FIBA ranking: Spains claims no. 1 spot / News - Basketnews.com

Spain took over the USA in the latest FIBA ranking, claiming the no. 1 spot from the Americans.

Credit: Federación Española de Baloncesto Credit Federación Española de Baloncesto

History has been made as Spain is the new number one team in the latest FIBA Ranking, presented by Nike. With the USA holding the number one spot for over 12 years, Spain is only the second team to top the ranking since its introduction in 2010.

Spain / Schedule

Italy Spain84-88 Spain Netherlands84-72

Spain's jump from No. 2 to the top spot resulted from their consistency in recent years in each game of each competition. Spain captured the titles at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 and the FIBA EuroBasket 2022 while also reaching the Quarter-Finals of the Tokyo Olympics. Their qualification campaigns since 2017 have also been very solid to help gain more points.

The United States of America did claim the gold at the Olympics, but they dropped out of the World Cup in the Quarter-Finals and finished third at the FIBA AmeriCup 2022.

Spain's most recent window for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Qualifiers was once again successful, winning a thriller in Italy and against the Netherlands in the European Qualifiers to book their ticket to Asia.

A key component to Spain's consistency has been its ability to evolve as a national team over the years and develop a large pool of players through the FIBA qualifiers. Sergio Scariolo has used 29 players, with nine of them playing in six or more games and three with nine appearances.

Spain leads the ranking with 758.6 points, followed by the United States with 757.5 points. The rest of the top 10 remained unchanged: Australia, Argentina, France, Serbia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Greece, and Italy.

Brazil's win over the United States and subsequent blowout of Mexico allowed the South Americans to jump one spot from 14 to 13 - swapping places with Poland.

The biggest riser in the ranking is Thailand, as they won all four of their games in the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Pre-Qualifiers in the November window to move up 10 spots to 92nd in the world.

For more information about the method used in calculating the FIBA World Ranking Men, please refer to the "How It Works" section.

Clickhereto view the full FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike.

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