as a special version of the tournament and counts as one of the editions, while the actual club competition was on hiatus between the years of 1970 and 1973.[9]

In 2016, the tournament again changed format, with the EuroLeague champions no longer being allowed to compete in the tournament due to the EuroLeague's dispute with FIBA. In place of the EuroLeague champions, FIBA Europe began to send the champions of their club competition, originally the FIBA Europe Cup and later the FIBA Champions League, instead.[10][11] For the 2019 tournament, FIBA increased the competition's number of teams to four, by adding the NBA G League's champions, and also a tournament host club. The tournament was also reconfigured into a final four format.[12]

FIBA has also considered plans to expand the tournament at some point in the future, with plans to add the champion teams from the FIBA AfroLeague, the FIBA Asia Champions Cup, the Australian NBL, and possibly the NBA.[13][14]

In the 2022 tournament, the league expanded to include the winner of the Basketball Africa League (BAL).[15] From the 2023 tournament, the winners of the FIBA Asia Champions Cup will also be included in the tournament.[16]

In March 2023, the tournament format received an overhaul. The event was changed from February to September so that it adapts more efficiently to the domestic and continental leagues' calendar and the schedule of international players, and to better accommodate participating clubs.[17]

FIBA also signed a three-year deal partnership with Sport Singapore to hold the competition in the Singapore Sports Hub for three years in a row (until 2025). This makes it the first time in the Intercontinental Cup's history that the event will be held in Asia. Additionally, the tournament was expanded to six teams as an Asian representative was added. For the 2023 edition a team from the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) was chosen by FIBA to participate.[17]

Part of the official logo with the current competition name.

• FIBA Intercontinental Cup (or FIBA World Cup for Champion Clubs): (1966–1980)
• FIBA Club World Cup: (1981)
• FIBA Intercontinental Cup (or FIBA World Cup for Champion Clubs): (1982–1984)
• FIBA Club World Cup: (1985–1987)
• FIBA Intercontinental Cup (or FIBA World Cup for Champion Clubs): (2013–present)
  • Since 1973, the tournament has also been named in Honor of Renato William Jones, so the tournament's full official names would be either FIBA Intercontinental Cup "William Jones", or FIBA Club World Cup "William Jones".
  • The tournament is also referred to as the FIBA Intercontinental Cup of Clubs, in order to avoid confusion with the 1972 FIBA Intercontinental Cup of National Teams.

Club	Titles	Runners-up	Seasons won	Seasons runner-up
Real Madrid	5	2	1976, 1977, 1978, 1981, 2015	1968, 1970
Varese	3	4	1966, 1970, 1973	1967, 1974, 1976, 1977
Akron Wingfoots	3	0	1967, 1968, 1969	—
Canarias	3	0	2017, 2020, 2023 (I)	—
Cantù	2	1	1975, 1982	1983
Flamengo	2	1	2014, 2022	2019
Sírio	1	2	1979	1973, 1981
Obras Sanitarias	1	2	1983	1978, 1984
Franca	1	2	2023 (II)	1975, 1980
Maccabi Tel Aviv	1	1	1980	2014
FC Barcelona	1	1	1985	1987
Guaros de Lara	1	1	2016	2017
San Pablo Burgos	1	1	2021	2022
Maryland Terrapins	1	0	1974	—
Virtus Roma	1	0	1984	—
Žalgiris	1	0	1986	—
Olimpia Milano	1	0	1987	—
Panathinaikos	1	0	1996	—
Olympiacos	1	0	2013	—
AEK	1	0	2019	—
Corinthians	0	1	—	1966
Brno	0	1	—	1969
Bosna	0	1	—	1979
EBBC	0	1	—	1982
Monte Líbano	0	0	—	1985
Ferro Carril Oeste	0	1	—	1986
Olimpia	0	1	—	1996
Pinheiros	0	1	—	2013
Bauru	0	1	—	2015
Skyliners Frankfurt	0	1	—	2016
Virtus Bologna	0	1	—	2020
Quimsa	0	1	—	2021
São Paulo	0	1	—	2023 (I)
Baskets Bonn	0	1	—	2023 (II)

• The 1965 test tournament and the 1972 tournament for national teams are not included.

