FIBA's wishful thinking comes from the fact that basketball is probably the most universally-played team sport outside of soccer, due to the fact that you can play it cheaply on a street corner, and there is not an economic barrier to participating as there is with other team sports. However, the sport is still so US-dominated because of the strong AAU, high school and collegiate program in North America, and because soccer is not quite as popular. Since the sport lives and dies by US interest, as Vektor said, it will never reach the level of the FIFA World Cup. I also agree with Vektor that the situation with club soccer is not comparable as LDOG suggested - the long tradition of international soccer will keep the FIFA World Cup on top for at least the long-term foreseeable future. You can look no further than the competitiveness of the bidding process to host these events - countries line up for FIFA, but no one outside of Asia really seems to want to host the FIBA World Cup.