 | |
| Sport | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1987 |
| Ceased | 1999 |
| No. of teams | 6 |
| Country | International |
| Last champion |  San Antonio Spurs (1st title) |
| Most titles | 9 NBA teams (1 title each) |
TheMcDonald's Championship (sometimes called theMcDonald's Open) was an international men'sbasketball competition that featured a representative of theNational Basketball Association (representingNorth America) against champion club teams fromEurope, theNational Basketball League (representingOceania), andSouth America (although it also featured the Soviet national team in 1987). The competition was launched asMcDonald's Open in 1987 withFIBA sanctioning the event and it was renamed as McDonald's Championship in 1995. FIBAEuroLeague champions participated in the competition from its third edition in 1989, whileNBA champions would join from 1995 and onwards.
McDonald's Open received a lot of media and fan attention and it was held annually from 1987 until 1991. Although it was a weekend-long late-October preseason event, bothFIBA and theNBA officially accepted it as a Championship. It was not held in 1992, 1994 and 1996 due to the participation of theNBA players in theOlympics and theFIBA World Cup, and also in 1998 because of theNBA lock-out. The all-time scorer of the competition isBob McAdoo with 158 points in two editions withOlimpia Milano, whileToni Kukoc is the tournament's all-time leader in assists.
The first competition was held in 1987 and continued annually after that until 1991, when the tournament switched to a biennial event. For the first two years, the men's national teams fromYugoslavia and theSoviet Union participated.[1] In each of the nine years the McDonald's Championship was held, the title was won by a team from theNBA, but twice by a close margin. The first time was in the semifinals in 1990, when theNew York Knicks trailed Italian clubScavolini Pesaro by three points (107–104) with only 30 seconds on the clock. After successfully defending, the Knicks won possession andGerald Wilkins netted a three-pointer with eight seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. The other close game came the following year in 1991, when theLos Angeles Lakers defeated Spanish championsMontigalà Joventut by two points (116–114).Virtus Bologna played in the final in 1993 and 1995 losing both times to NBA teams, and alongsideKK Split were the only teams to finish runners-up twice. In 1997, Atenas Cordoba was invited as South American champions for the first time in the history of the McDonald's Open. In 1999, theFIBA Asia basketball club champions,Sagesse Club, participated in the McDonald's Championship, the first and only time Asia was represented in the tournament. The McDonald's Championship was discontinued after 1999 following the 2000FIBA–EuroLeague dispute which forced FIBA to ultimately lose control of its top-tier European club competition.
Many famous American players likeMichael Jordan,Bob McAdoo,Larry Bird,Magic Johnson,Clyde Drexler,Sam Cassell,Hakeem Olajuwon,Kevin Johnson,Robert Parish,Charles Barkley,Tim Duncan, andPatrick Ewing featured in the competition. Non-American players wereSarunas Marciulionis,Toni Kukoc,Arvydas Sabonis,Predrag Danilovic,Drazen Petrovic,Zarko Paspalj,Fabricio Oberto,Héctor Campana,Arturas Karnisovas,Dino Meneghin,Jordi Villacampa,Alexander Volkov andRiccardo Pittis.
In the United States,ABC[2] held the network television rights from 1987 to 1989.[3]Gary Bender[4] andDick Vitale[5] provided the commentary for ABC's broadcasts. Supplemental coverage was provided byTBS.[6][7] Beginning in 1990, American network TV coverage[8] moved over toNBC.[9][10] NBC would continue to broadcast the finals of the McDonald's Championship through 1997.[11]TNT[12] exclusively covered the final McDonald's Championship event in 1999.[13]Marv Albert,[14]Doug Collins, andHubie Brown[15] were thecommentators for TNT in 1999.
FIBA Secretary GeneralBorislav Stankovic andDavid Stern (NBA Commissioner from 1984 to 2014), believed that basketball everywhere would benefit if the best players from all countries competed against each other. In 1989, two years after the first McDonald's Open, FIBA voted to allow NBA players to participate in all its tournaments.
After the first tournament (three teams championship format), the competition was played in a single elimination format, with the winners of each match advancing to the next round.
The competition combinedrules of both theNBA and the European leagues (FIBA rules).[16][17]
| Year | Final | Third place game | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Champions | Score | Runners-up | Third | Fourth | |||
| 1987 Details | Milwaukee Bucks | 127-100 |  Soviet Union |  Tracer Milano | — | ||
| 1988 Details | Boston Celtics | 111–96 |  Real Madrid |  Yugoslavia | Scavolini Pesaro | ||
| 1989 Details | Denver Nuggets | 135–129 | Jugoplastika | Philips Milano | FC Barcelona Banca Catalana | ||
| 1990 Details | New York Knicks | 117–101 | POP 84 | FC Barcelona Banca Catalana | Scavolini Pesaro | ||
| 1991 Details | Los Angeles Lakers | 116–114 | Montigalà Joventut |  Limoges CSP |  Slobodna Dalmacija | ||
| 1993 Details | Phoenix Suns | 112–90 | Buckler Beer Bologna | Real Madrid Teka | Limoges CSP | ||
| 1995 Details | Houston Rockets | 126–112 | Buckler Beer Bologna |  Perth Wildcats | Real Madrid Teka | ||
| 1997 Details | Chicago Bulls | 104–78 |  Olympiacos |  Atenas | PSG Racing | ||
| 1999 Details | San Antonio Spurs | 103–68 |  Vasco da Gama |  Žalgiris | Varese Roosters | ||
The NBA's teams dominated the competition and won all 9 tournaments with their stars picking up all the MVP awards. The award was named afterDrazen Petrovic who lost his life in 1993.
Only threeNBA players won the award:Michael Jordan,Patrick Ewing andLarry Bird.
| Team | Champions | Runners-up | Third place | Fourth place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Celtics | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chicago Bulls | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Denver Nuggets | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Houston Rockets | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Los Angeles Lakers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Milwaukee Bucks | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| New York Knicks | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Phoenix Suns | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| San Antonio Spurs | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Split[a] | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Virtus Bologna[b] | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Real Madrid | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Joventut Badalona | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Olympiacos | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Soviet Union | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Vasco da Gama | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Olimpia Milano[c] | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| FC Barcelona | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Limoges CSP | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Atenas | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Perth Wildcats | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Yugoslavia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
 Žalgiris | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Victoria Libertas[d] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Racing Paris | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Varese[e] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Country | Champions | Runners-up | Third place | Fourth place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Italy | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Spain | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Yugoslavia | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Brazil | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Greece | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Soviet Union | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| France | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Argentina | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Australia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Lithuania | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Croatia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
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