1982 FIBA Basketball World Cup
Colombia
1982 FIBA World Cup result: Soviet Union won gold, United States silver, Yugoslavia bronze, at Colombia. Final: 95-94.
Sourcing caveat: One summarized fetch of a general medal-history source misreported the 1982 bronze medalist as Spain. A detailed per-edition source (Yugoslavia and Spain tied 4-2 in the Second Round, then Yugoslavia's 119-117 win in the bronze game) confirms bronze correctly went to Yugoslavia.
Result
| Country | Result | |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | Soviet Union | 95-94 |
| Silver | United States | |
| Bronze | Yugoslavia |
Three preliminary groups fed a round-robin Second Round among 7 teams. The Soviet Union and USA finished tied atop at 5-1, and Yugoslavia/Spain tied for third at 4-2 — continuing the discrete-medal-game format 1978 introduced, freshly-played games between the tied pairs then decided the podium: USSR beat USA 95-94 for gold, its third title, and Yugoslavia beat Spain 119-117 for bronze.
USA's Doc Rivers was named tournament MVP despite the USA finishing silver.
Games
| Stage | Date | Result | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preliminary Round (Group A) | August 15, 1982 | Spain 88–85 Panama | Coliseo Cubierto El Campín, Bogotá, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group A) | August 15, 1982 | USA 96–73 China | Coliseo Cubierto El Campín, Bogotá, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group A) | August 16, 1982 | Spain 108–78 China | Coliseo Cubierto El Campín, Bogotá, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group A) | August 16, 1982 | USA 100–79 Panama | Coliseo Cubierto El Campín, Bogotá, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group A) / Classification Round | August 17, 1982 | Panama 121–92 China | Coliseo Cubierto El Campín, Bogotá, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group A) / Second Round | August 17, 1982 | Spain 109–99 USA | Coliseo Cubierto El Campín, Bogotá, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group B) | August 15, 1982 | Soviet Union 129–80 Ivory Coast | Coliseo Iván de Bedout, Medellín, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group B) | August 15, 1982 | Australia 75–73 Brazil | Coliseo Iván de Bedout, Medellín, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group B) / Second Round | August 16, 1982 | Soviet Union 108–69 Australia | Coliseo Iván de Bedout, Medellín, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group B) / Classification Round | August 16, 1982 | Brazil 102–79 Ivory Coast | Coliseo Iván de Bedout, Medellín, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group B) | August 17, 1982 | Australia 80–59 Ivory Coast | Coliseo Iván de Bedout, Medellín, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group B) | August 17, 1982 | Soviet Union 99–92 Brazil | Coliseo Iván de Bedout, Medellín, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group C) | August 15, 1982 | Yugoslavia 101–80 Czechoslovakia | Coliseo Vicente Díaz Romero, Bucaramanga, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group C) | August 15, 1982 | Canada 87–78 Uruguay | Coliseo Vicente Díaz Romero, Bucaramanga, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group C) | August 16, 1982 | Yugoslavia 101–77 Uruguay | Coliseo Vicente Díaz Romero, Bucaramanga, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group C) | August 16, 1982 | Canada 104–99 Czechoslovakia | Coliseo Vicente Díaz Romero, Bucaramanga, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group C) / Classification Round | August 17, 1982 | Czechoslovakia 111–84 Uruguay | Coliseo Vicente Díaz Romero, Bucaramanga, Colombia |
| Preliminary Round (Group C) / Second Round | August 17, 1982 | Yugoslavia 88–78 Canada | Coliseo Vicente Díaz Romero, Bucaramanga, Colombia |
| Classification Round | August 19, 1982 | Panama 117–83 Ivory Coast | Coliseo Toto Hernández, Cúcuta, Colombia |
| Classification Round | August 19, 1982 | Brazil 93–79 China | Coliseo Toto Hernández, Cúcuta, Colombia |
| Classification Round | August 20, 1982 | Czechoslovakia 111–88 China | Coliseo Toto Hernández, Cúcuta, Colombia |
| Classification Round | August 20, 1982 | Panama 92–75 Uruguay | Coliseo Toto Hernández, Cúcuta, Colombia |
| Classification Round | August 21, 1982 | Czechoslovakia 94–92 Ivory Coast | Coliseo Toto Hernández, Cúcuta, Colombia |
| Classification Round | August 21, 1982 | Brazil 96–77 Uruguay | Coliseo Toto Hernández, Cúcuta, Colombia |
| Classification Round | August 22, 1982 | China 91–77 Ivory Coast | Coliseo Toto Hernández, Cúcuta, Colombia |
| Classification Round | August 22, 1982 | Panama 86–85 Brazil | Coliseo Toto Hernández, Cúcuta, Colombia |
| Classification Round | August 23, 1982 | Uruguay 72–56 China | Coliseo Toto Hernández, Cúcuta, Colombia |
| Classification Round | August 23, 1982 | Czechoslovakia 89–87 Panama | Coliseo Toto Hernández, Cúcuta, Colombia |
| Classification Round | August 24, 1982 | Uruguay 96–85 Ivory Coast | Coliseo Toto Hernández, Cúcuta, Colombia |
