Basketball at the 1992 Summer Olympics was the thirteenth appearance of the sport of
basketball as an official Olympic medal event. It included the sport of
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
's men's and women's competitions of the
1992 Summer Olympics. The games were played at the
Pavelló Olímpic de Badalona. 12 men's teams and 8 women's teams participated in the tournament.
This was the first time that
NBA players were eligible to play in Summer Olympics basketball, following a decision of
FIBA
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its nam ...
in April 1989. Until 1992, only
amateurs and players from
professional
A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and sk ...
leagues other than the NBA were allowed to play.
The
United States men's team, which was nicknamed
"The Dream Team", won the gold medal by beating
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capi ...
in the men's final, with
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
winning the bronze medal. A documentary film, ''
The Other Dream Team
''The Other Dream Team'' is a documentary film directed by Marius A. Markevičius. It covers the inspirational story of the 1992 Lithuania national basketball team and their journey to the bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. ...
'', covered the progress of the Lithuanian team.
The
Unified Team, representing the
Commonwealth of Independent States
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a regional intergovernmental organization in Eurasia. It was formed following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. It covers an area of and has an estimated population of 239,796,010 ...
, of the recently defunct
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, won the women's tournament, with
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
as runner-up. The
United States women's team won the bronze medal after losing to the CIS in the semifinal, suffering their third and last defeat to date in the Olympic basketball history.
The men's top scorer was Oscar Schmidt with 198 points in 8 games, with an average of 24.7 points, and Drazen Petrovic was second with 187 points in 7 games, with an average of 26.7 points.
Medal summary
Qualification
An
NOC
A network on a chip or network-on-chip (NoC or )This article uses the convention that "NoC" is pronounced . Therefore, it uses the convention "a" for the indefinite article corresponding to NoC ("a NoC"). Other sources may pronounce it as an ...
may enter up to one men's team with 12 players and up to one women's team with 12 players. For the men's tournament, the host country qualified automatically, as did the winners of the continental championships held for Asia, Oceania, Africa and the Americas, plus the runner-up, third and fourth place from the Americas competitions. A
special qualifying tournament was held for European teams to allocate four extra berths. For the women's tournament, the host team qualified automatically, as did the top three teams from the
1990 FIBA World Championship
The 1990 FIBA World Championship was the 11th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's teams. It was hosted by Argentina from 8 to 19 August 1990. The final phase of the competition was held at the Luna P ...
. A
qualifying tournament
Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to:
* Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...
was held to allocate four extra berths. Yugoslavia was replaced by Italy (the fifth place team from the qualifying tournament) after it was excluded from the Olympic tournament.
Men
Women
* Replaced Yugoslavia.
Format
Men's tournament:
* Two groups of six teams are formed, where the top four from each group advance to the knockout stage.
* Fifth and sixth places from each group form an additional bracket to decide 9th through 12th places in the final ranking.
* In the quarterfinals, the pairings are as follows: A1 vs. B4, A2 vs. B3, A3 vs. B2 and A4 vs. B1.
** The four teams eliminated from the quarterfinals form an additional bracket to decide 5th through 8th places in the final ranking.
* The winning teams from the quarterfinals meet in the semifinals.
* The winning teams from the semifinals contest the gold medal. The losing teams contest the bronze.
Women's tournament:
* Two groups of four teams are formed, where the top two from each group advance to the knockout stage.
* Third and fourth places from each group form an additional bracket to decide 5th–8th places in the final ranking.
* The winning teams from the semifinals contest the gold medal. The losing teams contest the bronze.
Tie-breaking criteria:
# Head to head results
Men's tournament
Preliminary round
The top four places in each of the preliminary round groups advanced to the eight team, single-elimination knockout stage, where Group A teams would meet Group B teams.
Group A
DAY 1
USA 116-48 Angola
Croatia 96-73 Brazil
Germany 83-74 Spain
Day 2
USA 103-70 Croatia
Spain 101-100 Brazil
Germany 64-63 Angola
Day 3
USA 111-68 Germany
Croatia 88-79 Spain
Angola 66-76 Brazil
Day 4
USA 127-83 Brazil
Croatia 98-74 Germany
Spain 63-83 Angola
Day 5
USA 122-81 Spain
Croatia 73-64 Angola
Germany 76-85 Brazil
Group B
Day 1
CIS 78-64 Venezuela
Lithuania 112-75 China
Puerto Rico 116-76 Australia
Day 2
CIS 85-63 Australia
Puerto Rico 100-68 China
Venezuela 79-87 Lithuania
Day 3
CIS 100-84 China
Australia 78-71 Venezuela
Lithuania 104-91 Πόρτο Ρίκο.
Day 4
CIS 92-80 Lithuania
Australia 88-66 China
Puerto Rico 96-82 Venezuela
Day 5
CIS 70-82 Puerto Rico
Venezuela 96-88 China
Lithuania 98-87 Australia
Knockout stage
Women's tournament
Preliminary round
The best two teams from each group advanced to the semifinals. The United States and Cuba advanced undefeated through the group phase but couldn't reach the finals and ended up facing each other for the bronze medal instead.
Group A
Day 1
Cuba 91-89 CIS
Brazil 85-70 Italy
Day 2
CIS 77-67 Italy
Cuba 95-87 Brazil
Day 3
CIS 76-64 Brazil
Cuba 60-53 Italy
Group B
Day 1
USA 111-55 Czechoslovakia
China 66-63 Spain
Day 2
Spain 59-58 Czechoslovakia
USA 93-61 China
Day 3
China 72-70 Czechoslovakia
USA 114-58 Spain
Knockout stage
Final standings
See also
*
"The Dream Team"
References
External links
Official Olympic Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Olympics
1992 in basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...
International basketball competitions hosted by Spain
International basketball competitions hosted by Catalonia