Rank	Country	League(s)	Title(s)	Runner(s)-up
1	Spain	Primera División / ACB	10	4
2	Italy	LBA	7	6
3	Brazil	CBB / NBB	4	10
4	United States	NABL – 3	4	–
		NCAA Division I – 1		–
5	Greece	GBL	3	–
6	Argentina	CAC / LNB	1	5
7	Israel	BSL	1	1
	Venezuela	LPB	1	1
9	Soviet Union	Premier League	1	–
10	Germany	BBL	–	2
11	Czechoslovakia	CSBL	–	1
	Netherlands	DBL	–	1
	Yugoslavia	FFL	–	1
Total			32	32

• The 1965 test tournament and the 1972 tournament for national teams are not included.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Spain	10	4	2	16
2	Italy	7	6	3	16
3	Brazil	4	10	5	19
4	United States	4	0	3	7
5	Greece	3	0	0	3
6	Argentina	1	5	3	9
7	Israel	1	1	2	4
8	Venezuela	1	1	0	2
9	Soviet Union	1	0	0	1
10	Germany	0	2	0	2
11	Yugoslavia	0	1	4	5
12	Czechoslovakia	0	1	0	1
	Netherlands	0	1	0	1
14	China	0	0	1	1
	Puerto Rico	0	0	1	1
	Uruguay	0	0	1	1
Totals (16 entries)		32	32	25	89

• The 1965 test tournament and the 1972 tournament for national teams are not included.

Bob Morse was the FIBA Intercontinental Cup Top Scorer in 1973 and 1976.

Drazen Petrovic was the FIBA Intercontinental Cup Top Scorer in 1985, 1986 and 1987 with Cibona Zagreb.

Dar Tucker was the FIBA Intercontinental Cup Top Scorer in 2019 and 2020.

Wlamir Marques holds the record for most points scored in a single game, when he scored 51 points in the 1965 test tournament. Dražen Petrović was top scorer of the tournament three times, a record. The players' nationalities in the following table are shown by national team.[22][23]

Year	Name(s)	Club(s)	Points	Ref.
1965[lower-alpha 1]	Wlamir Marques	Corinthians	51	[24][25]
1966	Clifford Luyk	Real Madrid	38	[26][27]
1967	Steve Chubin	Simmental Milano	79	[28][29]
1968	Miles Aiken	Real Madrid	53	[30][31]
1969	Jan Bobrovský	Spartak ZJŠ Brno		[32][33]
1970	Jiří Zídek Sr.	Slavia VŠ Praha	125	[34][35]
1972[lower-alpha 2]	Robertão	Brazil		[36]
1973	Bob Morse	Ignis Varese	103	[37][38]
1974	Walt Szczerbiak	Real Madrid		[39][40]
1975	Wayne Brabender	Real Madrid		[41][42]
1976	Bob Morse	Ignis Varese	90	[43][44]
1977	Wayne Brabender Bruce Campbell	Real Madrid Providence Friars	141	[45][46]
1978	Walt Szczerbiak	Real Madrid	114	[47][48]
1979	Oscar Schmidt	Sírio	138	[49][50][51]
1980	Miki Berkovich	Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv	94	[52][53]
1981	Mirza Delibašić	Real Madrid	176	[54][55]
1982	David Lawrence	Nashua EBBC	92	[56][57]
1983	Antonello Riva	Jollycolombani Cantù	158	[58][59]
1984	San Epifanio	FC Barcelona	101	[60][61]
1985	Drazen Petrovic	Cibona Zagreb	141	[62][63]
1986	Drazen Petrovic	Cibona Zagreb	120	[64][65][66]
1987	Drazen Petrovic	Cibona Zagreb	175	[67][68]
1996	Jorge Racca	Olimpia	74	[69]
2013	Shamell Stallworth	Pinheiros Sky	53	[70][71][72]
2014	Jeremy Pargo	Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv	49	[73][74]
2015	Rafael Hettsheimeir	Bauru	44	[75][76]
2016	Zach Graham	Guaros de Lara	19	[77][78][79]
2017	Mario Little	Guaros de Lara	23	[80][81][82][83]
2019	Dar Tucker	San Lorenzo	37	[84]
2020	Dar Tucker	San Lorenzo	38	[85]
2021	Brandon Robinson	Quimsa	25	[86]
2022	Luke Martínez	Flamengo	44	[87]
2023 (I)	Jarrett Culver	Rio Grande Valley Vipers	45
2023 (II)	Lucas Dias	Sesi Franca	54	[88]

After each tournament, FIBA awards the Most valuable player award to the player that is deemed the most important to his team during the Intercontinental Cup. The first MVP award was given to Walt Szczerbiak Sr. of Real Madrid after he guided them to the 1977 title. The last winner is Bruno Fitipaldo of Lenovo Tenerife in 2023.