Associated Press September 15, 2023, 8:51 a.m. ET2 Minutes
USA Basketball is back atop the FIBA Men’s World Rankings after failing to medal at the World Cup.
In the updated rankings released Friday, the Americans swapped first place in the world with Spain, regaining the top spot they lost at the end of last year. Spain is now No. 2 and world champions Germany have moved up eight places to No. 3 in the world rankings – the best in the program’s history.
Now it’s entirely possible that the Americans will retain their top spot heading into the Paris Olympics, where the U.S. will be seeking a fifth straight gold medal. FIBA, the sport’s governing body, updates its rankings every few months; Friday’s update was the first change to the men’s roster since February.
Spain overtook the United States in November 2022, ending a 12-year streak at the top for the Americans.
“The world is good in basketball,” said American point guard Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks as the World Cup came to an end. “Respect everyone.”
FIBA’s rankings switched in 2017 to a system that only considers results from the previous eight years. The Olympic gold medals from Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo factor into the current rankings and obviously help after failing to medal twice in a row at the last two world championships – the U.S. placed seventh in China in 2019 and fourth in Manila earlier this month Place and lost in the semifinals to Germany and in the bronze medal game to Canada.
Canada rose nine places to No. 6 in the world rankings by winning the bronze medal, and Latvia – which reached the quarterfinals of its first World Championships – climbed 22 places to No. 8.
The top 10 teams are the USA, Spain, Germany, Australia (which fell one place to No. 4), World Cup silver medalist Serbia (which climbed one place to No. 5), Canada, Argentina (which rose three places fell back to 5th place). 7 after failing to even make the World Cup field), Latvia, France (four spots down to 9th) and Lithuania (four spots down to 10th).
The biggest riser in the rankings after the World Cup was South Sudan, which was ranked 63rd in the world before the tournament and rose 32 places to 31st. South Sudan qualified for the Paris Olympics after finishing the World Cup as the top finisher from Africa at the tournament.
“This team is a ray of light, as I keep saying,” said South Sudan coach Royal Ivey after his team secured an Olympic berth in Manila. “We bring unity, camaraderie, love and friendship to this country.”
Latvia was the second-largest riser, rising 22 places, and Cape Verde – which claimed a victory at the World Cup – improved its ranking by 19 places to 46th.
“We made a statement,” Cape Verde’s Will Tavares, a Rhode Island-born forward, said after the World Cup victory. “Even though we are the smallest country, we have so much heart.”
There are 159 men’s teams in the FIBA rankings. USA Basketball also ranks No. 1 by a wide margin in FIBA’s other three rankings – women’s, boys’ and girls’.