ESP - Remembering the first time around

MADRID (2014 FIBA World Championship) - Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro were just six years old when Spain hosted the FIBA World Championship for the first time, back in 1986.

Two decades later and they were national heroes after firing the country to its proudest moment on the international stage, the gold medal at the World Championship in Japan.

Both events are sure to be remembered on Thursday when FIBA and the Spanish Basketball Federation (FEB) host a big presentation in Madrid as part of a momentum-building exercise for 2014 when once again, the top basketball event will be held in the country.

Spain will enter select company because only Argentina and Brazil have staged the tournament twice before.

Argentina held the inaugural event in 1950 when just six national sides took part, and also in 1990 when there was a 16-team field.

Brazil hosted the event in 1954 (12 teams) and 1963 (13 teams).

If one turns back the clock to 1986, there were plenty of superstars and heavyweight teams at the World Championship in Spain.

Barcelona scoring machine Juan Antonio San Epifanio, best known as 'Epi', FIBA Hall of Famer Fernando Martin, Joventut great Jordi Villacampa and shot-blocking center Fernando Romay were all in the Spain side that finished fifth, while fourth-place Brazil boasted the great Oscar Schmidt and Marcel Souza.

Oscar is also in the FIBA Hall of Fame.

One year later, Oscar and Marcel Souza led Brazil as they pulled off one of the great triumphs in the nation's history, a 120-115 victory over the United States in the Pan American Games title clash in Indianapolis.

In 1986, bronze-medal winning Yugoslavia boasted FIBA Hall of Famers Drazen Petrovic, Vlade Divac and Drazen Dalipagic.

The Soviet Union, who lost in a dramatic Final to the United States, were also awesome.

Their line-up included Sasha Volkov, Valdis Valters, Valdemaras Chomicius, Valeri Tikhonenko and the great Arvydas Sabonis.

As for the United States, six years before the Dream Team took Barcelona by storm, there was a star-studded roster of college players who would go on to have very successful NBA careers.

Among them was 1.59m Muggsy Bogues, the shortest player ever to compete in the NBA who was dubbed ‘la Chispa Negra' – the black spark - by the Spanish media.

It was a significant tournament for Bogues, who went on to become one of the most popular players in the sport.

“It was around 1986 when I played at the World Championship in Spain and we won the gold medal that I thought that it was the perfect journey to take a leap to a superior level and that was to play professionally,” Bogues said.

He did turn pro in 1987 and played in the NBA for 14 years.

Steve Kerr, Charles Smith, Kenny Smith, Sean Elliott, David Robinson and Brian Shaw were all in that American side.

Other countries had greats, too, like Nikos Galis (FIBA Hall of Fame) of Greece and Mickey Berkowitz of Israel.

Galis led the 1986 World Championship in scoring at 33.7 points per game with Oscar (28.1) second.

Memorable Clashes

The 1986 FIBA World Championship wasn’t just about big names, but incredible games, too, and the Soviets played in two of them.

In the Semi-Final against Yugoslavia, they trailed 85-76 with 45 seconds to go yet won in overtime.

Sabonis started the comeback by banking in a three-pointer from a few meters above the top of the key, and then Tikhonenko came up with a steal on the wing as the Soviets applied full-court pressure and drilled another shot from the arc to cut the deficit to just three points.

Future NBA star Divac, who at the time was just 18, was then called for a double-dribble with only 12 seconds left to turn the ball back over to the Soviets and their deadly shooter Valters made them pay.

The Latvian knotted the contest with yet another three just five seconds from the end.

The Soviets carried the momentum into the overtime and won, 91-90.

Then in the gold-medal game, the United States and the Soviets played a real humdinger.

The Americans led 48-38 at halftime and stretched that to 78-60 with 7:45 remaining.

But the USSR came back and when the red-hot Chomicius buried a three-ball from the left corner with 50 seconds to play, the USA lead was just 85-83.

Kenny Smith darted into the lane with eight seconds on the shot-clock on the USA’s next possession and scored with a layup to push the lead back to four, but the Soviets went to the other end and Serguei Tarakanov’s tip-in off a Chomicius miss again cut the deficit to just two points with 15 seconds to play.

After being fouled by the Soviets, the Americans decided to pass up the one-and-one free-throw attempt, which the rules allowed them to do at the time, and instead attempted to inbound the ball.

The inbounds pass eluded USA point guard Tommy Amaker in the right corner, however, and Chomicius grabbed the ball before hurling it up the floor to Valters.

He jumped and caught the ball at the free-throw line, turned and shot before his feet hit the ground but missed at the buzzer and the USA celebrated their first gold medal at a World Championship since 1954 in Brazil.

FIBA