2019 FIBA Intercontinental Cup

Result

Games

Final context

The 28th edition marked a significant format change: for the first time, the Intercontinental Cup expanded from a single winner-take-all final to a four-team "Final Four," with semifinals, a third-place game, and a championship final, all played February 15-17, 2019 at Carioca Arena 1 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The field brought together AEK of Athens (Basketball Champions League champion), host-nation Flamengo (FIBA Americas League champion), Argentina's San Lorenzo (Liga Sudamericana champion), and the Austin Spurs (NBA G League champion, standing in for the NBA itself, which has never sent a representative to the modern tournament). In the February 15 semifinals, AEK routed San Lorenzo 86-64, pulling away with a 27-13 second quarter; Delroy James (15 points, 8 rebounds) and Dusan Sakota (15 points) led a balanced Greek attack, while Dar Tucker (17 points) and Joel Anthony (16 points, 9 rebounds) paced San Lorenzo in defeat. In the other semifinal, Flamengo overwhelmed the Austin Spurs 90-58, with Franco Balbi scoring all 19 of his points in the first half alone. In the third-place game on February 17, San Lorenzo beat Austin Spurs 77-59 for the bronze. The final, also on February 17 before a full house of 6,000, saw AEK defeat Flamengo 86-70 to claim the club's first Intercontinental Cup title. Guard Jordan Theodore was the standout of the tournament, finishing the championship game with 22 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals, and averaging 17.0 points and 3.0 assists across the event en route to being named tournament MVP. The final was played under the watch of FIBA president Horacio Muratore and other league officials, underscoring the tournament's growing institutional profile as it broadened beyond its original two-team, two-continent format. This edition is sometimes catalogued by FIBA as the "2018-19" edition, reflecting the tournament's move on the calendar from a September date (used in 2016 and 2017) to a February date -- a shift that meant no separate calendar-2018 edition was played. For AEK, a historically significant Greek club that had gone through lean years in the 2000s and 2010s before a return to prominence, the win capped a run that also included Greek domestic silverware, cementing the club's return to the top of Greek and now international club basketball. It was also the first edition to feature an NBA G League club rather than an actual NBA team, a substitution that would recur in 2020 as well, since NBA champions have never taken part in the modern Intercontinental Cup.

Sources

• Wikipedia — 2019 FIBA Intercontinental Cup
• FIBA — AEK beat Flamengo in Final to win FIBA Intercontinental Cup
• Greek City Times — AEK Beats Flamengo And Wins FIBA Intercontinental Cup