EuroBasket 1939
| FIBA EuroBasket 1939 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd FIBA European Basketball Championship | |||||||
 | |||||||
| Official website | |||||||
| EuroBasket 1939 (archive) | |||||||
| Tournament details | |||||||
| Host nation |
 Lithuania | ||||||
| Dates | 21–28 May | ||||||
| Teams | 8 (from 20 federations) | ||||||
| Venues | 1 (in 1 host city) | ||||||
| Champions |
Lithuania (2nd title) | ||||||
| Tournament statistics | |||||||
| |||||||
The 1939 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1939, was the third FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA Europe. Eight national teams affiliated with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) took part in the competition. Defending champions Lithuania hosted the tournament, held in Kaunas Sports Hall.
Tickets
The price for tickets were high in that time. The price for seat were 2,5–5 LTL and for standing spot 1,5–2 LTL. Example of EuroBasket 1939 ticket.[1]
Results
The 1939 competition was in a very simple format. Each team played each of the other teams once. A win was worth 2 standings points, a loss worth 1. The rankings were based on those standing points. Ties were broken by head-to-head results. The winning team was Lithuania. In retrospect, the most important match was Lithuania vs Latvia in the first round. Lithuania won by 1 point, and this was the eventual winning margin of the championship. Relations between the two nations soured to such an extent that it led to the cancellation of the subsequent 1939 Baltic Cup football tournament.
Match results
| France | 76 – 11 | Finland |
| Poland | 35 – 31 | Estonia |
| Italy | 39 – 21 | Hungary |
| Lithuania | 37 – 36 | Latvia |
| Poland | 38 – 36 | France |
| Italy | 63 – 13 | Finland |
| Lithuania | 33 – 14 | Estonia |
| Latvia | 58 – 24 | Hungary |
| France | 31 – 24 | Italy |
| Lithuania | 46 – 18 | Poland |
| Latvia | 108 – 7 | Finland |
| Estonia | 64 – 18 | Hungary |
| Estonia | 91 – 1 | Finland |
| Poland | 42 – 20 | Hungary |
| Latvia | 38 – 23 | Italy |
| Lithuania | 48 – 18 | France |
| Latvia | 45 – 26 | France |
| Lithuania | 79 – 15 | Hungary |
| Estonia | 29 – 22 | Italy |
| Poland | 46 – 13 | Finland |
| Poland | 43 – 27 | Italy |
| France | 45 – 19 | Hungary |
| Lithuania | 112 – 9 | Finland |
| Estonia | 26 – 25 | Latvia |
| Lithuania | 41 – 27 | Italy |
| Hungary | 45 – 16 | Finland |
| France | 33 – 31 | Estonia |
| Latvia | 43 – 20 | Poland |
| 1939 FIBA European Champions |
|---|
Lithuania 2nd title |
Final standings
| Rank | Team | Pts | W | L | PF | PA | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1.  | .svg.png){kind=small} Lithuania |
14 | 7 | 0 | 396 | 137 | +259 |
2.  |  Latvia |
12 | 5 | 2 | 353 | 163 | +190 |
3.  |  Poland |
12 | 5 | 2 | 242 | 216 | +26 |
| 4. |  France |
11 | 4 | 3 | 265 | 216 | +49 |
| 5. |  Estonia |
11 | 4 | 3 | 286 | 167 | +119 |
| 6. | .svg.png){kind=small} Italy |
9 | 2 | 5 | 225 | 216 | +9 |
| 7. | .svg.png){kind=small} Hungary |
8 | 1 | 6 | 162 | 343 | −181 |
| 8. |  Finland |
7 | 0 | 7 | 70 | 541 | −471 |
Team rosters
Lithuania's Lubinas was the same person as the Frank Lubin who had played for the gold medal United States national basketball team at the 1936 Summer Olympics.
1. Lithuania: Pranas Lubinas, Mykolas Ruzgys, Feliksas Kriaučiūnas, Leonas Baltrūnas, Zenonas Puzinauskas, Artūras Andrulis, Pranas Mažeika, Leonas Petrauskas, Eugenijus Nikolskis, Vytautas Norkus, Jurgis Jurgėla, Mindaugas Šliūpas, Vytautas Budriūnas, Vytautas Leščinskas (Coach: Pranas Lubinas)
2. Latvia: Visvaldis Melderis, Kārlis Arents, Jānis Graudiņš, Teodors Grīnbergs, Maksis Kazāks, Alfrēds Krauklis, Voldemārs Šmits, Juris Solovjovs, Aleksandrs Vanags, Kārlis Satiņš (Coach: Valdemārs Baumanis)
3. Poland: Paweł Stok, Bogdan Bartosiewicz, Jerzy Gregołajtis, Florian Grzechowiak, Zdzisław Kasprzak, Ewaryst Łój, Stanisław Pawlowski, Zbigniew Resich, Jerzy Rossudowski, Jarosław Śmigielski (Coach: Walenty Kłyszejko)
4. France: Robert Busnel, Vladimir Fabrikant, Henri Lesmayoux, Fernand Prudhomme, Jean Jeammes, Etienne Roland, Emile Frezot, Robert Cohu, Maurice Mertz, Abel Gravier, Andre Ambroise, Gaston Falleur, Gabriel Gonnet, Alexandre Katlama (Coach: Paul Geist)
5. Estonia: Heino Veskila, Evald Mahl, Oskar Erikson, Ralf Viksten, Georg Vinogradov, Erich Altosaar, Artur Amon, Hans Juurup, Valdeko Valdmäe, Herbert Tillemann (Coach: Herbert Niiler)