| Classification Round | August 24, 1982 | Brazil 98–94 Czechoslovakia | Coliseo Toto Hernández, Cúcuta, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 20, 1982 | Spain 137–84 Colombia | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 20, 1982 | USA 88–81 Yugoslavia | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 20, 1982 | Soviet Union 114–83 Canada | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 20, 1982 | Australia 84–78 Canada | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 21, 1982 | Yugoslavia 108–91 Spain | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 21, 1982 | Soviet Union 143–76 Colombia | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 22, 1982 | Spain 99–87 Australia | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 22, 1982 | USA 100–83 Colombia | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 23, 1982 | Soviet Union 99–94 Yugoslavia | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 23, 1982 | USA 71–69 Canada | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 24, 1982 | Australia 72–63 Colombia | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 24, 1982 | Spain 83–80 Canada | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 25, 1982 | Yugoslavia 97–88 Colombia | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 25, 1982 | Soviet Union 106–93 Spain | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 26, 1982 | Yugoslavia 105–91 Australia | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 26, 1982 | USA 99–93 Soviet Union | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 27, 1982 | Canada 107–79 Colombia | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Second Round | August 27, 1982 | USA 110–86 Australia | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Final Stage (Bronze medal game) | August 28, 1982 | Yugoslavia 119–117 Spain | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
| Final Stage (Gold medal game) | August 28, 1982 | Soviet Union 95–94 USA | Coliseo El Pueblo, Cali, Colombia |
Tournament context
Colombia hosted the ninth World Championship across five cities — Bogota, Medellin, Bucaramanga, Cucuta, and Cali — from August 15-28, 1982. Three preliminary groups of four fed a Second Round round-robin among the top seven teams (the six group qualifiers plus host Colombia, seeded in automatically). That round-robin left the Soviet Union and the United States tied atop the table at 5-1 apiece, and Yugoslavia and Spain tied for third at 4-2, with Australia (2-4), Canada (1-5), and Colombia (0-6) filling out the group. Rather than settle the tie on paper, the tournament played freshly-scheduled games between the tied pairs — continuing, not abandoning, the discrete knockout-style final format 1978 had introduced for the sport's showcase games. The Soviet Union beat the United States 95-94 in the gold-medal game — a tighter, and different, result from their 99-93 Second Round meeting, which the Americans had actually won — to claim the country's third World Championship title (after 1967 and 1974), the first nation to reach three. Yugoslavia beat Spain 119-117 in the bronze-medal game. Host Colombia finished the tournament 7th overall at 0-6. The tournament's individual honors produced one of the more distinctive MVP stories in the event's history: Doc Rivers of the United States was named tournament MVP despite the Americans finishing second, one of several instances in the championship's history in which the award went to a standout from a runner-up rather than the eventual champion. Elsewhere in the scoring race, Panama's Rolando Frazer topped all players at 24.4 points a game, well clear of the medal contenders, a reminder that the tournament's statistical leaderboards through this period were often dominated by players on teams outside the medal picture entirely, since larger disparities in overall team strength gave individual scorers on weaker sides more opportunities to pad their totals against overmatched opposition. The bronze-medal order between Yugoslavia and Spain drew close scrutiny in later research: a general medal-history summary consulted independently had misreported Spain as the tournament's bronze medalist, but a detailed per-edition accounting — Yugoslavia and Spain tied 4-2 in the Second Round before Yugoslavia's 119-117 win in the bronze game — confirms bronze correctly belonged to Yugoslavia, whose roster featured established stars Dragan Kicanovic and a young Drazen Petrovic making his own international breakthrough, alongside a Spanish squad built around Juan Antonio San Epifanio that was still several years from the World Championship title it would eventually claim in 2006. Brazil's veteran scorer Oscar Schmidt also featured prominently among the tournament's top individual performers, continuing his run as one of the sport's most prolific international scorers even as Brazil fell short of the medal round this time, finishing 8th overall at 4-1 in the Classification Round. The Soviet Union's third title cemented the country as the dominant program of the World Championship's first three and a half decades, a run built on a deep pool of talent developed through the USSR's state-supported sports system. Rather than a step backward from 1978's knockout final, 1982's freshly-played bronze and gold games show the tournament continuing to build discrete, decisive medal games on top of its round-robin seeding rounds — a hybrid approach that would keep evolving through the following decades.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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