By M. Bahadır Akgün / info@eurohoops.net
Since the inaugural FIBA World Cup held in 1950, 18 tournaments have taken place, resulting in 17 scoring champions since 2023 FIBA World Cup ambassador Dirk Nowitzki is the only player who was the top scorer twice.
In the first five editions of the competition, which were held in the Americas, a different country produced the top scorer almost yearly.
Among the recipients of the scoring champion award, Spanish players have achieved this feat three times. Additionally, two Yugoslav players, one Greek and one German player – Nowitzki of course – have held the scoring champion title.
Without further ado, let’s look at the scoring champions through the years…
In 1950, the scoring champion emerged from Chile when only ten countries participated (USA, Spain, Yugoslavia, France, Egypt, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil, and Equador).
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Rufino Bernedo, who scored 86 points in that tournament, became the first-ever scoring champion, although he couldn’t lead his country to victory. However, the player who averaged the most points per game in the tournament was Alvaro Salvadores from the Kingdom of Spain.
| 1950 (Argentina) | Rufino Bernedo (Chile) | 86 |
| 1954 (Brazil) | Oscar Moglia (Uruguay) | 168 |
| 1959 (Chile) | Jerry Vayda (USA) | 162 |
| 1963 (Brazil) | Ricardo Duarte (Peru) | 163 |
| 1967 (Uruguay) | Bohdan Likszo (Poland) | 180 |
| 1970 (Yugoslavia) | Shin Dong-pa (South Korea) | 261 |
| 1974 (Puerto Rico) | Wayne Brabender (Spain) | 207 |
| 1978 (Philippines) | Drazen Dalipagic (Yugoslavia) | 200 |
| 1982 (Colombia) | Dragan Kicanovic (Yugoslavia) | 190 |
| 1986 (Spain) | Νikos Galis (Greece) | 337 |
| 1990 (Argentina) | Oscar Schmidt (Brazil) | 277 |
| 1994 (Canada) | Andrew Gaze (Australia) | 191 |
| 1998 (Greece) | Αlberto Herreros (Spain) | 161 |
| 2002 (USA) | Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) | 216 |
| 2006 (Japan) | Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) | 209 |
| 2010 (Turkey) | Luis Scola (Argentina) | 244 |
| 2014 (Spain) | Pau Gasol (Spain) | 140 |
| 2019 (China) | Bogdan Bogdanovic (Serbia) | 183 |
The players with the highest scoring averages in history
Despite a limited number of games, Greek Hall-of-Famer Nick Galis remains on the top of the list with numbers that are not easy at all to be matched.
Nicknamed “the gangster”, Galis needed just 10 games to score 337 points. However, he only played once in a World Cup, back in 1986 Spain’s Mundobasket.
| Player | Scoring average | Games played |
| Nick Galis (Greece) | 33,7 | 10 |
| Shin Dong-pa (South Korea) | 32,6 | 8 |
| Yao Ming (China) | 25,3 | 7 |
| Eddie Palubinskas (Australia) | 24,6 | 7 |
| Antonio Riva (Italy) | 24,1 | 18 |
| Oscar Schmidt (Brazil) | 24,1 | 35 |
| Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) | 23,6 | 18 |
| Bruno Wilfredo Ruiz (Uruguay) | 23,4 | 7 |
| Bogdan Bogdanovic (Serbia) | 23.0 | 8 |
| Yao Ming (China) | 22,9 | 14 |
| Kevin Durant (USA) | 22,9 | 9 |
The players who have scored the most points in the history of the World Cup
Oscar Schmidt is the player with the most points in the World Cup by a significant margin. Schmidt played more World Cup matches than many of his competitors, but we can point out a noticeable difference.
He stands out from all other players with 843 points and an average of 24.1 points per game.
In the table below, there isn’t any name that could rise above Schmidt in this tournament or in the near future in general. To be exact the only active player who is currently in the Top 30 of the competition, is Spaniard Rudy Fernandez with 344 points (in 33 games), so he is the only player with a theoretical chance of breaking into the Top 10 in this tournament.
Bogdan Bogdanovic follows on the active players list with 291 in 17 games, however, he is 52nd in the all-time list.
| Player | Total points scored | Games played | |
| Oscar Schmidt (Brazil) | 843 | 35 | |
| Luis Scola (Argentina) | 686 | 41 | |
| Andrew Gaze (Australia) | 594 | 29 | |
| Drazen Dalipagic (Yugoslavia) | 563 | 35 | |
| Jose Rafael Ortiz (Puerto Rico) | 511 | 33 | |
| Dragan Kicanovic (Yugoslavia) | 491 | 25 | |
| Pau Gasol (Spain) | 482 | 24 | |
| Panagiotis Giannakis (Greece) | 469 | 26 | |
| Juan Carlos Navarro (Spain) | 462 | 33 | |
| Kirk Penney (New Zealand) | 447 | 27 |