FIBA establishes basketball standards, such as what equipment and facilities to use, organizes international events, governs the selection of international referees, and regulates the transfer of athletes between nations. There are presently 213 national federations in the organization, which has been divided into five zones since 1989: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.

The FIBA Basketball World Cup is a four-year international championship for men's national teams. Teams play for the Naismith Trophy, which is named after basketball's originator, James Naismith, a Canadian.

From 1970 through 2014, the Basketball World Cup was held in the same year as the FIFA World Cup, but starting in 2019, it will be held the year after the FIFA World Cup. On June 18, 1932, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) was founded.

Among the founding members were Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, and Switzerland. Professional athletes from the NBA in the United States were allowed to compete in the Olympics by FIBA in 1989. The Fédération Internationale de Basketball Amateur became the Fédération Internationale de Basketball, although the abbreviation FIBA remained the same.

The Federation's headquarters were moved to Munich in 1956, before returning to Geneva in 2002.