2010 FIBA World Championship Final
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| Date | September 12, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Sinan Erdem Dome, Istanbul | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referees | Cristiano Jesus Maranho, Luigi Lamonica, Juan Arteaga | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 15,000 | ||||||||||||||||||
The 2010 FIBA World Championship Final was a basketball game between the men's national teams of Turkey and the United States that took place on September 12, 2010, at Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul, Turkey, to determine the winner of the 2010 FIBA World Championship. The US team won the world title after defeating Turkey 81–64.
This was the first match-up in any major international competition between the United States and Turkey. The last time the two teams faced each other in a match was at an exhibition game before the 2008 Summer Olympics. At that meeting, the U.S. dominated the game and won 114–82, with the Turkish side playing without the services of its star, Hedo Türkoğlu.
Both teams qualified to the tournament automatically, the U.S. by winning the gold medal at the Olympics in Beijing, and Turkey as hosts. Historically, the teams were polar opposites. America had 16 Summer Olympics medals and 10 FIBA World Championship medals, while Turkey's only previous international medal of any kind was a silver at the EuroBasket 2001. The US brought the top scoring offense into the final, averaging 94.3 points and 18.5 assists per game. Nevertheless, Turkey's vaunted 2-1-2 zone made it the top defensive team (64 points per game) in the tournament heading into the final, and a commentator on NBA.com wrote that the European crowd would "be the most hostile crowd most of these [U.S.] players, with the exception of maybe Chauncey Billups and Lamar Odom, have ever seen."
The U.S. had an easier route to the final, winning all of their games in runaway fashion, with the sole exception of their preliminary round game against Brazil. Turkey, on the other hand, had close games against Puerto Rico in the preliminary round, and against Serbia in the semifinals in which Kerem Tunçeri scored the go-ahead basket with less than a second left after picking up Hedo Türkoğlu's fumble to give Turkey the 83–82 win. Both teams were undefeated going into the final.
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