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Olympic Basketball: Facts and Stories

Olympic basketball from Berlin 1936 to Paris 2024: upsets, records and legends.

1936 Basketball made its Olympic debut in Berlin in 1936. The final was played outdoors, on clay, in pouring rain.

1936 James Naismith, the inventor of basketball, was in Berlin in 1936 to hand out the first Olympic basketball medals, to the USA, Canada and Mexico.

7 The USA won the first seven Olympic tournaments, from 1936 to 1968, without losing a single game.

4 France have four Olympic silver medals in men's basketball, from 1948, 2000, 2020 and 2024, and lost every one of those finals to the USA.

1952 Bob Kurland won Olympic gold in 1948 and 1952 but never turned pro, choosing a job with oil company Phillips 66 and its works team instead.

1956 Uruguay won Olympic bronze twice in a row, in Helsinki in 1952 and in Melbourne in 1956.

1956 Bill Russell won Olympic gold in Melbourne in 1956 and only then, in December that year, made his debut for the Boston Celtics.

1964 Bill Bradley won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 1964, then studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Later he won two NBA titles with the Knicks and served three terms as a US senator.

12 None of the 12 US players ever accepted their silver medals from the 1972 Munich Olympics. The medals sit unclaimed in Lausanne.

86-77 With the USA boycotting Moscow 1980, Yugoslavia beat Italy 86-77 in the final for its only Olympic basketball gold.

1980 Soviet guard Sergei Belov lit the Olympic cauldron at the 1980 Moscow opening ceremony, a rare honour for a basketball player.

3 Spain have won three Olympic silver medals, in 1984, 2008 and 2012, and lost all three finals to the USA.

55 Brazil's Oscar Schmidt scored 55 points against Spain at the 1988 Olympics, still the Olympic single-game record by 2025.

44 The 1992 Dream Team won all eight of its Olympic games in Barcelona by an average of almost 44 points.

136-57 The Dream Team's first game was in Portland, not Barcelona. On 28 June 1992 it beat Cuba 136-57 at the Tournament of the Americas.

83-63 At their first Olympics, in Barcelona in 1992, Angola crushed the hosts, Spain, 83-63.

2000 At the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Vince Carter jumped clean over 2.18 m French centre Frédéric Weis for one of the most famous dunks ever.

5 Andrew Gaze played at five Olympics and carried Australia's flag in Sydney in 2000. At his first, in 1984, his coach was his father Lindsay.

92-73 Puerto Rico beat an NBA-packed USA 92-73 in the opening game of the 2004 Athens Olympics, led by guard Carlos Arroyo.

2004 Yao Ming carried China's flag at the opening ceremonies of two Olympics, in 2004 and 2008.

83-82 In Argentina's first game at Athens 2004, Manu Ginóbili's off-the-glass floater with under four seconds left beat Serbia and Montenegro 83-82.

2008 Dirk Nowitzki carried Germany's flag at the Beijing 2008 opening ceremony. It was his only Olympics.

156 At London 2012 the USA beat Nigeria 156-73, the most points ever scored in an Olympic game. Carmelo Anthony had 37 of them.

4 Kevin Durant won Olympic gold in 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024, the first man to win four in basketball. He is also the USA's top Olympic scorer.

64 At London 2012 Great Britain beat China 90-58 for their first Olympic win in 64 years, since the 1948 Games, which were also in London.

48 Luka Dončić scored 48 points against Argentina in his Olympic debut in 2021. Only Oscar Schmidt has scored more in one Olympic game.

2021 At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, NBA forward Rui Hachimura carried the host nation's flag at the opening ceremony, together with wrestler Yui Susaki.

18 In the Tokyo 2021 semi-final Japan's Rui Machida made an Olympic-record 18 assists as Japan beat France 87-71 to reach its first final.

17 In the Paris 2024 semi-final the USA trailed Serbia by 17 points, then came back to win 95-91 behind 36 points from Stephen Curry.

24 Serbia were 24 points down against Australia in the Paris 2024 quarter-final and still won in overtime.

101-100 Days before Paris 2024, the USA beat Olympic debutants South Sudan only 101-100 in a London friendly. LeBron James scored the winner with 8 seconds left.

90-79 South Sudan won their first ever Olympic game in 2024, beating Puerto Rico 90-79. Before tip-off the organisers had played Sudan's anthem by mistake.

18-17 In the Paris 2024 men's 3x3 final the Netherlands beat France 18-17 in overtime, while Lithuania took bronze.

2004 At the Athens Olympics, Manu Ginóbili's Argentina beat the USA in the semi-final and went on to win gold.

42 Patty Mills scored 42 points as Australia beat Slovenia 107-93 for bronze in Tokyo, the Boomers' first Olympic medal after several lost bronze games.

3x3 3x3 basketball made its Olympic debut in Tokyo, and Latvia won the first men's gold.

90-87 Weeks before the Tokyo Olympics, Nigeria beat the USA 90-87 in an exhibition game in Las Vegas.

25 At the Tokyo Olympics France beat the USA in the group stage, ending the Americans' 25-game Olympic winning streak.

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