The preliminary round was held in Rosario, Santa Fe, Cordoba and Villa Ballester, games for 9-16 places in Salta, and matches of rivals for 1-8 positions in Buenos Aires .
The USSR national team arrived in a weakened composition: the Lithuanian basketball players Sabonis , Marchiulionis , Khomichyus , Kurtinaitis refused to play for the team.
After the completely unsuccessful 1986 World Cup, in which 24 national teams took part, the organizers returned to the format of competitions with 16 teams. The first two teams of each of the preliminary round groups fell into the quarter-final groups and continued the struggle for medals. The rest moved to the fight for 9-16 places.
The Big Three of the USA, the USSR and Yugoslavia successfully passed the preliminary round. Yugoslavia lost Puerto Rico at this stage, but continued to be one of the main contenders for gold medals. The USSR and without the Lithuanian stars simply “drove” the rivals of the first round, however, like the USA, the leaders of which were Billy Owens, Alonzo Mourning, Kenny Anderson and Christian Leittner, and the team was trained by Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski.
The most confusing situation was in group B, where the same number of victories was obtained immediately by three strong teams - Australia, Brazil and Italy. After scoring the points, the Italians turned out to be “extra", who were let down by a major defeat from the Brazilians, led by Oscar Schmidt (109: 125).
In the quarter-final groups, the struggle did not wane for a minute. The USSR, having suffered the greatest defeat in Yugoslavia in its history at the World Championships (77: 100), was obliged to win Brazil in the last round to continue the struggle. And thanks to Volkov and Tikhonenko, Soviet basketball players won 110: 100 and reached the semifinals.
In another quarterfinal group, Puerto Rico players were completely defeated. They beat both the Australians and the hosts of the championship, and then managed to defeat even the USA (81:79, Ortiz scored 22 points) and deservedly took first place in their quarterfinal group. The Americans, having achieved very difficult victories over Australia (79:78) and Argentina (104: 100), only by force of will made their way to the semifinals.
Basketball players of the USSR stopped the sensation of the 1990 World Cup - the Puerto Rico national team, confidently beating them with a score of 98:82. In the second semifinal, there was more struggle. Alonzo Mourning, who scored 26 points, led the Americans, but the Yugoslavs were very good at US basketball, knowing it from the inside. Three players of the national team (Petrovich, Paspal and Divac) continued contracts in the NBA. In addition, the Balkans showed an amazing percentage of hits due to the three-point line, out of 19 shots, hitting 11 (57.8%). Drazen Petrovich (31 points) and Tony Kukoch (19) became the main builders of the victory of Yugoslavia - 99:91.
World Cup Top Players
The best player of the championship was recognized Tony Kukoch .
The most productive in the USSR team are V. Tikhonenko (154 points), A. Volkov (141 points, with 55 rebounds), V. Berezhnoy (79 points), S. Bazarevich (72 points).
In the match for third place, the United States only in overtime broke the resistance of Puerto Ricans - 107: 105.
The main highlight of the championship finals was the great dominance of one team over another. The Yugoslavs without much effort defeated the USSR national team for the second time in the tournament, and again with a big advantage - 92:75. Petrovich scored 20 points from the winners. Thus, Yugoslavia received the third in its history set of gold medals of the world championship.
| Yugoslavia | 92 - 75 | the USSR |
- Yugoslavia : Drazen Petrovich , Velimir Perasovich, Zoran Chutura, Tony Kukoch , Zharko Paspal, Yuri Zdovts, Zhelko Obradovic, Radisav Churchich , Vlada Divac , Aryan Komazets, Zoran Jovanovic, Zoran Savich. Trainer: Dusan Ivkovich
- USSR : Victor Berezhnoy , Andrei Lopatov (both CSKA), Sergey Bazarevich , Dmitry Sukharev (both Dynamo, Moscow), Alexander Belostenny (Zaragoza, Spain), Alexander Volkov (Atlanta Hawks, USA) , Igor Pinchuk (Builder, Kiev), Gundars Vetra (VEF, Riga), Valery Korolev (Spartak, Leningrad), Oleg Meleschenko , Valery Tikhonenko (both SKA, Alma-Ata), Tiit Sokk ("Kalev"). Trainers: Vladas Garastas , Zurab Khromaev.
Argentina
Champion
Yugoslavia (3rd title)
Oscar Schmidt (34.6)