Basketball at the 1992 Summer Olympics
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'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.
| 13th Olympic Basketball Tournament | |||||||||
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| Barcelona 1992 | |||||||||
| Tournament details | |||||||||
| Olympics | 1992 Summer Olympics | ||||||||
| Host nation | Spain | ||||||||
| City | Barcelona | ||||||||
| Duration | July 26 – August 8 | ||||||||
| Men's tournament | |||||||||
| Teams | 12 | ||||||||
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| Women's tournament | |||||||||
| Teams | 8 | ||||||||
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| Tournaments | |||||||||
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| Basketball at the 1992 Summer Olympics | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Qualification | ||
| men | women | |
| Tournament | ||
| men | women | |
| Rosters | ||
| men | women | |
This was the first time that NBA players were eligible to play in Summer Olympics basketball, following a decision of FIBA in April 1989. Until 1992, only amateurs and players from professional leagues other than the NBA were allowed to play.[1]
The United States men's team, which was nicknamed "The Dream Team", won the gold medal by beating Croatia in the men's final, with Lithuania winning the bronze medal.
The Unified Team, representing the Commonwealth of Independent States, of the recently defunct Soviet Union, won the women's tournament, with China 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.
Medal summary
Qualification
An NOC 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.[2] For the women's tournament, the top four teams from the 1990 FIBA World Championship and the top four teams from a qualifying tournament held months prior to the competition were given a place in the Olympics.
Men
| Africa | Americas | Asia | Europe | Oceania | Automatic qualifiers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Angola |  United States Venezuela Brazil.svg.png.webp){kind=small} Puerto Rico |  China | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Lithuania Croatia CIS Germany | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Australia |  Spain – Olympic hosts |
Women
| Americas | Asia | Europe | Automatic qualifiers |
|---|---|---|---|
United States Cuba Brazil | China |  Italy[a] CIS Czechoslovakia | Spain – Olympic hosts |
- a 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. The United States' Dream Team asserted their dominance by advancing to the next round undefeated and winning their five preliminary games by an average margin of almost 46 points. The only teams representing Asia and Africa, China and Angola respectively couldn't advance and ended up competing for ninth place with Venezuela and host nation Spain.
Group A
| Qualified for the quarterfinals |
| Team | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Tie |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 5 | 0 | 579 | 350 | +229 | 10 | |
| Croatia | 4 | 1 | 423 | 400 | +23 | 9 | |
| Brazil | 2 | 3 | 420 | 463 | −43 | 7 | 1–0 |
| Germany | 2 | 3 | 369 | 432 | −63 | 7 | 0–1 |
| Angola | 1 | 4 | 324 | 392 | −68 | 6 | 1–0 |
| Spain | 1 | 4 | 398 | 476 | −78 | 6 | 0–1 |
Group B
| Qualified for the quarterfinals |
| Team | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Tie |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CIS | 4 | 1 | 425 | 373 | +52 | 9 | 1–0 |
| Lithuania | 4 | 1 | 481 | 424 | +57 | 9 | 0–1 |
| Australia | 3 | 2 | 432 | 396 | +36 | 8 | 1–0 |
| Puerto Rico | 3 | 2 | 445 | 440 | +15 | 8 | 0–1 |
| Venezuela | 1 | 4 | 392 | 427 | −35 | 6 | |
| China | 0 | 5 | 381 | 496 | −115 | 5 |
Knockout stage
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Gold medal game | |||||||||||
| A1 | United States |
115 | |||||||||||
| B4 | Puerto Rico |
77 | |||||||||||
| A1 | United States |
127 | |||||||||||
| B2 | Lithuania |
76 | |||||||||||
| B2 | Lithuania |
114 | |||||||||||
| A3 | Brazil |
96 | |||||||||||
| A1 | United States |
117 | |||||||||||
| A2 | Croatia |
85 | |||||||||||
| B1 | CIS |
83 | |||||||||||
| A4 | Germany |
76 | |||||||||||
| B1 | CIS |
74 | Bronze medal game | ||||||||||
| A2 | Croatia |
75 | |||||||||||
| A2 | Croatia |
98 | B1 | CIS |
78 | ||||||||
| B3 | Australia |
65 | B2 | Lithuania |
82 | ||||||||
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
| Qualified for the semifinals |
| Team | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cuba | 3 | 0 | 246 | 230 | +16 | 6 |
| CIS | 2 | 1 | 244 | 222 | +22 | 5 |
| Brazil | 1 | 2 | 237 | 241 | −4 | 4 |
| Italy | 0 | 3 | 190 | 224 | −34 | 3 |
Group B
| Qualified for the semifinals |
| Team | W | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 3 | 0 | 318 | 181 | +137 | 6 |
| China | 2 | 1 | 205 | 226 | −21 | 5 |
| Spain | 1 | 2 | 181 | 238 | −57 | 4 |
| Czechoslovakia | 0 | 3 | 183 | 242 | −59 | 3 |
Knockout stage
| Semifinals | Final | |||||||||
| B1 | United States |
73 | ||||||||
| A2 | CIS |
79 | ||||||||
| A2 | CIS |
76 | ||||||||
| B2 | China |
66 | ||||||||
| A1 | Cuba |
70 | ||||||||
| B2 | China |
109 | Third Place Game | |||||||
| B1 | United States |
88 | ||||||||
| A1 | Cuba |
74 | ||||||||
Final standings
| Rank | Men | Women | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | W | L | Team | W | L | ||
 | United States | 8 | 0 | CIS | 4 | 1 | |
 | Croatia | 6 | 2 | China | 3 | 2 | |
 | Lithuania | 6 | 2 | United States | 4 | 1 | |
| 4th | CIS | 5 | 3 | Cuba | 3 | 2 | |
| Eliminated at the quarterfinals | Eliminated at the preliminary round | ||||||
| 5th | Brazil | 4 | 4 | Spain | 3 | 2 | |
| 6th | Australia | 4 | 4 | Czechoslovakia | 1 | 4 | |
| 7th | Germany | 3 | 5 | Brazil | 2 | 3 | |
| 8th | Puerto Rico | 3 | 5 | Italy | 0 | 5 | |
| Eliminated at the preliminary round | |||||||
| 9th | Spain | 3 | 4 | ||||
| 10th | Angola | 2 | 5 | ||||
| 11th | Venezuela | 2 | 5 | ||||
| 12th | China | 0 | 7 | ||||
See also
References
- Jan Hubbard. "Why Can Pros Compete in International Events?". USA Basketball. Retrieved December 10, 2017.
- 1992 European Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men, FIBA Archive. Accessed March 31, 2012.
External links
| Tournaments |
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| Qualifications |
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| Squads |
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