2022 FIBA Intercontinental Cup

Result

Games

Final context

The 31st edition, played February 11-13, 2022, was historic before a single ball was tipped: it was the first Intercontinental Cup ever held in Africa, staged at the Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall in Cairo, Egypt, and it featured the first-ever African participant in the competition's modern era, Zamalek of Egypt, which had qualified as reigning Basketball Africa League champion. The four-team Final Four bracket also included defending champion Hereda San Pablo Burgos of Spain (Basketball Champions League champion), Flamengo of Brazil (FIBA Americas League champion), and the Lakeland Magic (NBA G League champion). In the February 11 semifinals, Flamengo routed Lakeland Magic 94-71, getting scoring from six different players in double figures, led by Yago Santos (18 points) and Franco Balbi (17 points, 9 assists, 4 rebounds); Lakeland's Hassani Gravett (16 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds) and Jeff Dowtin (16 points) could not keep pace. In the other semifinal, defending champion San Pablo Burgos defeated host-continent representative Zamalek 78-61, with Jarell Eddie scoring all 17 of his points in the first half and adding 8 rebounds, and Landry Nnoko recording a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double; Zamalek got 15 points from Mikhael Alexander McKinney and 12 from Edgar Sosa. In the third-place game, Lakeland Magic beat Zamalek 113-78, with Gravett and Dowtin (21 points, 11 assists in that game) starring, a result that made the G League club the first of its kind to win an Intercontinental Cup game of any kind. In the final on February 13, before 2,000 fans, Flamengo defeated San Pablo Burgos 75-62 to reclaim the world club title it had first won back in 2014. Lucas "Luke" Martinez was named tournament MVP after averaging 14.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 4 assists across the event; the MVP trophy was presented to him by Greek basketball legend Vassilis Spanoulis, who had himself won the same award as an Olympiacos player in the tournament's inaugural 2013 edition. The victory made Flamengo the first club outside Europe or the United States to win multiple Intercontinental Cup titles, and it remains, to date, the only Brazilian club to have won the competition more than once. Zamalek's participation, meanwhile, helped open the door for the tournament's continued expansion toward genuinely global representation over the following seasons, a trajectory that would continue with the tournament's subsequent shift to a September calendar date in 2023 and the addition of Asian, Oceanian, and further African representatives over the two editions that followed.

Sources

• Wikipedia — 2022 FIBA Intercontinental Cup
• FIBA — Flamengo proclaimed FIBA Intercontinental Cup 2022 champions