MIES (Switzerland) - The fifth edition of the FIBA Basketball World Cup ended up for the first time with a champion from outside of the Americas.

As one of FIBA's 90 iconic moments, we look back at the time when European teams established a new world order, in 1967, when the competition was staged in Uruguay.

Argentina, USA and then back-to-back titles for Brazil had indeed made a strong impression that the best basketball in the world was played in the Americas.

Yet teams from the other side of the Atlantic - the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia - reigned supreme in Montevideo.

Led by Modestas Paulauskas, who at 20 years of age had spearheaded the team's unbeaten (9-0) march to a fifth consecutive FIBA EuroBasket crown in 1965 on home soil in Moscow, and their legendary coach, Alexander Gomelsky, the Soviets won eight of nine games in Uruguay.

The tournament started with three groups of four teams, and after each team played other countries in their group, the top two advanced to the Final Round and the bottom two went into a Classification Round.

The USA (3-0) defeated Yugoslavia (2-1), 76-71, to finish top of Group A ahead of Mexico (1-2) and Italy (0-3), while in Group B the Soviets (3-0) and Argentina (2-1) were first and second ahead of Peru (1-2) and Japan (0-3). In Group C, two-time defending champions Brazil (3-0) and Poland (2-1) claimed the first two spots before Puerto Rico (1-2) and Paraguay (0-3).

In the Final Round, the USA edged the Soviets, 59-58, to hand them their only loss, while the Americans suffered defeats to Yugoslavia (73-72) and Brazil (80-71). The one loss wasn't enough to keep Gomelsky's team off the top of the podium while Yugoslavia won claimed head to head advantages over the USA and Brazil after beating both in the Final Round to finish second.

Ivo Daneu (bottom road, third from left) of Yugoslavia was named as tournament MVP

For a while it seemed Yugoslavia might be crowned champions yet in their penultimate game, hosts Uruguay upset them, 58-57, and the Soviets then established the final pecking order with a 71-59 victory over the Yugoslavians in their last game.

Brazil lost twice in the Final Round, to the Soviets and Yugoslavia, but rallied with three straight wins, including a 80-71 over the USA on the last day, to clinch a spot on the World Cup podium for the fourth consecutive time.

Yugoslavia's Ivo Daneu was honored as the MVP of the fifth World Cup.

The Soviet Union, meanwhile, were both world and European champions.

Paulauskas, 1965 European Championship MVP, averaged 13.8 ppg to lead the Soviet Union to world glory

While it was the first time of Soviet supremacy at the World  Cup, everyone remembered how their team had been among the best at the third World Cup but was derailed after its government did not grant the country permission to take on Formosa. That decision led to a forfeit of the game, and relegation to sixth place in the competition. 

For Paulauskas, the experience wasn't just about winning and losing games, but about stepping outside of the Soviet Union and seeing a different part of the world. It was a different era.

"We were athletes from the Soviet Union," he said in the History of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, a documentary that coincided with the 2019 World Cup in China.

The fifth World Cup was staged for the fifth consecutive time in South America

"So when we went to foreign countries and had free time or city tours, everything was quite restricted. We were slightly different."

What was clear is that the tide was turning and that teams particularly from Europe were among the world elite.

There was also a very significant prize awarded to the winners. The first version of the Naismith Trophy was commissioned in 1965 with the USSR the first team to lift it after winning in 1967.

FIBA