McDonald's Championship

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 from Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union participated. In each of the nine years the McDonald's Championship was held, the title was won by a team from the NBA, but twice by a close margin. The first time was in the semifinals in 1990, when the New York Knicks trailed Italian club Scavolini Pesaro by three points (107–104) with only 30 seconds on the clock. After successfully defending, the Knicks won possession and Gerald 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 the Los Angeles Lakers defeated Spanish champions Montigalà Joventut by two points (116–114). Virtus Bologna played in the final in 1993 and 1995 losing both times to NBA teams, and alongside KK 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, the FIBA 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 2000 FIBA–EuroLeague dispute which forced FIBA to ultimately lose control of its top-tier European club competition.

Many famous American players like Michael Jordan, Bob McAdoo, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Clyde Drexler, Sam Cassell, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kevin Johnson, Robert Parish, Charles Barkley, Tim Duncan, and Patrick Ewing featured in the competition. Non-American players were Sarunas Marciulionis, Toni Kukoc, Arvydas Sabonis, Predrag Danilovic, Drazen Petrovic, Zarko Paspalj, Fabricio Oberto, Héctor Campana, Arturas Karnisovas, Dino Meneghin, Jordi Villacampa, Alexander Volkov and Riccardo Pittis.

Media coverage

In the United States, ABC held the network television rights from 1987 to 1989. Gary Bender and Dick Vitale provided the commentary for ABC's broadcasts. Supplemental coverage was provided by TBS. Beginning in 1990, American network TV coverage moved over to NBC. NBC would continue to broadcast the finals of the McDonald's Championship through 1997. TNT exclusively covered the final McDonald's Championship event in 1999. Marv Albert, Doug Collins, and Hubie Brown were the commentators for TNT in 1999.

Legacy

FIBA Secretary General Borislav Stankovic and David 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.